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Bishop's Column Creating a culture of vocations: When I was rector of Mundelein Seminary for 10 years I had the
blessed opportunity to listen to the vocation journey of nearly
500 men who in those years applied for admission to the seminary.
While every story was different, the common themes were: In order to intensify our archdiocesan efforts to foster vocations we need to create a climate in which all facets of diocesan life identify, invite and support those who feel called by God to serve as priests or religious. This includes the involvement of priests, religious, deacons, lay women and lay men. Parents, Catholic school teachers, catechists, youth ministers, campus ministers who have regular contact with young people are key vocation promoters. Parish vocation committees are one way to get more people on the parish level involved in fostering vocations. Such committees take responsibility to pray for vocations, to raise up the vocation question for the organizations of the parish and the parish community as a whole, to prompt others, especially parents, to positively support those whom God is calling to serve in the church. St. Joseph Parish in Libertyville has developed two helpful strategies that other parishes might consider. Eight years ago a group of men at St. Joseph Parish in Libertyville began meeting twice a month with Father Vic Ivers as their chaplain to consider their role in fostering vocations. These 20 men pray regularly for vocations. Last fall they held a forum for parents to discuss ways that they can encourage their son or daughter to respond to God’s call to service in the church as a priest or religious. They have invited priests, seminarians, religious men and women to share their vocation stories with them. They hold an annual pancake breakfast for the altar servers to encourage their continued involvement in the church. They help raise funds for seminarians. They stand for vocations in the parish and continually remind the community of its responsibility to foster vocations. Recently Father Ivers, with the support of Father John Hennessey, pastor of St. Joseph in Libertyville, and Father John Noga, recently ordained associate, have begun a new parish initiative to foster vocations. Father Ivers personally called 56 mothers who had children in St. Joseph School and asked them to consider becoming a part of a mothers’ vocation group. Twenty responded and are now taking part. I met with the group after Easter. They are young mothers, vibrant, committed to the church, dedicated to supporting their children in their vocation journey. Many came to the group because Father Ivers personally invited them and they have great respect for him and his untiring efforts on the part of their children. Others came because they enjoy participating in serious conversation about the church. Some expressed their awareness of the need for priests and religious and their understanding that they bear some responsibility to assure priests and religious for the future. In the parent focus groups that reviewed the advertising materials developed for the Archdiocesan Vocation Media Campaign that the Cardinal launched earlier this year, mothers and fathers both expressed a need for vocations but seemed to feel little responsibility to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Many expressed hesitancy to encourage their son or daughter to enter the service of the church as a priest or religious. The mothers I met with at St. Joseph’s Church expressed some reasons for that hesitancy. Some said that they know little about the priesthood and religious life. They have had little personal contact with those living these vocations. Some worry that their child would have to decide too early or would enter a vocation prematurely and end up being unhappy. Some fear that their child would experience lonliness and not get enough personal support. Many saw the priesthood and religious life as vocations of self-sacrifice which in this culture are not valued. What matters is to succeed, to get ahead, to find personal happiness even at other’s expense. Yet as I listened to these young mothers, it was obvious that despite the hesitancies, they valued priesthood and religious life. They wanted to do their part in supporting vocations even in their own family. They obviously have great love and regard for the church. During the meeting Paul Stein, a seminarian at Mundelein for Chicago in his third year, Father Noga and the “supposedly retired” Father Ivers gave witness to their experience of priesthood. The mothers asked pointed questions about what motivates those who want to become priests. They pursued asking whether priesthood is a lonely life and asked what satisfactions priests experience in their ministry. They wanted to know how someone knows that God is calling. The group plans to meet monthly to pray for vocations and to learn more how they can foster vocations. As I left the meeting, I felt the men’s group and mothers’ group at St. Joseph’s Parish in Libertyville could be a model for other parishes. Personal invitation, regular gathering for prayer and discussion, learning more about priesthood and religious life by people in our parishes could help promote a culture of vocations in which each one of us take responsibility to become vocation promoters who identify, invite, and support those God is calling to serve in the church. Father Ivers would welcome calls (847-362-2073) to explore how
to replicate what he has begun. If you have any suggestions, recommendations,
concrete programs on how we can build a culture of vocations in
the Archdiocese of Chicago, please let me know by letter or email:
[email protected].
Sincerely yours in Christ, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas
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