We all know the story of when Moses returned to his people in Egypt to lead them to the promised land. The Pharaoh being annoyed at Moses’ request decides that the Jewish people have it too easy and so decides that they must gather their own straw in addition to cranking out the same number of bricks as per the normal quota . We all see the unfairness of this of requesting the same amount with smaller resources.
But do we see this unfairness when it comes to vocations to the priestly and religious life? We have smaller families and have no more children than is average among the secular culture and yet we wonder why the number of priest and religious are reduced. We demand that we have the same percentage of vocations to the priestly and religious life as when Catholics showed much more generosity when it came to having children.
Now I realize this criticism is an oversimplification and that there are many factors involved when it comes to men and women answering their vocations, but surely this is a factor. Just looking at history we see so many that answered the call to their vocations were often not the first or second born. Now I am not just talking about the rare cases like St. Catherine of Sienna who was the 23rd out of 25 children, but as a generality. Surely the contraceptive culture and the culture of death has had a toll on vocations? Though of course we can’t limit God in what he will do in answer to our own selfishness when it comes to vocations.
There is also just the psychological aspect where parents of smaller families are going to be much less likely to encourage a priestly or religious vocation since they might be more focused on grandchildren or their children having a career. This does not mean that to be a good Catholic you must have a dozen children or so since their is valid discernment in spacing children using legitimate means based on serious reasons to do so.
So while much of the so-called vocation crisis is people with vocations to other than the married or single life not answering the call, is this not a factor? God does not give us statistics (a perfect being would have nothing to do with statistics) on this or anything else so we can never know for sure what the effect is since God is very generous even when we are not.
21 comments
I read once on a blog — can’t remember which one — can’t remember who wrote the comment — something that deeply impressed me nonetheless.
The Holy Spirit has already given us all the vocations we need. The problem is that boys and young men are not saying “Yes, Lord.”
The main problem is very simple. We live in a time and place where vocation to the priesthood is seen by the larger, secular culture as something alien, freakish, sad, lonely, and probably sexually perverted too. Young men and boys are no longer encouraged to become priests by their families.
I think it’s a huge factor. If mom and dad just have the “perfect” family of a boy and a girl, there is just no room in that picture for the boy to become a priest or religious, or for the girl to join an order of nuns. It would mess everything up– one of them needs to be a doctor and the other a lawyer or CEO, right? 🙂
Plus everybody wants grandchildren…
Seriously, though– there has already been anecdotal discussion of this around the web. I think (IIRC) that seminarians today that aren’t converts to the Faith do come from larger-than-typical families, and usually cite their parents’ willingness to sacrifice material comfort for love and generosity as a factor in their own decision to say yes to the priesthood.
Personally– dh & I have eight kids so far, hopefully with a few more still to come. Five are boys thus far. There have been days when they’ve acted especially “boyishly” (i.e. endless wrestling matches, jumping repeatedly off the top bunk bed, dropping stuff off the top of the stairs, etc.) that I just look upwards and say, “Lord, if you had to give me so many BOYS then you’d better make at least one of them a priest. PLEASE!!!”
With the size of our brood I’ve always hoped for the full spectrum of vocations to come out of our family– diocesan priests, religious brothers and sisters, numeraries (Opus Dei) and still some left over to marry and, yes, give us some grandbabies. Time will tell…
I agree with your post, however, I’d like to add another point.
Not only are people having fewer children, and not only are they not encouraging them to consider the priesthood, priests aren’t talking to young men about it.
I read some survey or other months ago that said despite all the slick marketing campaigns the USCCB puts out, no matter how many billboards people put up, young men respond more often when a priest talks to them and asks them to consider the priesthood! It ain’t rocket science…
I’ve seen this at work in our own parish. Our parish is 115 years old and not a single vocation. Fr. has recently started beating the bush (as it were) and asking young men to consider a vocation. We’ve got at least 8 seriously contemplating seminary (several going through process now) and some even contemplating becoming monks.
And our parish and county has none of those marketing thingys….
To be a priest is to place one’s life at the service of others. This concept has very little traction in today’s “it’s all about me society”.
I recall watching a TV special some years ago about George Washington. The host interviewed a group of middle school students who were completely incapable of understanding Washington’s idea of a gentleman, i.e. one who makes others feel comfortable. These kids thought he should have looked out for number one and the Hell with everyone else.
