World Youth Day

The crisis of European Catholicism cannot be overestimated. There was just 131 ordinations last year in the whole of Germany. There were none in the Diocese of Linz in Austria. This has also been associated with a decline in Catholic practice by the Faithful, so the ratio of priests to people has remained manageable across Europe, and in some places has remained the same. In this sense, there is no priest shortage. The big deficiency is not in quantity but in quality- yes, this is a priest.

A wholesale reform and standardisation of the seminary syllabus would be a good way forward. More St Thomas Aquinas would add some rigour. But there is only one Thomistic university course in the whole of Europe, as far as I am aware. The "new theology" now over fifty years old has lead nowhere.