Vocations

News from Madison Catholic Diocese

Midway through the Sunday Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Dodgeville, the service took a sharp turn toward fundraising.

Monsignor Daniel Ganshert, the parish priest, told parishioners that for years, people in the Madison Catholic Diocese had been praying for more men to be called by God to the priesthood. The Holy Spirit has responded, Ganshert announced jubilantly.

There are now 33 seminarians, or priests-in-training, up from six in 2003 when Bishop Robert Morlino arrived. But that increase comes with responsibility, Ganshert said.

The diocese needs $30 million to educate current and future seminarians — “a serious chunk of money,” he acknowledged.

Ushers distributed pledge cards. The assembled were asked to dig deep.

The same scene is playing out across all 134 worship sites in the 11-county diocese. The effort, which began last fall and will continue through the end of this year, is the first diocesan-wide capital campaign in more than 50 years.

So far, the faithful have responded with vigor. Although the campaign has yet to expand to all churches, parishioners already have pledged more than $28 million.

“I couldn’t be more pleased,” Morlino said in an interview, giving immense credit to the diocese’s 110 priests who’ve been rolling out the campaign in their parishes. “They love the priesthood and they love the church, and this is the Holy Spirit working through them.”

This is also interesting in regards to my own diocese. Diocese of St. Augustine seeing dramatic increase in number of men preparing for priesthood

Lawrence Peck didn’t know when he began preparing for the priesthood in 2008 that he was part of one trend, and soon to be part of another.

The first was a steady decline in the number of men studying to be Catholic priests.

The second was a steady increase in the number of men studying to be Catholic priests — which, in the case of the Diocese of St. Augustine. could be described as dramatic.

In less than six years, the number has gone from seven to nearly 30, according to figures provided by diocese officials. That reflects a growth of more than 400 percent.

The Rev. David Ruchinski, vocation director for the diocese, which comprises 17 counties, explored explanations for the increase.

“The simple answer is that it’s the work of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “Those who are not people of faith may be looking for a natural explanation of a supernatural phenomenon. To them, I would say there is a renewed spirit of devotion among young Catholics who continue to practice their faith.”

“We hear about those who don’t stay with the church,” Ruchinski said. “We hear less in the public dialogue about the faith of those who stay.

“That group is much more devout, they’re much more zealous about religion and the practice of their faith. They’re interested in knowing what the Church teaches, the practices of prayer and devotion.”

So in our case in an even a shorter period of time we went from 6 to 29. The Diocese of Madison has 283,442 registered Catholilcs and the Diocese of St. Augustine has 172,000. So it is really cool that two relatively small diocese have such an upsurge in vocations.

An excerpt from a very good article in the Star Tribune.

Today, almost 140 young men are discerning the priesthood at St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas. The St. Paul Seminary has nearly 100 seminarians, who flock here from dioceses around the country.

In many ways, today’s young priests resemble their peers in the millennial generation. They play Ultimate Frisbee, jog, or play the drums. Originally, many aspired to become professionals, such as architects or accountants. But in the end they chose not an occupation but a vocation — a comprehensive way of life. Their wholehearted desire to challenge the prevailing culture, and their vow of celibacy, mark them as cultural radicals.

Howe — with a wry smile — puts it this way. “I’m a walking contradiction, a walking perplexity. I’m living a life that the larger society says isn’t possible.”

“Many Minnesota Catholics think they know what to expect from clergy — a now-familiar mix of soft social criticism and gentle moral encouragement,” says Robert Kennedy, chair of the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas. “But many of the younger clergy take a very different approach. Their voices will not be soothing and predictable, but challenging and supported by personal witness. They are out for souls, not social change.”

Well the priesthood has always been a sign of contradiction.

Although I would quibble with the last sentence in this excerpt. When the concern is for souls there is also corresponding social change starting at the smallest level outward.

“Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce)so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Lk 2:34)

We often here about the vocations crisis that concentrates almost totally on priests. Often forgotten is those living in religious life and when it is mentioned it concerns sisters and nuns. In the Catholic blogosphere there is some interest in “nun gazing” as the term goes, but very little “brother gazing” and so generally brothers in religious life receives very little attention.

So I was glad to see this article in the National Catholic Register Surprising Revival for Men in Religious Life which collates stories involving new communities of religious life that concentrate on men religious. There are some great stories here involving groups I have not heard of and their growth. One of the stories reminds me a bit of the story of Mother Angelica and the inclusion of help from Protestants in building and supporting communities of Catholic religious life.

One good reminder from the article:

One popular misconception is that religious brothers are men who are not smart enough to be priests. “Catholics tend not to have a problem with women religious, but when it comes to non-ordained men religious, they are a bit uncertain,” Wick said. “What they might not realize is that a religious brother has just as legitimate a consecrated vocation by striving to be a brother to all.”

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking of brothers as potential priests who couldn’t hack it instead of its own vocation.

Here is a vocation poster for Brothers that I came up with before.

Since I had previously posted a rather horrifically bad vocations poster, here is a much better one.

Vocation Poster - For Your Vocation

The themes of this one is pitch perfect.  Though once again Religious Brothers get short shrift.

Thanks to the reader who sent this in.

With so much news on vocations, often negative it is nice to see so many vocations from a non-Catholic University.

Ron Cattany had a long, full career in natural resources. Next on his agenda are supernatural resources.

After 35 years in Colorado state government shepherding minerals, fossil fuels, water and timber, Cattany, 55, at the end of this month will enter a seminary to become a Catholic priest.

When Cattany told one of his best friends he was going to be a priest, the old Regis High School buddy was not even mildly surprised.

“It was written on your forehead in freshman orientation,” his friend told him.

“I wish somebody had told me,” Cattany said.

He does recall first considering the priesthood when he was about 8, “like any Italian Catholic boy” at the time.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called Cattany, who served most recently as director of Colorado’s Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety, one of the state’s great champions of land, water and natural resources.

Gov. Bill Ritter said Cattany’s career exemplified “the ideal of public service.”

Cattany says the priesthood is “just a different form of stewardship.”

After reaching retirement age with the state, Cattany said he asked God: “For 35 years, I’ve had the best job I could have. What do you want me to do next?”

He now begins a four-year program at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., where older seminarians who already have had extensive education can take a faster track to priesthood than the usual six to eight years.[reference]

Amazing story of divine providence.