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The first transition of the diocesan presbytery in France is a demographic transition, the description of which, made difficult by scattered sources, cannot be reduced to a mere drop in the number of priests. In addition, it encounters three great pastoral transitions : the transition of the structure of service – with a plurality of pastoral agents, the missionary transition – with a dispersion of responses to the missionary challenge, and the transition of the diocesan presbytery itself – college of priests of various origins and statuses, in a synodal transition still barely sketched out.