The previous three posts discussed seminary enrollment trends among students belonging to some Black Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Mainline Protestant denominations. In this post, we discuss seminary enrollment trends among Roman Catholic students. The enrollment data come from the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) for Master of Divinity and Professional M.A. degrees from the years 2000 through 2020.
Roman Catholic
Overall, there was a decline of 13 percent in Roman Catholic students enrolled in the M.Div. and Professional M.A. degrees in ATS seminaries between 2000 and 2020.
Master of Divinity. The decline in the Master of Divinity degree program was 16 percent (from 2,867 students in 2000 to 2,411 students in 2020).
Professional M.A. The decline in the Professional M.A. was lower at 7 percent (from 1,137 students in 2000 to 1,062 students in 2020). The numbers and percentages for professional master’s programs compared to M.Div. enrollment tends to be higher than other religious traditions reviewed in this series.
Table 1: Roman Catholic MDiv and ProfMA ATS Enrollment, 2000-2020
| 2000 | 2020 | Change | Change | |
| Total MDiv | 2,867 | 2,411 | -456 | -16% |
| Total ProfMA | 1,137 | 1,062 | -75 | -7% |
| Total Roman Catholic | 4,004 | 3,473 | -531 | -13% |
Chart 1: Roman Catholic MDiv and ProfMA ATS Enrollment, 2000-2020
