The Catholic Church is facing a tragic crisis with a disturbing trend of suicides among her priests globally, a tragic trend that mirrors deep-seated personal struggles and systemic failures that undermine not only individual priests’ vocations/lives but also the divinely instituted ministry of the priesthood itself.
Recent figures in various countries around the world unravel an unnerving trend of clerical suicides, raising eyebrows among both Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
For instance, a whopping 40 priests in Brazil, the country with the largest Catholic population in the world, committed suicide between 2016 and 2023, almost four times the expected figure according to the general suicide rate of the population.
Similarly, (erstwhile Catholic) Ireland has witnessed at least eight priest suicides over the past 10 years.
“Suicide among priests” is the type of news that should be a major cause for concern for anyone, “priests and non-priests, Catholics and non-Catholics—anyone with humane instincts, empathic concerns, and an interest in the future of faith communities”
On May 14 this year, Fr. Leo Puthoor, a priest of the archdiocese of Trichur in Kerala, India, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his room in the presbytery, as per an article by Matters India.
Only around two months later, on July 4, Fr. Antony Ullatthil was found hanging in a house that his congregation, the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS), rented a year earlier near the northernmost district of Kerala.
Elaborating, Matters India mentioned a few other cases of priest suicides in India:
“On June 22, 2020, the body of a Catholic priest was found in the well of St Thomas Church Punnathura under the Archdiocese of Changanacherry. Fr. Thomas Ettuparayil had been missing since the previous day. The body of the 51-year-old priest was found after a search involving the Kerala police and Fire Force department along with parishioners. Fr. Ettuparayil had returned to India six months earlier from the United States where he had served as a pastor for five years. No one had noticed his absence as people seldom visited churches because of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus. The archdiocese was alerted when he failed to turn up for an appointment at the archbishop’s house at 4 pm on June 21, 2020.
In Changanacherry on November 3, 2018, Fr. Mukesh Tirkey was found dead near a railway track. The police recovered a suicide note from the 36-year-old priest’s room which read, ‘This is my own decision. Please respect my decision and pray for my soul.’”
The same Matters India article alarmingly pointed out that “priests dying by suicide is a new trend in Kerala, the state that has topped in priestly and religious vocations for decades.”
In the West, the very recent suicide of Fr. Matteo Balzano in Italy on July 5, 2025, showcases that young priests are also susceptible to breaking down amid the difficulties surrounding their ministry.
Referring to Fr. Balzano’s death, Catholic News Agency (CNA) commented:
“The tragic event points to the urgent need to provide support and accompaniment to priests, who often bear great responsibilities and challenges, usually alone.”
Adding, CNA cited one of Fr. Balzano’s parishioner, Maria Grazia, telling the newspaper Il Secolo d’Italia that before his death, the late priest had remarked to her about the death of another person who was close to the parish that “no one knows the hell one has inside to commit such an extreme act.”
Additionally, ongoing sex-abuse scandals have dampened public perceptions and support for priests worldwide, with incumbent priests encountering heightened supervision and suspicions from even members of their own congregation.
Elaborating, CNA quoted Fr. Omar Buenaventura’s comments on the vulnerability of priests: “Like any man, I feel, I suffer, I laugh, I cry, I get anxious, I get sad, and many, many times I feel that the weight on my shoulders is too great and is going to crush me. Inside every priest there is a human heart, with feelings, joys, wounds, traumas, and histories that few people know. And when this happens, I can’t help but stop and ask myself about my own life. It’s true, God is our strength, but we are made of flesh and blood. And in the face of a situation as painful as this, there are no words. Only faith.”
Likewise, Spanish priest Fr. Francisco Javier Bronchalo reinforced Fr. Buenaventura’s statements, declaring that as priests are not superheroes, prayer, emotional support, as well as community care are necessary to avoid clerical suicides.
“Suicide among priests” is the type of news that should be a major cause for concern for anyone, “priests and non-priests, Catholics and non-Catholics—anyone with humane instincts, empathic concerns, and an interest in the future of faith communities”, as the Divinity School of the University of Chicago proclaimed on its site.
Reasons for such a tragic trend are multifaceted, with factors ranging from emotional isolation/loneliness, chronic stress-related burnout, and the huge social stigma about priests seeking help for their own mental health due to expectations imposed on them by their fellow brother priests and the laity.
Additionally, ongoing sex-abuse scandals have dampened public perceptions and support for priests worldwide, with incumbent priests encountering heightened supervision and suspicions from even members of their own congregation.
As the ministry of the priesthood is already under attack from the world, flesh, and the devil, faithful Catholics can only double down on efforts to pray for all priests to live out their sublime vocation according to God’s Holy Will, as well as to support their parish priests as much as they can.
Fortunately, our new pontiff Leo XIV, elected in May 2025, is seemingly bringing his pastoral and missionary background to support Catholic priests worldwide. Not too long ago, welcoming all the priests of Rome in the Vatican, the pope lauded priests for their faith and service, urged them to love the Church and be exemplary, and insisted that “you are all precious in the eyes of God and in the realization of His plan.”
Indeed, regardless of their flaws, all our priests are all “precious in God’s eyes”.
As the ministry of the priesthood is already under attack from the world, flesh, and the devil, faithful Catholics can only double down on efforts to pray for all priests to live out their sublime vocation according to God’s Holy Will, as well as to support their parish priests as much as they can.
One clerical death by suicide is a death too many, and we must do all we can to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.
Mary, Mater Ecclesiae, Regina Cleri, ora pro nobis.
St. Dymphna, patroness of all suffering from mental disorders, pray for us.
A Prayer for Priests
by Richard Cardinal Cushing
O Almighty Eternal God, look upon the face of Thy Son, and for the love of Him who is the eternal High Priest, have pity on Thy priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the bishop’s hands. Keep them close to Thee, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.
O Jesus, I pray Thee for Thy faithful and fervent priests; for Thy unfaithful and tepid priests; for Thy priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields; for Thy tempted priests; for Thy lonely priests; for Thy dying priests; for the souls of Thy priests in purgatory. But above all I commend to Thee the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assisted, and who gave me Thy Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me, or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way, particularly N. O Jesus, keep them all close to Thy Heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.
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