The problem of having too few candidates for the priesthood stems from this mindset more than from a lack of large families in the Church.
I have been doing vocation work for 11 years and agree with much of what is said. However, I will add that even where the priest does say something, he is often accused of being pushy. Let me tell you what a LOW threshhold that is. As a pastor if I say something to a teen more than once a year, I am accused of trying to force and manipulate. The teens run for cover and their peers isloate them out if I say anything. Mind you, I am in a 85% Catholic area. The god around here is sports and every parent (pretty much) is more interested in the athletic development of their kids than their spiritual development. I am villified if I suggest the kid spend more than the requisite hour for Mass and hour for CCD on faith and Church..yet those same kids will spend more of their free time on the field or court than they will even on their studies. I do have the rare family who is very intrested in vocations, but their kids are petrified of their peers. Heck, out local Catholic High School has the reputation of being a vocation killer (want to guess what is most important in that school?). I like sports, but we are losing serious prospects because mommy and daddy have them convinced that they’re the next Kobe or A-Rod. The secular religion is fast overtaking us. I would say that we have ourselves to blame in that we watered down the faith so much that it wasn’t worth following; we allowed the lunatic fringe, secular humanist, and even athiest (um..UAB?) to define who we are and kowtowed to their critiques like the unpopular kid that wants to fit in.
THe solution is long term and a long road; we have to recapture the fullness of our Catholic identity, present it as the challenge of strength, endurance, and discipline that it is. If you want to encourage strong masculine men (one’s who will have spines) then we have to quit presenting our faith as this ‘peace,love, and crunchy granola’ wuss-fest and quit portraying Jesus as some weak, John Lennon-esque, wimp who had no backbone. If we want to attract true men, then we need to put the manliness back into out faith. Granted we took a licking with the scandals (see UAB’s name as continued proof of the wanton continued bias), but come on, they were a symptom of the disease and not the disease itself.
WE need to regain, as John Paul II said, a grasp on the universal call to holiness…a strong catholic identity, deep spirituality, enduring patience and mercy (and that, my friends, is a Hard thing to do), and a total willingness to serve the needs of others. We have to quit treating our parishes as if they are McDonalds with a lot of interesting statuary (gimme, gimme, gimme…and don’t ask me anything in return). The more we inculcate this the more the vocation crisis and other problems we face as a church will dissipate. The more we do this and people will get their priorities straight.
When Bishop Carlson became Bishop of Saginaw, you could count the number of seminarians on one hand. He scheduled visits to families to talk about vocations with their sons, and now, 3 years or so later, there are 21 from the diocese. The personal invitation/discussion approach seems to work.
The abortion/contraception/secular culture ideologies play a factor for sure – to what extent we won’t know this side of heaven. It’s realistic to believe that out of 40+ million abortions the last 35 years, a percentage of those souls would have a vocation to the religious life. Even if it was 1/2% of that number, you’re talking 200,000 vocations in that time period. I’m not saying the percentage is a realistic one, but when you include of all the unknown abortions, pregnancies prevented by contraception, abortions worldwide even, the number is indeed staggering.
And even though the vocations are low in the US, vocations out of Latin America, Africa and the Far East are on the rise. God answers prayers for increased vocations – just not necessarily in our own dioceses.
Excellent observations. I heard our bishop implore families to create a “culture of vocations.” My own interpretation was a call for holy marriages that give children an example to look for in a potential spouse AND cultivate an atmosphere that is welcoming to religious vocations.
My dad was in the seminary for many years yet discovered that wasn’t his call (obviously!). Frequently during my childhood he would run into some of his old classmates at random parishes. As a child I could tell that these priests were normal people.
That’s what I see missing today. Many families, after having their 2.1 kids, don’t know what to make of priests, let alone religious if they’re even around. At the parish where I work, the nun never wears a habit and basically lives the life of a single, independent woman.
So because there’s not much exposure to joyful, holy nuns (Nashville Dominicans, Sisters of Life), it’s easier for parents to get a foggy idea of the life entailed and simply dismiss it. As a young adult I have quite a few friends in the priesthood & religious life; most of my middle school students have a hard time grasping that my friends are happy, well-adjusted people.
