"Apostolic Nuncio Speaks on Vocations"

From The National Catholic Register
Posted by Tim Drake

This morning Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., gave a historic address to the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors gathered for their annual convention in East Rutherford, N.J. Archbishop Sambi had several stirring things to say to the nation’s vocation directors.

“The enemy of every vocation is selfishness,” Archbishop Sambi told the group. He quoted at length from Pope John Paul II’s book Gift and Mystery.

In an interesting comparison, Archbishop Sambi compared the post-sexual abuse-crisis priesthood to that of post-Nazi-occupied Poland. He spoke about how Karol Wojtyla’s witnessing so many priests being arrested and deported impacted the future Pope’s priestly vocation.

“As the Pope was encouraged by the many priests brought to concentration camps, you should be pushed by the fact that many priests have abandoned their mission,” said Archbishop Sambi. “We are in a poverty of priests, but are coming on a New Springtime in which there will be more priests, and of a better quality.”

Given that it’s the Year for Priests in honor of St. John Marie Vianney, Archbishop Sambi then posed a hypothetical question to all of the vocation directors.

“If St. John Vianney came to you today as a prospective seminarian, would you help him in his vocation?” Archbishop Sambi asked.

He then presented two scenarios for how a vocation director might respond.

In the first scenario, the vocation director describes an older, dedicated, devout individual with a rural upbringing who is behind in his studies, but knows the faith because of the example of his family. He doesn’t grasp Latin well, but has a real sense of sacrifice. Other priests support him and see his vocation as authentic.

In the second scenario, the vocation director describes an individual with long hair and a provincial faith, who is focused on the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament and is described as perhaps being too Eucharistic and too much into the cult of Mary. He describes the priest as speaking of being available for confession, but the vocation director questions, “Really, who goes any more?” Finally, the vocation director says that the candidate sounds a bit old Church, so the director says he’s probably suited to a more traditional order and says, “No, thank you.”

Those gathered shared a good laugh over the descriptions, but it was an effective exercise in getting vocation directors to think about what’s important. Archbishop Sambi urged caution in dealing with prospective candidates because “one of them could be a future saint.”

Back from the Vocation Directors Conference

Sorry for the no posts this past week. The schedule at the National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors convention was very full, and left little time for blogging. Once again it was a excellent convention and Denver was a great host city.

The major announcement of the convention came on Monday and that was of the printing of a discernment booklet by the NCDVD, "Is Jesus Calling You to be a Catholic Priest". This should be a wonderful aid to those discerning a call to the Priesthood. At a leisurely pace, it took about an hour to read and deals with some of the difficult issues men face in discernment. We will be doing our best to put this booklet in the hands of every man seriously discerning a call to the Priesthood.

Bishop Burbidge gave a very good reflection on Tuesday at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver about the roles of Bishop, Vocations Director and Seminary in the formation of candidates to the Priesthood. This was followed by a Holy Hour and confessions then Mass before ending the day with lunch. After lunch I had the pleasure of getting a tour of the United States Air Force Academy from a friend, and former student of mine, who is now a senior at the Academy. The Academy is truly an impressive facility.

Wednesday brought business meetings and presentations, followed by an early evening Mass with Archbishop Chaput at the parish in the Archdiocese of Denver, Our Lady of Loretto, that has the Diocese's highest number of vocations. After the Mass we headed back to the hotel for the closing dinner.

Thursday Fr. Shlesinger and I took the day off and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park and seemingly couldn't have picked a better day. The aspens were in their full fall glory making for some incredibly beautiful sights. We also experienced the great diversity of climates in the park - on the ridgeline drive, at well over 10,000 feet it began to snow!

Yesterday was all about traveling. Monday we get back to the work we are so privileged to do, help men answer the Lord's call to follow Him as priests.

Regular posting to resume today.

Off to the Diocesan Vocation Directors Conference

We take off later today for the National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors Convention in Denver. To the extent that I can I will be blogging from the convention.

Other posts will probably have to be on hold for a few days.

This will be several days of prayer and reflection on vocations along with presentations and discussions of relevant topics to the sometimes difficult work we do. It is a great time to hear from others about the work they are doing and the successes they are having with regards to helping men answer God's call. Please keep all of the Vocations Directors in your prayers this week!

NCDVD 2008 Convention

Attention Diocesan Vocation Directors/Assistants/Staff:

Online registration is open for this year's conference in Denver (September 27 - October 2, 2008).

This year's keynote speakers include the Most Reverend Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, the Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Raleigh (my boss), and Curtis Martin, Founder and President of Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).

Click here to go to the NCDVD website for more information and online registration forms.

Last year was my first year attending the conference, and if this year is anything like last year it is not to be missed!

