Here is a nice article on four new seminarians for the Diocese of Shreveport which includes this piece from the diocesan vocations director.
"Every time I see a spark, I travel and pour some gasoline on it," he said.
He has only held the job for a year, and is the only lay vocations director in the country — a further testimony to the shortage of priests.
Formerly the chief fundraiser for the diocese, Wilcox said this job is even harder.
"I’m not asking people for money anymore," he said. "I’m asking for their children and grandchildren."
9 comments
Pouring gasoline on a spark would put it out. You want to put gasoline fumes next to it.
… sorry. Anyway, the article is nice, but I don’t get that one sentence. Is he the only vocations director in the country who is a layman, and the rest or priests?
D’oh. “or” should be “are” .
No, the rest are not priests. The LA diocese vocations director is Sister Kathy Bryant.
http://vocations.la-archdiocese.org/html/encontact.html
Here in San Diego, I just spoke with a seminarian at our annual Rosaries for Peace gathering.
He was solid.
Nothing fruity about this dude. His loafers ain’t light. No embarrassing gestures. No embarrassing hair.
He was a MAN.
He was in cassock and surplice, while a great many other clerics scampered about in sweaters and secular clothing.
He’s got more priestly identity as a seminarian than most I’ve met, AND HE’S NOT EVEN ORDAINED.
Oh, and here’s a shocker, he hails from FSSP.
Even their web site isn’t the pathetic spectacle evidenced by other orders. Everything they do is CLASS, respect, and TRADITION.
Check it out: http://www.fssp.org/
And the seminary is BOOMING.
These other folks need to retire and GET OUT OF THE WAY.
The future is TRAD.
Pax tecum!
That’d be good on a T-shirt.
“The future is TRAD!”
SHEREVEPORT! the parish i attended after my conversion was the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans. the town is more east texas than louisiana. so catholics are the minority. not a particularly “TRAD” town but good none the less. i miss it.
At my parish, St. John Cantius in Chicago, it’s absolutely amazing how many men in formation there are. Trad parish, trad society, trad young men. It’s just crazy! It seems like there are more young men every week. This really is the future, thank God. We’re going to need more pews soon.
Check out their way-cool over-the-top website at http://www.cantius.org
Ooops, I should have said “religious,” rather than “priests.”
“I’m asking for their children and grandchildren.”
He’s put his finger on the hot button right there. When our boys were little, I used occasionally to say that it would be all right with me if they all became priests. People invariably asked, “What about carrying on the family name?” The answer is two-fold: what family name? Are we the Capulets or the Montagues, or something? If Cacciaguida were suddenly to succeed to a title (the dukes of Norfolk are Catholics, aren’t they?), there might be some reason to be concerned about securing the succession, but ordinary people like us worrying about perpetuating our distinguished patronym would be a little excessive. Second, if we gave four priests to the Church, our name would go down in history.
Of course, as I’m always pointing out, people who have only one son and one daughter may not be nearly as willing to give him to the priesthood as they might be if they had several children, and a greater prospect of grandchildren. “Have more children” is advice you seldom hear given to parents, but it’s a huge part of having – and deserving – more priests in the future.