My husband and I plan to have priests & religious over for dinner as much as possible when our kids our small. We hope that will give our future children (Godwilling) an authentic, clear view of a religious vocation. That way it will be a valid option, not a default choice.
I’d say that contraception has also contributed to the decline of vocations to clergy and religious by crippling vocations to the married life as well.
With the divorce rate going from 25% to 50%, many parents telling their children never to get married because it is so horrible, almost all TV shows portraying men as incapable of running a household for even a day, the willingness of young women to shack up before marriage, and the inability of many to see more than lust in the sexual and erotic desires – I think we are suffering from a crisis in marital vocations as well.
My priest has said that vocations to marriage and the religious tend to be strong together or weak together. A brother who works with seminarians has also told me that one of the most important factors in determining whether a young seminarian will make it through training is coming from a stable home. Apparently he doesn’t ask “where are the young men?” as he meets plenty, he asks “where are the young men who come from stable homes?” as they seem to be in very short supply.
When I lived in Vancouver, the prayers for vocations specifically mentioned the vocation to marriage in addition to vocations to religious and the clergy.
Maybe we should start referring to a “seminarian shortage” rather than a “vocations shortage”?
There are as many solutions to this shortage as their are factors, it seems, but the time-honored solutions have never been more timely, especially considering that most of the shortage seems to be rooted in selfishness in some way or another.
Could it be that the cause of St Therese’s father is also timely? After all, he had only daughters, but he gave them ALL to the Church. That’s a big statement.
If there is a shortage of mothers for priests, the Diocese of Providence has launched a beautiful solution in conformance with the papal “wish-list”: The Apostolate of Mary, Mother of Priests. http://www.catholicpriest.com/apostolateofmary.html
At that same website, there are lots of treasures, some of them, “marketing thingys”, but I have learned after initially disliking such “thingys”, that TV and Internet, etc, are now avenues or PLACES to meet people where they gather. And so, a priest can initiate vocational discussions on the web, etc, and be in contextual imitation of the apostles preaching on the streets and along the shores. These days, it may be more possible to meet young men face-to-face via Facebook than in person, to begin with. The holders of vocations are not necessarily in the pews yet.
It might just be that there isn’t enough information available. When I first started looking into information about becoming a nun or religious sister, I had nowhere to turn but the internet. It would’ve been better if a speaker came to our Confirmation class to talk about religious orders and how to get into them, etc. It would’ve felt more… welcoming.
My mother initially was not supportive of my discernment; for years I had thought about the priesthood in passing, but with the lack of support at home (because she wanted grandchildren) and the poor formation in my parish (CCD was your typical “Jesus loves you” candy), it took going to a Benedictine college and a couple of Diocesean Eucharistic Congresses (something my home diocese would probably never do) to get me to seriously consider a vocation. Eventually, as regards my mother, I had to put my foot down–I remember well the phone call wherein I told her that it was between me and God, and it was for me to discern–not for her. For a good while, though, she’s taken it seriously and been very supportive. Initially though, Dad was more supportive–and he’s not Catholic. Don’t get me wrong, my mother is wonderful, she was just poorly formed at a younger age (growing up in the 70s).
The solution to the “sports” problem is simple – abolish athletic scholarships.
“The solution to the ‘sports’ problem is simple – abolish athletic scholarships.”
…and forbid scheduling games or practices on Sunday.
The Holy Spirit is very gentle. Our youth are kept busy in a very noisy environment. Many walk around with their headsets plugged in. Pope Benedict asked the youth to spend time in quiet, listening prayer. They need to be able to hear the call.
A priest at a seminary noted recently that many of the men come from families where they had grown up with caretaker responsibilities for handicapped siblings or elderly relatives. They grew up learning how to serve others.
I think that the schools are to blame for a large part of the lack of vocations. I attend a school operated by an order of brothers, and the only time vocations are ever brought up is when they are talking about joining their order. I realize that tehy want to keep their numbers up, but when that same school makes us take a World Religions course, you would think that they could spare a few days to talk about other orders or the priesthood.
Just recently on 60 Minutes, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recounted how his other four sons “breathed a sigh of relief” when his son Paul “took one for the team” and entered the priesthood. If you have a devout Catholic family with nine children, he said, it’s practically expected that at least one of them becomes a priest.
