Why are the numbers of people entering priesthood declining?
Firstly, there is much more opportunities for young people today to have access to whatever they want in life than they did probably about 30-40 years ago, even 50 years ago. There was a lot more poverty, a lot more people found themselves in the normal course of events. They didn't have access to anything else, unless you studied and you went on further. So priesthood provided opportunity for people. I'm not negating any of those priests who came in during that time, but it allowed people to think about it as a real valid choice in life because there was a future, there was a direction, there was an opportunity available there whereas otherwise it wouldn't be available to them. They would have genuinely seen it as an opportunity of responding to God's call, and I would not doubt that at all. Today, with so much things available for people, and also the idea of celibacy and the commitment for life to something, it's a big thing for young people. Young people today would come and tell you "I'm willing to go and work for 1 year or 2 years as a volunteer," and we have young people who go to Africa, to Zambia, to South Africa and South America, Brazil, who will go there for a year and give of their best in working with the poor, working with street children, with HIV, working in hospitals or whatever it is. But that's a commitment they can give, they can come back and get on with their life, and they're changed by that experience. Whatever mission experience that they would have had before, they can have it now, but for a limited period and still have choices in life. The other thing is that the choice to be a priest is a hard life today. You're bombarded with so much satisfaction, gratification of life, and the priesthood calls for a lot of sacrifice. Religious life is about sacrifice, but there's a joy and a real kind of life in it. When you sacrifice, it's about choosing betwen two goods rather than between a good and a bad, and I there's so many goods now that it's difficult for people to tune into what their heart really wants.
