The Archdiocese of Madrid has launched the preparation for the Presbytery Assembly CONVIVIUM, an event to which 1,585 priests with pastoral roles in the diocese are summoned. The objective, as explained by the local Church itself, is to discern together the evangelizing path for the coming years, involving those who sustain the day-to-day sacramental and pastoral life in parishes, chaplaincies, delegations, and other responsibilities.
Read also: “Convivium”: Cobo will celebrate the first Presbytery Assembly in Madrid
The number of those summoned—collected in the Pre-Assembly Notebook prepared by the Episcopal Vicariate for the Clergy—is distributed among 950 diocesan priests, 275 extra-diocesan, and 360 religious. The archdiocese specifies that the number of diocesans was 955 when the document was drafted and has been reduced to 950 following the death of five presbyters.
Who is participating and why they are not “all those who live” in Madrid
Madrid is a diocese with an especially broad priestly presence. In its territory more than 2,600 priests reside, if religious who live in the capital without a diocesan pastoral role are also counted. However, the CONVIVIUM summons is specifically directed to those who have an effective pastoral responsibility in the archdiocese, that is, to the 1,585 called to participate in the assembly.
The episcopal vicar for the clergy, Juan Carlos Merino, recalled in one of the preparatory meetings that these figures are dynamic and change over time. The first pre-assembly, held on Monday, January 12 at the Madrid Conciliar Seminary, brought together priests with between 10 and 20 years of ordination, one of the generational segments that the diocese is summoning to prepare for the event.
A snapshot of the Madrid clergy: average age and profiles
The disseminated data also show a snapshot of the Madrid clergy. The average age stands at 60.86 years, with significant differences according to the group: the religious present the highest average (64.64), followed by the diocesans (62.03), while the extra-diocesans drop to 51.84 years. The archdiocese explains that “extra-diocesans” are considered those who are incardinated in another diocese but serve in Madrid, and that a significant percentage of this group consists of student priests.
Regarding years of ministry, the most numerous segment is that of those with between 20 and 30 years of ordination: 316 priests (221 diocesans, 41 extra-diocesans, and 54 religious). These figures help understand the real weight of the different priestly generations in the life of the diocese.
Discernment and mission: the key to CONVIVIUM
Beyond the statistical data, the archdiocese emphasizes that behind these numbers there are concrete faces: priests who sustain the everyday mission of the Church in Madrid and who are now summoned to a common exercise of discernment. The statement concludes by linking the summons with words from Pope Leo XIV, recalling that the vocation to ordained ministry grows as self-gift to God and, therefore, to his holy People.