After several years I am assigned back to the seminary. If there is one thing I noticed, the number of seminarians has gone down. Almost the entire building is empty. This is true with the other seminaries in the complex as well. In my conversations with other religious, this also seems to be the trend. This is not limited to priests and religious brothers, but it is true for religious sisters too. In fact, it is said, the usual indicator that vocations in a country are on the downtrend is when the religious sisters show low numbers.

Yet, the Catholic Church had a membership of about 1.3 billion out of the 7.7 billion people in 2019. The increase has slowed down, yet still, that is almost about 1 Catholic for every 7 people.

Further, with everything that is happening today, we need more and more people, as the Gospel says, “Proclaim the Gospel to every creature.”

Why are we still hopeful?

1. God is in control. The world may have lost its moral compass, sin seems to be prevalent, and people are moving further from God. Yet, in all these, God is in control, and good will always prevail. 
2. People have innate goodness. Despite all the bad in the world, it is still in the DNA of every person to love and to be loved, to be a blessing to others, to reach out to people, to be hopeful, and yes, to search for a God in our lives. 
3. God has a plan in all these. Related to God being in control is that God has a plan in all aspects of our lives. People are asking if, in fact, these are the end times because of everything that is happening in the world. The best thing to do is to always be prepared. 

May we pray that we are the source of goodness to the people around us. This can be done by being faithful to the mission God has given us, by being a blessing to others and to live a life trusting God’s mysterious yet perfect plan.