New Crack in the Walls of the Vatican Re-entrenchment?

The recent wave of Polish priests and seminarians that are being used to alleviate the American and European clergy shortage may be beginning to ebb. Currently 1 in 5 priests in Europe are Polish born, and many American Dioceses have also turned to Poland for clerical help. Anecdotally, a third of the seminarians ordained for Chicago this past decade were “off the boat”, and many of the externs and recently incardinated have been as well.

The word from Poland is that the number of seminarians is down 30% from 10 years ago. Vocational recruitment for religious women is down 50% for the same period. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/7656716/Number-of-Poles-signing-up-for-priesthood-drops-by-30-per-cent.html

Celibacy is also being questioned. A survey of 800 priests last year showed that 53 per cent would like to have a wife, while 12 per cent admitted that they were involved in a relationship. A further 30 per cent said that they had had a sexual relationship with a woman. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/4788059/Majority-of-Polands-Catholic-priests-want-end-to-celibacy.html