Numbers are dropping

Last night, at the Lay Institute, we had a very interesting discussion about the current state of the church in Panama. While churches here are generally full for Sunday Mass, they are not very large churches. It is likely that somewhere in the region of 20% attends Mass regularly but, of the other 80%, many never come at all - there are, of course, many who come occasionally or for special occasions.

This is a big concern for those who are active in church circles here. They can see, before their eyes, as it were, that numbers are dropping. Young people, while generally well-disposed towards the church, are not participating in the same way that their parents and grandparents did in the past.

There have never been huge numbers of priests in the Panamanian church but, with the work of the seminary progressing, there are several ordinations every year. However, the numbers in the seminary are dropping. This year there are under 40, spread over the 7 years of study.  This is the lowest in quite a few years and this has meant that the theme of promoting vocations to the priesthood has taken on a renewed urgency.

It is noteworthy that the attitude to the idea of vocation is changing here. While up to a few years ago, the decision to enter the seminary was greeted with general goodwill and encouragement, now, the response is more muted. In fact, one of the lads who planned to enter the seminary this year had to pull out at the last minute because his mother (to put it mildly) wasn't very happy about it. Thankfully, that situation has now been resolved and the lad will go on to the seminary: whether that happens this year or next year remains to be decided by the "powers that be".