Talk 2
VOCATION MINISTRY IN THE UNITED STATES:
ADEQUATE SUPPORT FOR VOCATION DIRECTORS IS ESSENTIAL
Elden Francis Curtiss
Archbishop of Omaha
May 30, 1997
I have been carrying on conversations with bishops and vocation directors about vocation ministry in this country for thirty years. I will summarize some of the discussions I have had recently, and share with you some of the conclusions I have drawn from them. I think they have significance for our present effort to develop a national strategy for vocations throughout the United States.
The main problem for Vocation Directors
As best I can determine from surveying vocation ministry across this nation, one of the most persistent problems is that too many bishops do not give vocation directors the support they need to do their jobs adequately. Not only does each diocese need a full-time vocation director for a Catholic population of 100,000 to 500,000 (and an additional full-time director for each additional 500,000 Catholics) but he needs an adequate support staff to meet and follow through personally and frequently with prospective candidates. He needs a full-time secretary and other office personnel for secretarial work, database maintenance, copying, mailing, programming, etc. (full-time, part-time, paid and volunteer). He needs direct support from parish priests who will identify and encourage qualified prospects. Additionally, the vocation director needs a network of people who will support vocation ministry in parishes, in Catholic grade schools, and especially in high schools, in religious education programs for public school students, and on college and university campuses.
In dioceses with less than 100,000 Catholics, a full-time priest vocation director may not always be possible. But even if he is not full-time, he needs full-time support from many people who will help him reach prospective candidates and spend adequate time with them. If a diocese is experiencing a vocation shortage because prospective candidates are not being identified and nurtured adequately, it is imperative that the bishop release a qualified priest for full-time vocation ministry as long as he is needed. When a full-time vocation director has the support of his bishop and fellow priests, and adequate staff to do his job, the number of candidates in a diocese increases significantly.
A focused ministry for Vocation Directors
The vocation director's tasks are many and varied. To be effective for his diocese, he must be able to focus his attention on the promotion, recruitment and training of seminarians for the diocesan priesthood.
We know from experience that vocations are promoted through prayer in families, parishes and schools; through presentations and vocation awareness programs in Catholic grade and high schools, in religious education programs and youth groups and summer camps, and for Catholics on college and university campuses. We promote vocations through newsletters, posters, radio and television, and many other techniques. What we have learned, however, is that promotion by itself is not enough. Someone personally has to invite prospective candidates to think about a vocation.
Personal recruitment of candidates is the only way to tap the potential for vocations which exist in every diocese. This recruitment consists in identification of candidates, initial interviews, prayer with them, dinners and discussions, and the successful completion of the application process. The vocation director has to have adequate time for these follow-up meetings with candidates in order to help them discover and become confident of the Lord's call in their lives; to interest them in the seminary and in a process of discernment, formation and theological study; and to help them overcome the obstacles which may stand in their way. Vocation directors are in fact directors of recruitment for their dioceses since their main task is to follow up with viable candidates who are presented to them.
Time with prospective candidates
Vocation directors indicate that it takes much time to meet personally and frequently with all the prospective candidates who surface each year. But if these candidates do not receive adequate attention and encouragement over a period of time and with some frequency, many of them gradually drift away in other directions. Vocation directors have to develop many different opportunities to visit with these candidates. They have many questions and face many obstacles to their vocations. They need ongoing support, encouragement and challenge from the vocation director who must spend considerable time with each of them.
Today it takes much more time and personal contact with prospective candidates than in the past to bring them to the point where they are ready to enter a seminary. This complicates the role of the vocation director because it takes so much of his personal time. He is not able to work with more than a hundred or so candidates each year, even when he has a network of people supporting him and he has the time to visit with candidates individually.
In addition to recruiting prospective candidates for the seminary, many vocation directors in the United States also direct seminarians for their dioceses. This means adequate time to visit them, to give them personal support, monitor their progress and keep them tied to the mission of the diocese. Depending on the number of seminarians, and the number and location of seminaries used by a diocese, this can mean a large amount of time and energy for the vocation director.
Diocesan priests as recruiters
The diocesan vocation director relies most of all on his brother priests to identify qualified candidates for the seminary. They are in direct contact with young people everywhere in the diocese. They are more influential than they realize in encouraging vocations. They know and work with young people in schools, religious education programs, youth groups, retreat experiences, campus ministry, etc. They are the ones who must point out God's call, affirm a candidate's gifts, encourage him in prayer, walk with him in his struggles, and put him in contact with the diocesan vocation director. The priests of a diocese are the ones who provide the vocation director with the names of the most viable candidates for the seminary and the diocesan priesthood. If every diocesan priest would surface and work with one potential candidate at a time, there would be no vocation shortage in a diocese. In this archdiocese we have many priests who personally are encouraging vocations with the result that our seminarian pool is increasing steadily.
Lay support for vocations
There are many lay people in all our dioceses who have a vital interest in vocation ministry for the Church. Serra Clubs in a diocese are particularly helpful to a vocation director. This lay group exists to promote vocations to priesthood and religious life. They are committed to the national strategy for promoting vocations. They are willing to support vocation ministry in dioceses, in parishes and schools, in any way they can. They support vocation programs, train vocation teams in parishes, and sponsor visits of prospective candidates to seminaries and novitiates. They provide a prayer base for vocations in a diocese which is basic to vocation ministry.
The Knights of Columbus and the National Council of Catholic Women are committed to the National Strategy for Vocations and stand ready to help vocation directors in any way they can. The St. Charles Society in this archdiocese is a group of more than 700 individuals and couples who are praying daily for vocations. They provide a powerful prayer base for vocations to priesthood and religious life.
