Don't you think that the vocations crisis would be over if priests could be married? This is a good question, and the answer may be a bit surprising. At the beginning of Pope John Paul II's pontificate in 1978, there were 63,882 seminarians.[1] However, by 2006 this number had grown to 114,139.[2] That's an increase of nearly 80 percent! During his papacy the number of seminarians in Africa and Asia surged by 304 percent and 153 percent.[3] In fact, vocations have increased on every continent around the globe.[4] In the United States the number of seminarians decreased for some time but is again on the rise, especially in dioceses where Catholic teaching is presented in its fullness.[5] However, since the number of Catholics has grown to over one billion, the surge in seminarians has not filled the shortage of priests in some areas. Would the number of vocations be even greater if married men could be ordained? There is no evidence for this. For example, Eastern Orthodox churches (which allow priests to be married) are not experiencing any greater increase in vocations. The discipline of priestly celibacy has been with us from the earliest centuries of the Church. Although this is not an unchangeable aspect of the priesthood -- it is a Church discipline that the Church has the authority to change if it sees fit -- I would not look for the change to come. Celibacy is an enormous blessing to the Church, not a burden. It allows priests