But although we hear this claim a lot, do we really know what we're missing by not having enough men who are answering the call? Let me suggest a few things.
1) Spiritual Direction
I don't think I'm the only one out there who has found it difficult to find a spiritual director. And it's not for a lack of trying; it's because all the priests I asked (4 of them!) were too busy to add one more weekly or bi-weekly meeting to their list. Understandable, but if there were more priests, they could divide up those other tasks and lead more people to daily holiness!
2) Confession
Hm. I attend a Catholic college - We have 4 hours of confessions scheduled per week. 4. If every single priest assigned here heard confessions every single confession day, they'd each have to get through 10 confessions in an hour to get through the student body in a month. Oh, and people who live in the area come to our confession times as well.
Needless to say, not every priest hears confessions every day. It's ridiculous to expect that. But if we had more priests, we could have more confession times, and more souls would be saved. 4 hours a week just isn't enough.
3) Mass
This one isn't as much of a problem here at FUS, but I've seen it affect my parish back home. We used to have 3 priests assigned to our parish, and until last week, we were bumped down to 2. (I know I shouldn't be saying anything, as many parishes throughout the country share 1 priest with 3+ other parishes.) But with that "bump-down" came the cut of the evening Mass. Meaning that many working people can't attend daily Mass at our parish. If we had more priests, there could be more Mass times.
4) Just Being
With more priests walking around, more people will be exposed to the beauty of the priesthood. Those men are amazing! They could more readily attend school musicals, sports games, youth group, family barbecues, etc. If we had more priests, they could be more involved in the lives of their parishioners.