Day Two at the NCDVD

Well day two is drawing to a close, and it has been a long one. Up early, we travelled from Baltimore to Emmitsburg, Maryland for Morning Prayer at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary. The drive was beautiful, as was the seminary and chapel. After morning prayer we were treated to a talk by Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR. For the most part Fr. Groeschel spoke abouth the errors that psychology has interjected into our faith, especially into our seminaries. I'll post my notes from his talk later, but the long and short of it was that striving to live a virtuous life was the answer, and that as vocations directors we should seek out men of virtue. The talk was very good, at times very funny, and as we've come to expect from Fr. Groeschel, brutally honest.

After the talk there was a holy hour in the chapel followed by Mass with Fr. Groeschel as homilist. After Mass I was able to get the picture above with Fr. Kyle Schnippel, Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and moderator of the Called By Name blog, Fr. Groeschel, and me. What a blessing! I should add here that it has been a blessing to meet Fr. Schnippel after months of comments and posts back and forth on each others blogs. Unfortunately due to the schedule and going in different directions we haven't really had a chance to talk, but I hope to tomorrow. What I can say is that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati is blessed to have Fr. Schnippel as their Director of Vocations.

Fr. Shlesinger and I had an opportunity to visit the National Shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes behind the seminary. It was really beautiful, and I can only say it should be a pilgrimage site for those in the mid-atlantic states.

From the Seminary we headed up the street to the Minor Basilica for the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Truthfully I had know idea how impressive this Basilica was. This a pciture of the Sanctuary.

From the basilica we headed to Gettysburg. I'll spare you my interest in Civil War history. In short it was incredible to see the battlefield. It was strange to drive around a place were so many men gave their lives. Think about the fact that in three days 51,000 Americans were killed, wounded, captured or went missing! When I get back to Raleigh I'm going to watch Gettysburg again - it will certainly be different watching it now.

Tonight we went to an Orieles game at what has to be one of the nicest ballparks in the country. The game wasn't terrific, but then again when the weather is perfect, there's a full moon in the sky, you're at a baseball game, can it realy be bad?

More tomorrow.

Update from the Vocations Directors Conference

I will try my best over the next couple of days to post updates from the conference. Fr. Shlesinger and I arrived last night, after a stop in DC to pray at the Basilica and to visit with two of our seminarians at Theological College, Deacon Mike Spurr and Juan Pablo Barrientos.

The conference started the best way possible with a Holy Hour. Below is a picture, not from a church, but from a room in the hotel that looks more like a church that some churches I've been in. It was beautiful, and a beautiful reminder of why we are here - Jesus Christ.

After the Holy Hour we said morning prayer together before moving up to a larger conference room. The key note speaker of the day was Cardinal McCarrick, who, as always, was an engaging speaker. The first part of his talk was to those involved in vocations work. Specifically addressing the priests he gave three key points - 1. Love your priesthood (love the priesthood), stressing that to love it you need to understand it as service. 2. Love your brother priests, highligting the fact that if your brother priests don't respect you they won't help you, and vocations directors can not do this alone - they must have the help of their brother priests. 3) Always rejoice - real joy, tinged with a healthy fear of the Lord, and pray without ceasing. Cardinal McCarrick also stressed the need to thank all those who help in the work of promoting and supporting vocations.

Then the better part of His Emminence's talk had to do with a list of things every Bishop should do:

1. Mandate prayers for vocations in the prayers of the faithful. He highlighted the fact that it is important how they are worded. He clarified this by saying that we are blessed with many vocations to the permanent diaconate, and acknowledged that there was a great need to pray for holy vocations to matrimony, but that there is a critical need for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Cardinal McCarrick stressed that he wasn't saying not to pray for vocations to the diaconate, lay consecrated life, or holy matrimony, but that they should be seperate intentions in order to not dilute the emphasis.

2. Every Bishop should write a prayer for vocations and publish it throughout the Diocese.

3. The Bishop should ALWAYS promote vocations where ever he goes.

4. The Bishop needs to go where the vocations are - high schools, COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES, young adult ministries, etc. He mentioned Theology on Tap specifically and told an amusing story about going to one where the bar was so crowded the waitresses couldn't get to people, therefore couldn't sell beer, and the bar manager was mad because they didn't make any money.

5. The Bishop needs to "buttonhole" people (or at least I think that's what His Eminence said). Cardinal McCarrick spoke to need of personally inviting people - individually tell men they should become a priest. He said that many seminarians have come up to him saying that he once told them they should become priests, which of course he could not remember doing, but in the end it was an affirmation of the fact that we have to invite people.

Cardinal McCarrick went on to give quite a few more great ideas, but since it's been a long day already, those may have to wait for another post. Tomorrow we travel to Mt. St. Mary's in Emmitsburg and hear a keynote address by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR, followed by Mass with Fr. Groeschel. Hopefully I'll get some pictures, and tell you what he had to say.

I should add that lunch today started with the Angelus - from what I understand all of this is a very positive change from years past. Also, the lunch was sponsered by the Army Chaplains who rightly made a plea for the critical need for chaplains. Again, maybe I'll post more on this later. For now it's time to hit the rack.

National Diocesan Vocations Directors Conference

We're off to the conference today. I'll try to post about the conference as I can.

We'll also be stopping to see our seminarians in DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia.