Article 1

SUPPORTING VOCATIONS TO PRIESTHOOD:

AN INTERNATIONAL CONCERN AND CHALLENGE

From your Shepherd and Teacher

Elden Francis Curtiss

January 5, 1995

 

In April 1992, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic exhortation following the synod on the formation of priests titled "Pastores Dabo Vobis" (I Will Give You Shepherds). One section of this exhortation, at the end of chapter four, emphasizes the responsibility of everyone in the Church to promote vocations to the priesthood.

 

In section 41, Pope John Paul II reminds the Church that a priestly vocation is a gift from God and therefore depends on the faith and prayer life of the community. Every vocation effort must begin with this basic premise in order to be sustained and to be fruitful. And since this gift of vocation is a gift for the Church as a whole and a benefit to her life and mission, then the entire Church is responsible for the birth and development of priestly vocations.

 

The Pope outlines the urgency for local churches (dioceses) to continue developing networks that will support vocations which are potentially present in adequate numbers for the needs of the people of God. He reminds us that everyone who claims membership in the Church has an obligation to safeguard the gift of vocation that is given to each faith community. He makes the point that the pastoral work of promoting and nurturing vocations has its active agent -- protagonists he calls them -- the entire ecclesial community in its various dimensions: from the Universal Church to the local church and by analogy, from the local church to each of its parishes, and to every member without exception. The Pope maintains "there is an urgent need, especially nowadays, for a more widespread and deeply felt conviction that all the members of the Church, without exception, have the grace and responsibility to look after vocations."

 

Moving the vocation agenda

My work with the U.S. Bishops' Vocation Committee and now as episcopal advisor for Serra International has convinced me that we have to find new ways to network vocation ministry in our dioceses, and we have to develop new feeder systems which will replace older ones that have disappeared or become ineffective. It is not enough to simply tell our people that they are responsible for vocations to priesthood. We have to help them discover new ways to personally promote and nurture vocations in their midst, sometimes over a long period of time. This means raising the consciousness level of our people about vocations, and it means developing with them programs for identifying and supporting vocations.

The older feeder systems for vocations stretched from the family (parental encouragement at home) to the Catholic school (priests and religious in the classroom) to the parishes (constant reminders of the call to priesthood and religious life). It all came together to form a network of unselfconscious affirmation and support for vocations. Someone said to me a few years ago, "in Catholic schools a generation ago, we were all called to priesthood and religious life."

 

But as the older feeder system broke down for a variety of complex reasons, the subject of vocations to priesthood and religious life dropped noiselessly from our public discourse and from our vocabulary. Vocations were no longer mentioned in textbooks or catechetical materials; they were seldom the topic of a homily; and sometimes they were given only lukewarm endorsement by sisters and priests. Almost without notice, the subject of vocations dropped through our diocesan safety nets.

 

Raising the consciousness level regarding vocations

A 1991 study of the "Called by Name" program to promote vocations in the United States led us to the conclusion that vocation interest is present everywhere in our country. This means that we must find new ways to identify and cultivate these potential vocations, and develop new feeder systems for them.

 

At the same time, we have to find new ways to introduce the topic of vocations to priesthood and religious life into the public discourse of the Church, where presently it is still overlooked and ignored, or has dropped from the scene because of new vocabularies about lay leadership and lay ministry, certainly in the United States and in other countries around the world. This means nothing less than a concerted effort on our part to restore consciousness about the central importance, indeed the nobility, of a specific calling to ordained priesthood and vowed religious life.

 

This kind of concentration has to be undertaken by all the leadership in a diocese, and not just the vocations director or office of vocations. There has to be careful planning based on the lived experiences of our people, and a determined effort to bring all the leaders of the diocese -- priests, religious, and laity -- into the vocation process.

 

But at the same time, we have to make it clear that we are not trying to resurrect a Catholic community or a feeder system for vocations of a generation ago. We recognize that much is changing in the Church, especially lay participation at every level of church life. We have to tap these new developments and build new kinds of feeder systems for vocations that resonate with our lay leadership. We must convince our people to develop new lines of personal encouragement and support for vocations wherever they are to be found, so that we will have enough ordained and vowed ministries for the future. We have to build on the desire of our people to have adequate numbers of priests and religious to meet their pastoral needs, and we have to encourage their prayer potential so the Lord of the Harvest will be constantly urged to provide the vocations that are needed.

