“Seeds of hope” is the slogan of the Day of vocations to the priesthood to be celebrated by the Spanish Church on Sunday, 17 March. The objective of the Day is to raise the awareness of Christian communities about the need for vocations to the priesthood, by familiarizing them with the service that priests make to society. “The image of priests explains the organizing Committee is often penalized by the mass media and the 0.1% of negative situations may make people forget the 99.99% of priests who quietly get with their life, doing good. This year, in Spain, some 300 young men entered the major diocesan seminaries and 227 new priests were ordained. The number of major seminarians has declined over the last decade (in 1992 there were 1947 and in 2002 only 1736), but the decline also reflects a diminishing youth population. At the present time the Spanish Church has 41 minor seminaries and 56 major diocesan seminaries. Some are interdiocesan.
