Michael KellySome dioceses are doing relatively well when it comes to vocations, others haven’t had a candidate in years
Vocations to the priesthood and religious life are “firmly on the agenda” of Church leaders according to Bishop of Derry Dr Donal McKeown. It’s not before time.
Diocesan vocations directors from across the country gathered for their annual conference in Maynooth at the weekend. It’s a challenging ministry and any priest or religious involved in promoting vocations deserves a lot of support and back up.
Bishop McKeown told the vocations directors that “gatherings like this afford us time to focus on important questions – like how we promote vocations in a missionary Church and for a missionary Church and how we share insights on what is working in local parishes and dioceses when it comes to the promotion of priesthood and religious life.”
There does seem to be an increased sense of urgency in the Church in Ireland in the area of vocations. After the most recent meeting of the hierarchy, a communique from the Catholic Communications Office announced that “a detailed discussion took place regarding the fall in vocations to the priesthood and to religious life in Ireland.
“Bishops shared their experiences and initiatives at a diocesan level and agreed to allocate special time to this important issue at their next meeting,” the communique added.
Discussion
Any discussion of the priority of promoting vocations is a start. With some noble exceptions, there’s been a fairly lacklustre approach to promoting priestly vocations. It’s a curious thing that while many dioceses have mustered massive energy to promote vocations to the permanent diaconate, the same energy has been lacking when it comes to priesthood.
It’s heartening that recently-appointed bishops have made it clear that one of their first priorities is promoting vocations to the priesthood. The challenge will be translating enthusiasm and energy in to a strategy. The Church can’t be run on sound bites, regardless how appealing they appear in the media. Bishops who are serious about the future of their dioceses need to develop a strategy around promoting vocations. Such a strategy will have to have realistic goals, a plan to achieve these goals and a means of assessing whether or not the goals have, in fact, been met. If the goals have not been met, this will have to be faced honestly and dioceses will have to have the courage to set aside what hasn’t worked and look at what has worked elsewhere.
Some dioceses are doing relatively well when it comes to vocations, others haven’t had a candidate in years. This should lead to honest soul searching. Pope Francis has called for the Church to live with a “missionary key” – this sense of mission must be vigorously applied to vocations ministry.
Parishes must also take ownership of the task of promoting vocations. A headline in The Irish News caught my eye this week: ‘Shock as Mass halted at one of the oldest churches in the diocese’. The story recounted how a historic church where Mass has been celebrated for centuries will no longer have Sunday Mass because a priest is retiring. Parishioners are understandably disappointed, and one makes reference to the fact that St Patrick’s Church, Derriaghy survived the ravages of Cromwell. But, many parishioners don’t join the dots to realise that no new priests has a knock-on effect. Parishes need to wake up and take responsibility for promoting, encouraging and praying for vocations.
It would be a tragedy if apathy succeeded where centuries of persecution have failed.