Though everyone has posted stories here about declines of the priesthood and seminaries since Vatican II and Francis, the same disaster after Vatican II hit religious Orders of nuns world-wide. Radical femminism, liberalism,progressivism, discarding of the holy habit and replacing it with ridiculous and unattractive modified garb, or street-clothes, and the discarding of traditions and adopting radical agenda of pro-women priests,married priests,homosexual marriage, gay rights, BLM, and now support for Transexuals has cause Orders world wide to collapse. IN the USA, 75% of Orders of sisters have 100 or less members, whereas before Vatican II, some had in the thousands! Three Orders in my own Archdiocese of Philadelphia were once very well known as flourishing communities with standards of excellence in the field of education and/or nursing. Pre-Vatican II, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia(Chesnut Hill), 2,900 pre-Vatican II (670 today with median age of 80), the Sisters,Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , 2,700 pre-Vatican II (565 today, median age also 80+), the Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia( founded by St.John Neumann in the 1850's, 1,890 members pre-Vatican II- 290 members today(also median age 80+), and the Religious Sisters of Mercy(of Merion,Pa.)- 780 members pre-Vatican II---sadly no longer exist as an independant body-merged with the radical liberal and collapsing rapidly Sisters of Mercy of the Americas(which itself has only about 1,700 members total). These declines have continued all thru the last nearly 60 years. The declines have accelerated world-winde and in the USA, since the election of Bergoglio.

I live in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We have a huge seminary, the older building dating from 1871, the "newer" building form 1929. The older building, built in the classic "Victorian" style which is easy to place any building with those characteristics as coming from that era (1839-1901), was built by Archbishop Wood, conceiving the idea immediately after the Civil War (1861-65). The total number of seminarians prior to the Civil War was about 40, but enrollment steadily went up by increments, until by 1868, there were about 65 seminarians, to many for the small building in the center of Philadelphia that had housed seminarians since the 1840's. Dedicated in 1871, the seminary boasted close to 100 seminarians by 1900, and a fine new library wing was added in 1902. When Dennis Cardinal Dougherty became Archbishop in 1918, close to 200 seminarians were crammed into a building that could comfortably house only about 100. He contracted the McShain buildiers to complete a huge collegiate seminary in the Italian Renaissance design, the new Church modeled from a basilica in Rome. The new seminary, which could house 300 students, was dedicated in 1929. This era was a time when the great waves of Irish, Italian, German and Polish....but particularly Irish immigrants lead to a huge expansion of the Catholic Church in the USA (1875-1925). Between those 55+ years, nearly ALL USA Orders of nuns were founded, most Catholic colleges, and 75% of seminaries. Catholics grew from being less than 2% of the USA population in 1840, to roughly 20-25% by 1929. The Philadelphia Archdiocese seminary grew from an enrollment of about 300 in 1929-30, to almost 600 by the opening of Vatican II in 1962. There were so many seminarians immediately after WWII that some students were relegated to sleeping on cots in the basement of both buildings, and meals were forced to be taken in shifts.
The decline in the seminary did not start immediately after Vatican II. Due to the conservative and excellent leadership of John Cardinal Krol (1961-1990 Archbishop), the seminary was stable until about 1967, when it declined to about 375 students, and 300 by 1970. IN 1974 there were 274 seminarians, and by 1978, 175.
Today, there are about 130 seminarians, of that total 90 are for other dioceses in the USA and also foreign dioceses including Sri Lanka and Vietnam. There are today fewer seminarians studying specifically for Philadelphia Archdiocese, than there were from the time of the Civil War, and the declines accelerated AFTER the election of Francis. Proof of the Francis effect is that before 2013, the Archdiocese ordained anywhere between 10-20 new priests a year (this is nothing compared to the 40-50 and even 70 new priests ordained yearly before Vatican II). The highpoint for both seminary enrollment and ordinations were the entire reigns of the great Popes Pius XI (1922-39), and Ven. Pope Pius XII (1939-58).
After Francis, enrollments have averaged 3-5 new priests per year (2013-21).
In conclusion, sad to say, because of the wreckage of the Catholic Church caused by the radical liberal and heretical agenda of Pope Francis, his bishops, and the forthcoming "Synodal" church, the Philadelphia Archdiocesan seminary as it is now has been sold to MAIN LINE HEALTH, a network of hospitals and physicians offices in the Philadelphia area. The seminary will be moving in 2024 to a much smaller building on the campus of Neumann University in Aston, Pa., into a building which could house 200 students, but as of now is way too big for the small numbers at present.
This is an overview of a once great and flourishing seminary and Archdiocese, brought down almost completely by the disaster of Vatican II, and the radical and heretical reign of Francis and his people.

To state the obvious, it is useless to compare present numbers to those from 1990, or 1970. The 2010 comparisons are more valid, given that this is an indictment on the “Francis” effect. This effect will be felt for years. A diocese I have some knowledge of had but a fraction of the number of men make a retreat foe perspective seminarians, compared to a decade ago, when they had difficulty finding a retreat house that could fit them.