Rev. Paul Sullins , research associate professor, sociology, was quoted in a Catholic News Service story on vocations. See below.
From: CNS (via Catholic Courier) Date: April 29, 2016 Author: Chaz Muth
... "The good news is that the global number of priests stopped declining about five years ago," said Father Paul Sullins, associate professor of sociology at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Since 2012, the total has been stable at about 415,000 priests worldwide, a number that is the net of new ordinations and retirements or deaths, Father Sullins told Catholic News Service.
"The church now has about the same number of priests that it had in 1970," he said. "The bad news, though it is not really bad news, is that the global population of Catholics has grown dramatically since then, so today we have far fewer priests per Catholic."
Though the global numbers are currently strong and vocations are plentiful in some regions of the world, such as African and Asia, the quantity of priests are not as abundant in other continents, such as in parts of North America, Father Sullins said. ...
Read more about Fr. Sullin's expertise .