'How can you have Christmas without priests?'

DAGUPAN CITY – Where have all the priests gone?  In the thick of Catholic celebrations this Yuletide season, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas feels the shortage of men in cloth.            

Vatican had declared the 2009 to 2010 the Year of Priests, acknowledging the shortage of men entering the priesthood, and the need to institute reforms in clergy.

Villegas, always ends his masses with a call to the faithful to encourage their sons to priesthood.

“How can you celebrate Christmas without the priests? The priest is your father but he is also the mother who gives birth to Jesus on the altar not only once but everyday,” he said.

He also urged the faithful to attend Mass and receive communion everyday.

“Go to Mass everyday – that is daily Christmas! Receive Holy Communion as much as possible everyday – that is Christmas everyday! So many lives have been changed by frequent Holy Communion,” said Villegas.

“Every time we celebrate Mass, God comes down from heaven; dwells among us; enters our hearts and stays in our souls. Every time there is a Mass, we join the angels sing “Hosanna in the highest!” he added.