Father Joseph Noonan, named the archdiocese’s director of vocations earlier this year, works with Sister of St. Joseph Peter Mary Hettling, director of the Office for Vocations to promote calls to the priesthood and religious life, in general, and, as vice president of recruitment at Mundelein Seminary, to find men to study for the priesthood for the archdiocese in particular. Ordained in 1995 after a short stint as a CPA, Noonan is working help others hear what God is calling them to do.

The Catholic New World: What does the director of vocations do?

Father Joseph Noonan: A lot of individuals who might have a calling might not be aware of the opportunities to discern or to study, or might not even be aware of what a priest or religious does. After helping people become of aware of the opportunities that exist, that kind of segues into education. If they come to some of these events or discernment groups or even read some literature, it’s an education process as to what do priests, sisters and brothers actually do—not just in function, but in spirituality. What is their life actually like?

The education’s not just for those who might have a calling. It’s for everybody. You might have a grade school or high school or college-age person who isn’t exactly sure of the difference between, say, a Franciscan and a diocesan priest. A lot of adult Catholics still wonder about the difference.

The third area would be the recruiting part. The verb doesn’t exactly fit. We don’t recruit like a college would recruit. We’re trying to help men, or women with the religious life, discern whether they have a call.

It’s not a matter of numbers, per se. We’re not trying to fill up a class as much as we’re trying to help individuals whom God’s calling.



TCNW: How do men end up at Mundelein now?

FJN: It’s varied. Before we were born, it was a system, starting with Quigley, then Niles College before it was St. Joseph (College Seminary). Most people went through the system. Now the average age at Mundelein is about 28, so there are older candidates and men right out of college. It’s across the board. When I was at Mundelein, the average was over 30, and it’s slowly been creeping down, so more young men are entering.



TCNW: Are you getting more men at Mundelein? If so, what’s making more men think they have a call?

FJN: Yes, we are, and the numbers are different for a couple of reasons. Not that I know the mind of God, but there are a couple of trends. For one thing, we’ve started bringing students from Poland, from Africa and from Spanish-speaking countries to houses of formation for a year. Then if they’re found to be good candidates, they’re invited to apply to Mundelein. Also, the college seminary, St. Joseph, is sending a more steady number of men. You also have second careers. There are a significant number of men who are deepening in faith and begin to understand they are being called by God to be a priest. Maybe as the number of men in the system has declined we (in the seminary system) have become more open and more inviting to men considering leaving a first career.



TCNW: When you talk to someone trying to discern whether they have a call, what draws them on?

FJN: What draws them on is the lure of God. There is an interior invitation they feel God giving them that they want to answer. It’s not a lateral change; it’s more of a spiritually fulfilling move, like some men might move into marriage, or move into significant work with a charity, and those things might be what they are made to do. With men and the priesthood, it’s the same thing—it’s the way of life you are going to be most fulfilled in. And once they start to taste that and feel that, they want more of it.

Some of them start to volunteer at their church or a soup kitchen or Habitat for Humanity, and then they start to feel a sense of interior peace. It’s the love of God working within them. They continue to get involved until they get drawn into the life of priest.

We ask them how that ministry they were involved in touched their heart or their soul. Did their spirit respond to that? Did they find joy? Joy is a real big indicator that you’re in the right place.



TCNW: What hurdles do they have to overcome?

FJN: Commitments they may have made to other organizations. ... The unknown is also a little scary. It’s hard to leave a known job, a known faith community, a known parish, to start a completely new way of life. So we have programs where we invite men to the seminary to help them meet other seminarians who have made the transition, meet priests who have been in similar situations, and see that there is a new community that’s just as welcoming and just as supportive.



TCNW: Has it been more difficult with the scandal over the past year?

FJN: Well, the scandal certainly has been saddening, but it would be hard to give an answer so quickly. We probably won’t know the fallout for several years, because we don’t know who’s not calling.

My own belief is that the men who have been called by God over the past couple of years in a strong way have been reading and researching about this, so they know what the facts are. They know it’s a very small number of priests, that most of these incidents took place 25 or 30 years ago, that the seminary system is in a different place than it was then.

They also realize that the thousands of priests who have been ordained for years and years and years and are fabulous priests are not getting the credit they deserve.

For information on priestly vocations, call Noonan at (847) 566-6401. For general information on religious or ordained life, call the Office for Vocations at (312) 751-5245.

top