Spain has 48.6 million inhabitants, 67.4% of whom identify as Catholics, though only a third of whom report being regular churchgoers. Here’s another, more inspiring statistic, announced on December 13 by the Spanish Bishops' Conference: There are 1,036 seminarians in training in Spain for the 2024-2025 academic year.
This is good news for the local Church, where the number of future priests had been below 1,000 since 2021. Going into more detail, the sub-commission for seminaries counted 239 entries into the seminary in September, with 86 withdrawals, 20 fewer than the previous year. A double phenomenon explains the increase.
These thousand men are preparing for a mission in Spain, but the seminaries are also welcoming 103 seminarians who are studying in the Iberian Peninsula before returning home. While there are 86 official seminaries, they are grouped together in 56 formation houses, 13 of which are part of the Neocatechumenal Way.
Following an apostolic visit in 2023, Pope Francis convened a rare meeting of all Spanish bishops to call for major reforms. For example, this would include groupings to keep communities from being too small, such that they would not facilitate the integral formation of future pastors.
Compared to the USA
In June, 85 priests were ordained in Spain.
While year-end statistics are not yet available for the United States, a March survey from the USCCB cites the number of 475 “scheduled for ordination to the priesthood in 2024” in the USA. Of those who responded to the survey (392), 83% were diocesan priests and 17% members of religious institutes.
The USA has a population of 346,314,817, according to Worldometer; roughly 20% of American adults are Catholics, according to the Pew Research Center. Up-to-date statistics on the total number of seminarians in the USA are not readily available; the most recent statistics on the USCCB website (4,856 seminarians, of whom 3,596 were diocesan) are from 2018.