Focusing vocation ministry in a diocese
A vocation director needs direction and support from his bishop to help him focus his ministry in the diocese, or he will tend to scatter his efforts and end up with unsatisfactory results. The primary task of a diocesan vocation director is to recruit vocations for the diocesan priesthood. Religious communities have to provide vocation personnel for their own institutes. The diocesan vocation director certainly needs to collaborate with religious vocation personnel within his diocese. He needs to strategize with them in funding creative ways to promote vocations to priesthood and religious life. But he is not the vocation director for these communities, and his collaboration with other vocation personnel must not distract him from his primary focus which must be future priests for his diocese.
This is the reason that a diocesan priest is the most suitable vocation director for a diocese. He needs to be healthy, balanced, disciplined and a man of the Church. He needs to be settled and happy as a priest so that he can model the priesthood he is promoting. He needs to be totally committed to ordained priesthood as defined by the Church. He needs to have a clear understanding with his bishop about his role as vocation director and its limits. He needs to be honest about the requirements of his ministry and the support he requires to accomplish the goals which have been established for him.
I am told that the high turnover rate for vocation directors in this country, and the high burn out rates, are due to unrealistic goals thrust on them without adequate staff and support structures to get the job done. I have talked with vocation directors who are disillusioned with their ministry because they cannot begin to tap the potential for vocations in their dioceses due to a lack of time and support. This is a serious problem which must be faced honestly by bishops, presbyterates and concerned laity in our dioceses.
Vocations are present in sufficient numbers
There is a growing sense in this country, among bishops, vocation personnel, priests and people, that the Lord is calling candidates to priesthood and religious life in sufficient numbers to meet the local church's needs. But vocations must be identified personally, one by one, and then recruited, encouraged and directed. There is a growing frustration on the part of many vocation directors that they cannot begin to tap this potential with the current level of support and present structures. If vocation ministry is going to be a top priority in every diocese in this country, as we proclaim in our National Strategy for Vocations, then we must provide adequate numbers of vocation personnel for the Catholic population. Vocation directors must be adequately supported with paid staff and volunteers, with many priests identifying and inviting candidates, and networks of priests, religious and lay people who provide a support base for prospective candidates.
Bishops must in fact make vocation ministry a priority in their dioceses and not just talk about it. They must place their top personnel in vocation ministry and in adequate numbers. They must provide adequate support personnel and financing in order for their vocation directors to begin to tap the vocation potential in their dioceses. When priests identify viable candidates and the vocation director has time to work with them and prepare them for the seminary, the results are amazing.
Developing a climate for vocations in a diocese
It is my personal experience here in Omaha, and my observation of developments nationally, that the dioceses which are surfacing proportionately large numbers of seminary candidates have a strong sense of solidarity among bishop, priests and people. There is general agreement about the mission of the Church, about the eucharist, and the ordained priesthood. Candidates are clear about the priesthood to which they are being called and they are supported in that perception. This gives them a sense of stability and unity with their bishops and priests and the people they are called to serve. This esprit-de-corps is a major factor in their decision to study for a particular diocese, and it seems a major factor in their perseverance to ordination. They need to know they are welcomed and wanted in a diocese, and that their discernment of the call to priesthood as defined by the Church will be accepted and supported by the bishop, priests and people of their diocese.
I am personally convinced that most prospective candidates to priesthood and religious life today are loyal to the teaching of the Church regarding ordained priesthood and vowed religious life. They want to be supported in their vocations and not coerced into accepting theological opinions about ministry which the Church does not accept. This is the reason they will be attracted in increasing numbers to dioceses and religious communities which support their call to priesthood and religious life as the Church defines these vocations. Uncertainty about ministry discourages vocations.
Adequate screening of candidates
At the same time, dioceses and religious communities need to screen candidates carefully to make sure they are faith-filled, healthy and balanced. People who have not faced their dark side or come to terms with their sexuality are dangerous as celibate leaders. People who refuse to accept the renewal of the Church as mandated by Vatican Council II and the full magisterial teaching of the Church cannot be competent leaders of our people.
Seminaries need to stress spiritual, intellectual, human and pastoral development in their program. Unless spiritual formation is a priority in our seminaries, we run the risk of ordaining priests who lack the holiness which is required to serve the Lord and his people faithfully for a lifetime. Priests must be men of prayer, men of the eucharist, men of the Church.
Concluding observations
My interest in vocation ministry began with my ordination as a priest in 1958. I have served as a diocesan vocation director, pastor, seminary rector, and bishop since 1976. I served three years as Chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Vocations. I currently serve as episcopal advisor for Serra International, an organization of lay people worldwide dedicated to vocation ministry. I am a member on the national ad hoc committee for implementing the U.S. Bishops' National Strategy for Vocations.
At the same time, I am working closely with our archdiocesan vocation director, our priests and religious, our archdiocesan Lay Committee on Vocations and our Serra Clubs in promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We have less than 250,000 registered Catholics in the archdiocese. I ordained eight priests for the archdiocese last June (1996) and I will ordain seven priests this coming June (1997). We had 16 new candidates enter seminaries this past September (1996) and we will have at least as many new candidates begin seminary training this coming September (1997). The prospects for coming years are just as promising. Priestly and religious vocations are present in every community in this archdiocese, but it takes all of us working together to promote, identify, recruit, nurture and bring them to fruition. We will reap even a richer harvest in the years ahead.
I am convinced that any diocese which truly makes vocation ministry a top priority, by giving its vocation director the time and resources he needs to reach potential candidates, will have adequate numbers of priests in the future.
There are no shortages of vocations in any diocese in this nation. There are only shortages of full-time vocation directors who have reasonable populations to cover and adequate resources and support systems to help them do what they need to do. We create our own shortages. The Lord is doing his part in calling sufficient numbers of priests and religious to meet our needs. We have to surface them, nurture them, and support them through a vocation ministry which is adequate to the task.