 

We realize that no corporation or university or government worth its salt simply waits for new leaders to show up on its doorstep. It aggressively seeks out the brightest and the best. This is what we must do in our dioceses to have quality priest-leaders and religious-leaders in sufficient numbers in coming years to cope with the growth and development of the Church that is projected throughout the world.

 

Rebuilding feeder systems for vocations

With the steady decline these past two decades in the numbers of candidates coming to our seminaries and novitiate in the United States, it gradually became obvious that our feeder systems were not working.

 

Prospective vocations were not being sought out and supported. People are not being called or encouraged to consider priesthood or religious life for themselves in service to other people. But at the same time this decline in numbers of candidates was taking place, there was also growing evidence that a significant number of young people were open to the possibility of a vocation if it was presented to them in a positive way. A recent study about the impact that the "Called By Name" vocation program was having in many U.S. dioceses confirmed this assessment. Fully one-third of all people "called - named" as having a possible vocation to priesthood or religious life responded positively. Eleven percent actually became involved in some sort of discernment process. For the fifty-five arch/dioceses involved in the study, this rate of return on the investment for "Called By Name" was significant, and many more arch/dioceses have begun the process since these statistics were reported in November 1992.

 

What is remarkable, considering the confusion and hesitation in some of the dioceses to move from an older feeder system to new ones, is the quality and enthusiasm of our seminarians and young priests. This has happened in the face of perceived passivity in calling our best young men to permanent celibate priesthood. I make this statement advisedly since recent statistics indicate that a significant number of dioceses -- some of our largest in fact -- are devoting considerable personnel and time and effort and resources to these new feeder systems with real success. But for too many of our dioceses, the assumption that vocations will continue dwindling hangs like a shroud around their efforts. If the present feeder system is not working in a diocese, then the time has come to assemble our most talented people to help devise new systems that will challenge our people to tap the vocations that are out there.

 

Recent efforts are having positive results

The effort to develop new feeder systems for vocations in certain dioceses in the United States and other parts of the world is beginning to make a difference in seminary statistics. World wide there is an increase in the number of students in seminaries and in numbers of priests being ordained, even though there continues to be a decline in certain western countries. What is of importance is that the dioceses reporting increases in the numbers of seminarians also report increased activity regarding the development of new programs to solicit the support of lay people to promote vocations.

 

While the total number of seminarians in theological studies in the United States has continued to decline over the years, for the first time we are beginning to see a significant increase in the number of pre-theology students coming into our seminaries. What is important is that the creative vocation efforts which have broad-based support in dioceses are beginning to produce results. As more and more dioceses develop new feeder systems for vocations and elicit the positive response of lay people in the task, the number of candidates for seminaries and novitiates will begin to increase.

 

In "Pastore Dabo Vobis," section 41, Pope John Paul states that the primary responsibility for the pastoral work of promoting priestly vocations lies with the local bishop. He has to make vocation ministry a priority in his diocese by his words and his actions. His success, however, will depend to a great extent on the actual support that he has from the priests in his diocese and the religious and the laity who share in pastoral leadership. This means that the bishop has to find ways to overcome any negative attitudes or influences which prevent his leaders from being pro-active with him in promoting vocations to priesthood and religious life. There can be no collaborative effort to promote vocations if all the leadership of the diocese is not in agreement about the purpose and expected goals of these programs.

 

Vocation teams expanding

Most bishops today realize that one vocation director even if he is full-time, or a vocation office with several people, or a vocation team with enthusiastic and determined members are unable to do all the vocation ministry in a diocese. Networking is the key to successful vocation ministry today -- many people in many roles and ministries working together to promote and nurture vocations to priesthood and vowed religious life.

Of course, all of this effort has to be coordinated and organized by one person in a diocese, usually the vocation director.

