they carry of ministering to a well-educated and out-spoken public, who also has great expectations of what a priest should be and do.

We all know that, being human, priests are less than perfect. They have their personalities, traits, imperfect knowledge, and yet they are expected to be all things to all types of people - an impossible mission. It must also be a lonely life in many ways, compared to those of us with spouses and children.

So I recommend we support them despite their failings and let them know we appreciate their work and efforts.
Especially the older, retired priests, who mostly don't really retire, but keep ministering until they physically can do no more.

There is another report that it is the highest in two decades....

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2013/09/catholic-seminary-enrollment-highest-in-
two-decades/

but this still might not be enough.

They might get more candidates. My eldest son told me that he seriously considered becoming a priest, but came to the conclusion that he did not feel called to a life of celibacy.

And the refusal to even consider women for the priesthood makes no sense.

If my wife were to die, I would not become a priest for an entirely different reason. Some years ago, I attended the installation of a pastor in my parish. The bishop had the pastor take a loyalty oath which said that he would give both "external assent" and "internal assent" to Vatican teachings. "External assent" means that the priest will teach what he is told to teach; "internal assent" means that he will believe it. I listened very carefully, and afterwards I turned to my wife and said, "I could not have taken that oath in good conscience".

When my mom was growing up I think all the large parishes in Dubuque had more than one priest. Even the rural parishes had at least one priest working there, if not more.

Where I live now the rural parishes often have a layperson or a member of a religious order who handle the administration of what was once several parishes and there's a priest who just travels back and forth to offer Mass. Even in Dubuque what was once three different parishes are now all one parish - the churches share a priest and staff. They even closed a church in Dubuque - St. Mary's because of declining numbers and the high cost of maintaining the church.

I remember growing up hearing several times from adults that by the time we were adults we would have to travel in to Dubuque to attend Mass as the rural parishes would all be closed. That hasn't happened with the parish I grew up in. There's been some population growth which has increased the size of that parish. But like I said a lot of the parishes are all clustered together where one priest is responsible for all the churches in an area. It seemed like every year for a while the Archdiocese had been closing a parish but that seems to have tapered off now.

The Church is growing but the number of priests is shrinking. It can paint a skewed picture.