Nowadays, families are neither devout, nor do they have nine children. The cause is contraception. If your parents are using it, (1) they will have less children, and (2) they are obviously not that devout (since they are using contraception). I don’t think the problem is sports, I think it’s the parents’ placing a low priority on religion. A lot of athletes have gone into the priesthood and religious life.
Another factor in this situation is this: how many Catholics know to, know how to, are being taught to discern God’s call on their lives?
The CSI blog, “Intentional Disciples” (http://blog.siena.org/ ) mentions the need to teach parishioners discipleship: how is God calling *you* to follow Him?
It seems a renewed understanding of what it means to be/live as a Catholic is sorely needed in many parishes and hearts.
Very interesting posts from everyone.
I feel especially sympathetic for you, Veronica. How sad it is that you had to leave Religious life because of what happened in your community.
I’m 53-a middleager. Are there any good Orders out there for the ‘post-35 crowd? I can’t find anything on any of the vocational websites. The upper age limit always stops at 35.
I know that the young are the future of the Church….but a lot of times I feel that ‘traditional’ (with a small ‘t’) middeaged Catholics are left out of the vocational discussion. We’re stereotyped as being ‘too set in our ways’! Why is that? We are only thought of as ‘parish volunteer material’….or another word, ‘drudges’.
I have no parish to belong to-I go to the Extraordinary Rite for Mass on Sunday-and I have no confessor or spiritual director to talk to. I’m pretty much ‘alone’….so I just live my drab, humdrum ‘life’, if you can call it that….
Hope I didn’t get too far off this thread…..
irishgirl–
Opus Dei is not a religious order, which is sounds like what you are seeking, BUT– their priests are outstanding confessors and spiritual directors. If you are looking for a straight-shooting source of guidance in the interior life and help discerning how/where God wants you to serve, I can’t think of a better bunch to start with.
Yes, I am biased, as I am a supernumerary of Opus Dei myself. That being said, I still recommend them as a terrific source of unbiased advice. Many of the people who being with direction from the Work finally end up in other places– sometimes the diocesan priesthood (the men, obviously) or some one or another of the more “orthodox” religious orders.
Margaret-thanks for responding.
I live in Upstate NY-and I don’t think there’s anyone up here who is in Opus Dei! The closest place I can think of is in Washington, DC, where Fr. John McCloskey lives-he’s a priest of Opus Dei.
But is Opus Dei orthodox? I’ve read some horror stories about it (no, not “The DaVinci Code’ !), so I don’t want to get into something that is not ‘right’.
I’m not very ‘brainy’, or the ‘leader type’…I’m just an average, ordinary Catholic woman. It seems to me that Opus Dei is for the ‘professional’, ‘gung-ho leader’ person. It wouldn’t be for me…I’m ‘too little’….
Irishgirl– couple of points–
1) I’m actually a native Long Islander transplanted out to the Left Coast these last fifteen years. I’m not at all familiar with activities upstate. There is a large Opus Dei center in Manhattan. If you contacted them, they could tell you the whos/whats/wheres/whens for upstate. I’d be surprised if there was nothing at all up in your area.
2)The whole “elite” thing always cracks me up when people talk about Opus Dei, because I keep wondering what warehouse these supposed elites are being kept in. I haven’t met them yet. The other ladies I know are mostly housewives, administrative assistants, nurses, teachers, etc. Haven’t met any brain surgeons or CEOs yet. 🙂 I’m sure they’re somewhere, but they’re not the “ideal” member, because the “ideal” is ANYBODY who has a vocation to Opus Dei and a strong desire for sanctity.
3) I wasn’t actually suggesting that you look to become a member of Opus Dei– feeling a strong pull towards consecrated religious life is a pretty strong indicator that you DON’T have a vocation to the Work. We aren’t consecrated, aren’t religious, don’t take vows of any sort, including private ones. We are as “lay” as you can get. Even assuming you don’t have a vocation to the Work, however, it could still perhaps be of service to you through confession, spiritual directon, etc. Many, many more people avail themselves of these helps than actually belong to Opus Dei.
Jeff, I apologize for monopolizing the combox with this, so I’ll shut up now… 🙂