Call it the Energizer Vocation.

With the shrinking number of priests, more men are being encouraged to keep working…and working…and working. My own pastor is 72. It’s not uncommon to find others in their mid-70s. And it’s rare to find a priest in my diocese under the age of 60.

And Florida — where there are a lot of retirees — doesn’t have too many retirees who are priests. They’re going strong into their 70s, and beyond. The Sun-Sentinel reports:

By the time they reach 65, most people have been thinking about retirement for years, even decades.

Not the Rev. Frederick Brice. At 80, he is still the pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Lighthouse Point. He said he has not even considered slowing down.

“I am ready and willing to keep going as long as the archbishop will have me,” Brice said.

Brice said he knows why the Archdiocese of Miami still needs him: the national priest shortage, which compels church leaders to keep their oldest priests working past what most Americans would consider a reasonable age to retire. At the same time, a burgeoning number of priests are hitting retirement age. And some church observers say the church needs a plan to replace these aging men as the number of Roman Catholics increases. The Catholic population of the United States has grown steadily since 1965, from 45.6 million to 64.1 million this year. There are 1.3 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Miami and 278,674 in the Diocese of Palm Beach.

Priests are eligible to retire at 65 with their bishops’ permission; at 75, they may submit their resignations, although their bishops still may ask them to keep working. Canon law requires bishops to retire at 75.

About a third of the 79 priests in the Diocese of Palm Beach and the 192 in the Archdiocese of Miami are over age 60. By comparison, about 9 percent of the U.S. work force are senior citizens. A level as high as the church’s might panic leaders in the business community. But leaders of the Archdiocese of Miami say they believe their aggressive recruitment efforts could stem the retirement tide.

The Rev. Manny Alvarez, the archdiocese’s vocations director, said he thinks often of the looming retirements. He said he has redoubled his recruitment efforts in the past few years, with Internet campaigns and posters in parishes, because he knows there are 70 priests in the archdiocese’s 120 parishes and ministries who could retire in the near future.

“We have no idea how many of our senior priests will be active in the next five to 10 years,” Alvarez said. “One of the most difficult decisions is telling a priest when it’s time to retire, because it’s not just a job; it’s your whole life.”

There are more stats and figures at the link.