Latin-rite bishops to promote vocations, renew priests spiritually

(July 04, 2009) India's Latin rite bishops are planning special programs for the Year for Priests to attract more men to the priesthood. "If there are no priests, there is no Eucharist. If there is no Eucharist, there is no Church," reads a poster designed by the Conference of Catholic Bishops in India, CCBI that will be distributed across the country. The poster urges people to promote vocations to the priesthood, appreciate priests, pray for them and work with them. Father John Kulandai, secretary of the CCBI Commission for Clergy, told UCA News the decline in new priestly vocations has worried his Church. He further said that St. Peter's Pontifical Seminary in Bangalore, for example, one of the premier priest training centres in the country, has 47 fewer students this year than last year. Without proper planning, India could go the way of Europe where seminaries have closed for lack of students, he warned. Father Kulandai said, however, that the bishops want quality as well as quantity in vocations. "For this, we plan to develop a parish-based vocation promotional drive, with lay participation." The CCBI is the national forum for the bishops of the Latin rite, the major Church group in India's Catholic Church. It accounts for 128 of the country's 160 dioceses with the remainder belonging to two Oriental rites, Syro-Malabar Church and the Syro-Malankara Church that are based in Kerala, southern India.