As cardinals gather in the Vatican to elect a new pope — with a Filipino among the favorites — the church in Asia’s most Catholic country is grappling with a decline in those with a vocation for the priesthood.
“According to the statistics we have… one priest is catering to around 9,000 Catholics,” John Alfred Rabena, chancellor of UST Central Seminary, one the country’s oldest, said this week.
It is a situation that was leading to “exhaustion” among an overworked clergy, he told AFP during a visit to the seminary’s art deco building on the sprawling University of Santo Tomas campus.
Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is among the favorites to succeed Pope Francis, while…