 

But the actual contacts with prospective candidates -- the invitation to consider a vocation (people have to be personally invited), the discussion about the possibility of a lifetime career for the Church, about the ways to sort out alternative lifestyles and careers, about the support systems and satisfactions that go with ministry to people, about the personal commitments that underlie the central life of the Church -- all these issues need to be discusses by a variety of lay people and religious and priests who are in contact individually with each prospective candidate in every parish and community and institution in the diocese.

 

Pope John Paul also reminds us in "Pastores Dabo Vobis," section 41, that the sacrament of marriage creates an ambience in which vocations are seeded and brought to fruition. When christian families live out their mission as the basic domestic community in the Church and society; when Jesus and his mission are central to family life and prayer; when parents understand and accept and promote priesthood and religious life as necessary ministries in the Church -- then vocations will develop in fertile ground instead of floundering for lack of nourishment.

 

Importance of Catholic schools

Pope John Paul also reminds vocation leaders in dioceses throughout the world that they must keep in mind Catholic schools and catechetical programs as fertile ground for the discussion and encouragement of vocations. This is the reason that in the United States, for example, the Bishops' Committee on Vocations, in cooperation with the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, is strongly encouraging publishers to reintroduce sections into catechetical materials specifically about vocations to priesthood and vowed religious life. The publication of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us the opportunity to introduce these new vocation materials into catechetical texts. This must be part of the effort in every diocese to raise the consciousness of our people about vocations, and to solicit the support of our laity, especially teachers in our classrooms who are essential to the process of reintroducing the topic of priesthood and religious life into the vocabularies of our young people. Pope John Paul is very clear about this point: "The lay faithful, and particularly catechists, teachers, educators and youth ministries, each with his or her own resources and style, have great importance in the pastoral work of promoting priestly vocations."

 

It is in the catechetical setting that young people become exposed to the community dimension of their education as Christians. They begin to understand the innate value of each human person regardless of differences. They begin to understand vocation to priesthood and religious life in terms of service to the community, and the joy of leadership in the midst of the People of God.

 

It is essential that teachers in our schools understand and accept their roles in probing and encouraging vocations among their students so that the pastoral needs of our people will be met in the future. In the United States a national study of Hispanic seminarians and priests in 1992 indicated that most of them (70%) recognized their vocation to priesthood at the elementary and secondary levels, before they began college.

 

The success of "Called By Name"

For several years now, the "Called By Name" program in which all the parishioners in the diocese are asked to name prospective candidates that they think would make good priests or religious has proved to be quite successful. These names in turn are sent to the diocesan center for processing; then someone contacts each person in the name of the bishop. We recognize that it is not a panacea for every need in every diocese, but it is a new approach that stimulates a diocese to develop new feeder networks for vocations. It helps promote a new pro-active vocation climate for priests, sisters and lay people in parishes and in families. While such programs as "Called By Name" are only one small part of a mosaic of a new feeder system for vocations, they have proven to be significant in rebuilding vocation programs in our dioceses.

 

The whole community is responsible for vocations

At the end of section 41 in "Pastores Dabo Vobis," Pope John Paul reminds us that everyone who is involved in promoting vocations will make this mission more effective "insofar as they stimulate the ecclesial community as such, starting with the parish, to sense that the problem of priestly vocations cannot in any way be delegated to some 'official' group, ie., priests in general and the priests working in the seminary in particular."

 

Since the promotion of vocations is a vital issue which lies at the very heart of the Church, the Pope makes it clear that it should be "at the heart of the love which each christian feels for the Church." The vocations enterprise belongs to everyone who loves the Church and wants to see it continue with adequate numbers of priests and religious to serve the needs of all.

 

To enable our people to undertake vocation ministry with their bishops, priests and religious, I think we have three major tasks ahead of us. First of all, we have to be convinced in faith that God is calling people to priesthood and religious life in adequate numbers to meet the needs of His people. Secondly, we have to establish a constant prayer base for vocations in our parishes and institutions, centered about the devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist, and to Mary and her rosary. Finally, we have to develop new feeder systems for vocations to solicit the active involvement of our people in naming and encouraging likely candidates in their parishes and communities.

 

I am convinced that there is no shortage of vocations to priesthood and religious life in our countries today, only a shortage of people willing to make vocation ministry a priority in their lives of faith.