There is a serious shortage of priests in the Philippines, and at least 25,000 are needed to serve some 68 million Filipino Catholics.
This was disclosed by Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle of Imus, who is also chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal commission on doctrine of faith, yesterday during the National Congress of the Clergy at the Makati Skyline of the World Trade Center.
Tagle, who based his observation by touring and looking into the current population of several seminaries nationwide, also said that at the moment, the 8,700 priests nationwide are overworked.
The ideal ratio, according to him, should be one priest for at least 2,000 parishioners.
At present, the country has only one priest serving 15,000 Catholics.
And though the shortage of men of the cloth did not cause a decline in the number of Filipinos still believing in the Catholic faith, Tagle said the current shortage as well as the slack in candidates for priesthood are not good.
He cited the case of Boston in the United States where 65 parishes were closed.
"So this should serve as a warning. It’s a good reminder to us that we have to be vigilant because it might happen to us," he said while noting that, despite the decline, the Philippines is still able to send some of its priests abroad to serve.
The shortage, he said, may be due to a number of reasons.
Seminaries around the country are reported to use stricter screening process to ensure that candidates are capable to pursue priesthood.
The prevailing environment is also a factor, he said, because some individuals who received a calling fail to respond because they found priesthood not to their liking.
Sex scandals involving members of the clergy, according to Tagle, may also have contributed to the decline in the number of candidates.
But if something good came out of the scandals, he added, it was the awakening of the people that priests are also human.
"We may be seeing a decline here but this is nothing compared to (the situation in) other countries," he said.
To remedy the situation, the Church thought of ways of encouraging young people to the priesthood. Some seminaries and religious groups have already embarked on promotional schemes on the vocation.