(LifeSiteNews) — I return once again to this crucial issue which I referred to at length in a recent series of articles. It is not easy to answer the question of what’s going on with priestly vocations. The issue is complex and related to the situation of the Church. Vocations were never abundant in Argentina. In general it would be wrong to consider the family as the “cradle” of vocation. Many families have traditionally been opposed to the religious vocation of their children, for whom they dreamed other destinies. Among us it was very common for sons to continue their father’s profession.
Religious formation in childhood is very important, especially the figure of the priest, with whom an adolescent can identify: “I want to be like him.” Catholic Action was once a source of vocations until it became ideologized (to the left, naturally) to become a cradle of subversive montoneros and erpianos in the 1970s.
At present the number of priests has fallen sharply (barely 407,000 worldwide) while the number of bishops has grown excesssively. A priority for bishops would be the task of procuring an abundance of well-trained clergy. In this matter the question of the seminary stands out. The postconciliar phenomenon was marked by the emptying and destruction of traditional seminaries. The extravagant idea that vocations should be cultivated in small communities criticized the institutional character of the seminary. The separation of academic studies from the rest of formation also played a negative role.
I know what I am talking about: I have been a seminary organizer and rector as well as a professor in the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. Priestly formation must be comprehensive, without excluding personal details as background but taking care not to fall into psychologism. For “odd people” it is not good material.
The future of the Catholic Church depends to a great extent on the quality and quantity of her priests. The institution of the seminary, which goes back to the Council of Trent, is still possible if it is renewed with reasonable criteria. The situation of families also retains its importance if they are constituted by fathers, mothers, and children – not by “couples” (“parejas“), who are mismatched (desparejas) more often than not.
+ Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata
Buenos Aires, Monday, April 21, 2025
Monday of the Octave of Easter
