Christianity arrived in India years before many European countries became Christians. It is believed that St Thomas, one of Jesus’ twelve apostles arrived in India in 52 AD. However, it was another 1400 years before European missionaries began to arrive in numbers. Pope Alexander VI in 1493 divided the ‘newly discovered’ world and entrusted Portugal for missionary activities. Today, there are estimated to be 25 million Christians in India, which is just below 3% of the total population. About 73% of them are Catholics. According to recent statistics, there are over 20,000 priests, 90,000 nuns and 7600 seminarians at present in India. In fact, the supply is outstripping local demand; many seminarians are now expected to gain qualifications at postgraduate levels in order to lengthen their training. However, while the Indian church is finding it difficult to place new priests, there has been an increasing demand for them both in Europe and the US.