Chicago shutters one of nation’s last Catholic seminaries for youth:
“Its closure will leave just seven preparatory seminaries with a combined enrollment of about 500 students in the United States. This, at a time when the number of priests in the United States has dropped from nearly 59,000 in 1975 to about 42,000 last year.”
As someone who attended a minor seminary (that is now closed), this is sad news. We need to diagnose why this is happening. Some of it is societal undoubtedly. Changes in the Church haven’t helped.
But some of this is how we (the laity) see vocations in our own families (not just someone elses family). I was talking recently about how many parents view becoming a priest as negative. I find this shameful. If I have no grand kids because my son becomes a priest and my daughters become nuns, I will thank God for the tremendous gifts they will have received. A vocation to the priesthood is not something to be looked down upon, it is a privilege.
