There is a saying, perhaps apocryphal, which is attributed to St. John Bosco. He said that he thought that one out of four boys had a vocation to the priesthood.
He said boys, not men with late vocations.
Now, if there are really one million youth at WYD, as some sites are claiming, then let us say that 75% are single. Let us then do the maths that half of those are young men. This number would now be 375,000 young men. A quarter of those would be, therefore, 93,750 of the young men, according to Don Bosco, who would have a calling to the priesthood.
When I start seeing those types of numbers of priestly vocations coming out of WYD, I shall be more interested.
I repeat, in 2010, there were almost seven billion people in the world and about 119,000 major seminarians. I am not interested in youth events, but religious activity which is long lasting and real. I do know a few priests who told me they discovered a vocation at a WYD. They are John Paul II priests, as it were.
The numbers above are inflated, based on the claims of a million in Rio today. But, the ratios remain. At a minimum, every WYD, we should be getting inspirations for 30,000 priests. That would be a conservative figure.
The same calculations could be done for the vocation to marriage. Catholic marriages are shrinking in both Europe and the US. Again, if youth are truly coming back to Christ and the Church, this should be seen in a movement of energy and commitment in the parishes. Youth events are useless unless we see real fruit. I hope and pray for results, not hype.
