Strong Families, Catholic Schools Fuel Vocations Boom| National Catholic Register

In an era of declining vocations to the priesthood in America, the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota is helping lead the way to renewal.

Among all 175 dioceses in the United States, Bismarck has seen the highest rates of ordination in the country. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate — a Georgetown University research center that provides data on the Church in America — uses the official numbers from each diocese to provide a concrete statistic for measuring this: Catholics per recent diocesan ordination. 

It shows which dioceses — relative to their Catholic populations — have produced the most priests from 2019 to 2023, the five most recent years in the data. The lower the number, the higher the rate of ordinations. 

Measuring relative to the Catholic population is important because, while 15 ordinations during the five-year window would be low in a large diocese like Chicago with more than 2 million souls, it is very high for a diocese with just 60,000 faithful, like Bismarck.

For every 4,038 Catholics in the Diocese of Bismarck, there is one priest ordained within the last five years. That’s the best nationwide. 

Other largely rural dioceses round out the top five: Steubenville, Ohio (4,732); Wichita, Kansas (4,931); Tulsa, Oklahoma (4,931); Fairbanks, Alaska (5,246); and Lincoln, Nebraska (also 5,246). Many of America’s larger and more urban dioceses finish near the bottom of the list, including San Diego (154,041), New York (187,917) and Las Vegas (206,667). The nationwide total is 38,487.

The Diocese of Bismarck spans 24 counties covering the western half of the state of North Dakota. At 34,773 square miles, the diocese is slightly larger than South Carolina. Towns are sparse across its wide-open landscape of ranches, wheat fields and badlands buttes. North Dakota — population 780,000 — is the country’s fourth least densely populated state (11 people per square mile). Its largest cities by population are the capital of Bismarck (73,622), Minot (48,377) and Williston (29,160). 

The area the diocese covers is 22% Catholic, roughly on par with the country as a whole (20%). German ancestry features very prominently among the diocese’s Catholics, many of them tracing their roots to the “Germans from Russia,” ethnic Germans who emigrated from areas of Eastern Europe belonging to the historic Russian Empire.

North Dakota is the state with the highest percentage of those claiming Scandinavian or Nordic descent (36.1%), many of them Lutherans. The state is the seventh lowest for non-white non-Hispanic population as a percentage of population (18.3%). 

While Hispanics make up a relatively small portion of the population, North Dakota does have the fastest-growing Hispanic population in the country.

The positive impact on the diocese has been palpable. Father Jordan Dosch, Bismarck’s vocation director from 2020 until this summer, explained that since his ordination in 2017, the diocese has ordained 22 new priests — all from the diocese — while just five have retired. For comparison, San Diego ordained just nine new priests from 2019 to 2023, and its Catholic population — 1.3 million — is more than 22 times bigger than Bismarck’s. There are 80 active priests in this Peace Garden State diocese, meaning that more than a quarter have been ordained in just the last eight years. The average age of active priests in Bismarck is now just 45 years old. 

The surplus of priests has meant that some parishes are getting their first-ever associate pastor. While other dioceses rely more and more on foreign priests from countries with higher vocations, Bismarck is sending some of its foreign priests back to their home dioceses or to other dioceses in the U.S. The rise has also freed up more priests to work in education at Catholic schools, seminaries and Bismarck’s Catholic college, the University of Mary.

If the past is any indication, the increased presence of priests in schools bodes well for the future of vocations in Bismarck. 

“There’s definitely a lot of vocations coming from the Catholic schools,” explained Father Dosch. Since the ’90s, Bismarck has placed a strong emphasis on its schools, both in making them authentically Catholic and in making the sacrifice of assigning priests to serve in them. Importantly, they serve not just as chaplains, but also as teachers, giving them the opportunity to interact with students on a daily basis. And Bishop David Kagan, bishop since 2011, has kept that tradition going strong, saying that ordaining priests is one of the most rewarding things about being Bismarck’s shepherd.

Many of those boys inspired to become priests while in high school are now the energetic, young priests inspiring the next generation.

“Once the ball’s rolling, well, it’s much easier for it to keep rolling,” said Father Dosch.

Father Eric Artz, ordained in 2024, now teaches religion at Bishop Ryan Catholic School in Minot. He has seen how students’ connection with priests has led many to both consider the priesthood and deepen their faith.

“Joy is one of our greatest tools of evangelization,” he said. As he explained, a key part of his ministry is “to smile, say hi to students, just be present to them in little ways, make it known that I see them.”

One aspect of the Catholic-school experience in the diocese that has a strong impact on young men’s discernment is the trip to Rome each high schooler takes before senior year, explained Joseph Richter, a Bismarck seminarian entering his second-to-last year of formation. 

“It really brings the faith to life, and it’s a real turning point,” he said. “You experience the universal Church; you experience the papacy in a way you never could just being in North Dakota.”

The trip is featured prominently in the 2025 documentary Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality.

Strong Catholic families are also key to encouraging vocations in the diocese. For Richter, whose father was one of 14 children, the fact that two uncles and two cousins are priests made the joy of priesthood seem natural to him. 

Bismarck is intentional about making ordinations especially joyful occasions. Nearly all priests of the diocese attend a large celebratory feast held in the evening.

For Father Artz’s parents Robert and Brenda, supporting the discernment of two of their sons in seminary was not difficult because they knew that, if God was calling, it would bring them true joy.

“I was all in,” said Robert Artz. “I can’t go to Mass with Eric and not well up. […] I couldn’t be happier.”

These families come from a culture rooted in the values of small farming communities. Deacon Colton Steiner, ordained to the transitional diaconate in May, comes from the town of Dickinson in the barren western part of the diocese. 

“There’s still a very real recognition of how dependent we are on God,” he said. “Any success that I have as the farmer, as the rancher, depends totally on him because none of it’s in my control.”

Many of those who have discerned in Bismarck also stress the importance of the example set by good men — strong, confident, joyful, well-adjusted, relatable — and normal priests and family members. It goes hand in hand with a strong culture of priestly fraternity — a fraternity that begins with a man’s first-annual seminarians’ prairie dog hunt before starting his studies.

“A lot of it comes from men being strong fathers and just really good role models,” said Brenda Artz. “Mothers can be very loving, but boy, it does take courage to discern. […] Fathers can do a great deal to give those sons that courage and that boldness to discern.”

Father Steven Vetter, who took over as vocation director in June, plans to build on the success by getting pastors excited about promoting vocations among their flocks and by investing energy in the University of Mary’s small group for those discerning their vocations. Although the faithful are called to do our part to encourage vocations, he explained, the work is Christ’s at the end of the day.

“If we can get them to a place where they have a real lived encounter — a real lived experience with Jesus Christ — and they experience his love and his mercy and his healing, then the vocational thing becomes really easy because they’re going to follow it wherever he’s calling,” he said. “My role just becomes ensuring that they’re free to say ‘Yes’ to that.”