Vocations: Everybody's Business

To mark the great year of Jubilee 2000, Bishop O'Malley wrote a Pastoral Letter to all the Faithful of the Diocese of Fall River. He charged all to reflect on vocations, pray for vocations, most especially encourage vocations among our young people.

In this Jubilee Year with its emphasis on the Eucharist, I wish to address the topic of vocations, especially vocations to the Priesthood. We all know too well that without the Priesthood there is no Eucharist; without the Eucharist the Church is crippled. For this reason, Priestly Vocations are everyone’s business. If you are a Catholic, you have a huge stake in the priesthood and vocations. Christ has given us, the Church, the gift of the Priesthood to perpetuate the Eucharist, to preach the Gospel, and to forgive sins.

Because these things are so important to us, we must be attentive to what is happening in our world. Our priests are growing older, and fewer men are coming forth from the community to replace them. It has been a joy for us that in the last eight years we have ordained thirty new priests for the Diocese of Fall River. However, during this same time period, we have lost almost fifty priests from active ministry through retirement, illness, and death.

What is the problem? Is God calling fewer people? I think not. God is still calling, but many are not heeding the call, like the rich young man in the Gospel whom Jesus invited to discipleship, but who declined because he was very rich and very attached to his wealth. The Gospel says that Christ looked on the man with love when He called him, but the story goes on to say that the man went away sad, “because his possessions were many.”

When a vocation goes unanswered it is not only a sadness for the one who declines God’s call, but also a sadness for the entire Catholic community who has just lost another priest. When I hear this Gospel about the rich young man, I wish I could have been there to say to him, “Not so fast, give God a chance, trust Him, don’t go away sad – embrace your vocation and find true happiness.” Unable to reach the rich young man of the Gospel, I want to try to reach out to today’s “rich young man” whom Christ is calling to be a priest; and I want to appeal to my fellow Catholics to join me in this campaign to identify the young people God is calling.

God in His loving Providence gives to the Church all the gifts She needs. The crisis is not a lack of vocations, but rather a lack of responses. Why is there a lack of responses? Perhaps because so many Catholics are unaware of what Priesthood is all about: the wonder and awe of making Christ present in our midst. A priest lends his voice to Christ who says at each Mass: “This is my Body. This is my Blood.” It is the priest who shares so intimately in Jesus’ ministry of Reconciliation. What a joy to be able to announce the good news to a suffering person: “Through this Holy Anointing, may the Lord in His love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit.”

As Catholics, we need to promote vocations in the Church. It is the responsibility of the entire community to pray for vocations and to invite our young people to consider the possibility that God might be calling them to a vocation as a priest or religious. Our ideal goal must be to instill in our young Catholics such a love and appreciation for the sacraments and the Priesthood that they will not only consider a vocation themselves, but also encourage their peers to be open to such an option, because too many vocations have fallen victim to peer pressure. Parents, priests, and catechists must form youth leaders who can help encourage vocations in our parishes, our schools, and our youth organizations.

Situation in U.S.

In 1792, the first Bishop of the United States, John Carroll, wrote: “It is notorious to you all, that the present clergymen are insufficient for the exigencies of the faithful; and that they will be more and more so, as the population of our country increases too rapidly; unless, by providence of our good and merciful God, a constant supply of zealous and able pastors can be formed amongst ourselves.”

Two hundred and eight years later, most Bishops could pen the same lines. Nationwide, the number of Catholics continues to increase and now stands at over 61 million. This represents a growth of 17 million Catholics since 1965. While the number of Catholics has increased, the number of priests has dropped from 58,000 to 47,000 and the number of seminarians has shrunk from 8,000 to 3,000.

Of the over 19,000 parishes in our country, more than 2,000 are without a resident priest. This means that 10% of the U.S. parishes have no resident priest. The reality of the present shortage of priests, coupled with the aging of our clergy, underscores the importance of promoting vocations. The vocations are there in the hearts of our young Catholics, vocations waiting to be nurtured and cultivated by our prayers and encouragement.

Outreach to the young

We have many young people today who lead good and generous lives, but are not involved enough in the life of the Church or familiar enough with the teaching of the Gospel to be able to identify a call or to respond. This reality confronts us with one of the greatest challenges of the Church today: how to be more present to young Catholics and to involve them in the life of the Community. The overwhelming response to World Youth Day this summer indicates that many young people are experiencing a hunger for God and are turning to the Church for answers. The Holy Father is teaching us that we must love young people and invite them to be a part of our spiritual family. Sometime Church leaders feel put off by modern culture or by a fear of being rejected by young Catholics. We need to reflect on the example of our Holy Father.

In Rome this past August over two million young Catholics gathered around the Holy Father at Tor Vergata. There they renewed their Baptismal promises, witnessed to their faith, and participated in the Eucharist with Pope John Paul II. It was the largest gathering of youth in the history of Europe (which is a long history). No political leader, rock star, super model, athlete, scientist, or philosopher could accomplish such a thing. Two million youth translates into one out of every 500 Catholics in the world. As the Holy Father said at the opening celebration, those young people came to Rome seeking Christ in the city hallowed by the blood of Saints Peter and Paul and generations of martyrs. The Holy Father’s love for the young and his ministry to them should encourage all of us in the Church to look for ways to allow our young Catholics to find their place in Christ’s Church.

Challenge of Discernment

The call can come at different moments in life. Some people feel a vocation early on and persevere with the idea through high school. Today, more and more young men are discerning a vocation after college, or when they are already finished their professional training and are working. The independence and status that have been acquired can make it very difficult for some young men to answer the call, like the rich young man in the Gospel who turns his back on a vocation because, “his possessions were many.”

We urge young men who feel an inclination to the Priesthood to enter into a discernment process to test their call. The process of discernment begins with a person working with a spiritual director in a gradual decision-making process. The decision, however, is not solely that of the individual. The Church must validate the call. For priests, the authenticity of the vocation is confirmed only when the man is accepted by the Bishop for priestly ordination. This takes place at the end of one’s seminary formation and with the endorsement of the faculty. For religious, it is only when the religious congregation accepts the final vows of the candidate.

One of the reasons the period of seminary training is so long is to allow the discernment process to go on. We know that a candidate may not be too certain about a call. The seminary experience allows a man time to reach a mature and firm decision concerning a vocation.