According to a report in the Boston Globe today, the Archdiocese is raising the retirement age for its priests to 75. Despite closing 20% of its parishes and increasing the number of priests responsible for more than one parish, they still need to keep healthy septuagenarians on the job. Even so, they report:

A study by Georgetown Universitys Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that, because of the rising average age of priests, only two-thirds of all priests are serving in active ministry and that half of all US priests are expected to retire over the next decade.

Wow. So much for the sacramental life of most parishes, I guess. Ministry will continue, of course, since qualified laypeople are stepping up to do everything except that which they're forbidden to do. But unless something changes, it looks like we may well become, in practice if not in theory, a post-sacramental Church. How sad.