It is no doubt that in the last forty years the Catholic Church has suffered from a lack of vocation. The number of priests is not only failing to grow, but it is decreasing. Fewe

There is nothing wrong with bringing poor priests to the United States. Not only does the Catholic Church benefit from the priests filling the occupancies, but also men who lived in very bad conditions are able to raise their standard of living.

In addition to the allowance of marriage, many have argued that women should be allowed to be priests. The Catholic Church has completely dismissed this solution. Pope John Paul II sees that the current situation not as a crisis of structures but as a crisis of confidence, the solution to which is a new appreciation of the Catholic identity (NCR). Pope John Paul II has stated that the idea of women becoming priests is too unrealistic at this point. It is a complete contradiction of the priests’ ties to the original twelve apostles and would ultimately destroy the tradition of the church. The Pope may have avoided concrete solutions and only given vague statements such as gaining appreciation for the identity of the Church, but he is clear of what will not work. Not only would the acceptance of women into priesthood require another Vatican Council, but also it is hypothesized that it would cause a large decrease in the Catholic population. The Catholic Church is made up of many traditionalists and many Church officials feel it would cause a mass abandonment of the church.

Many people feel that by taking priests from other countries the shortage will merely be rearranged. This would not be the case. The Catholic Church must limit the recruitment of priests and distribute the surpluses of priests to multiple countries. Dioceses in the United States should set up relationships with sister dioceses in these third world countries. The United States dioceses will not only take priests from the other countries, but also establish charities and missions to help the foreign countries. The Catholic Church, by law of Vatican II, has the power to establish the program. All other solutions would necessitate another Vatican Council.

The most realistic solution involves analyzing the parts of the world that do not suffer from this problem. The countries that have do not have a priest shortage are primarily third world countries. Specifically they are the countries in Latin America, Africa, and East Asia, some of which the priest to Catholic ratio is under one to 200. In these poor countries faith and religion tend to be more important to the people. Those who have little have been known to put things in perspective a little bit better than the average millionaire. Thus, the priesthood is seen more appealing in third world countries than in the first world countries. The significance of these third world countries is that countries such as the United States can take advant

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