Ordination to the Priesthood – The Church’s Physical Link to Christ and the Apostles is “Hands On”

By Msgr. Charles Pope
From the Archdiocese of Washington

We are entering the season for ordinations. And perhaps a worthy reflection is to recall that one of the great glories of the Catholic Church is her historical link to Christ and the Apostles. The Catholic link to Christ himself and the apostles is not merely some moral unity, or a kind of invisible union, it is not merely a knowledge through books and historical data, precious those these things are. No indeed, there is more at work here. There is also an actual physical union through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. In this sacrament, there is a laying on of hands that stretches right back to the Apostles and Jesus.

Unique to the Catholic and Orthodox Churches – Only the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches can make the claim that they historically go back right to Christ and the Apostles. Every other Christian (Protestant) denomination lacks this antiquity. They were all founded less than 500 years ago, some even less than 100 years ago. Further, they literally severed the physical, hands on connection to Christ by casting aside the ministerial priesthood and hence the laying on of hands that signifies this sacrament. They have ministers, but not priests. The Anglicans are an exception, in that they consider their ministers to be priests. Yet they are not considered by the Catholic Church to have valid orders since they went through a long period wherein they did explicitly abandon the intent to hand on the priesthood, hence the link was severed.

Biblical and Patristic roots – It is clear in the Acts of the Apostles that when the apostles chose successors and co-workers to share in their apostolic ministry they “laid hands” on them. Paul and Barnabas had hands laid on them for their work as Apostles (Acts 13:3, 1 Tim 4:14 etc.). Paul later counsels Timothy to be careful on whom he “lays hands” when appointing bishops and deacons (1 Tim 5:22 etc). All the earliest documents of the Church such as the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch make it clear that this laying on of hands continued. This laying on of hands came to be known as “ordination.”

Every valid priest has “connections” – The Catholic Church through this laying on of hands actually preserves a physical link to Jesus himself and the Apostles he chose. History for us is a “hands-0n” kind of history, a “hands-on” link going back 2000 years. Every validly ordained Catholic bishop has this physical as well as spiritual link to the apostles. Every Bishop is a successor to the apostles. The priests share in this office and this link (though not in its fullness) for they too have hands laid on them by the bishop. I am often humbled to think of the “connections” I have with the early Church.

The Faith is literally handed on – So fellow Catholics, “stay connected” and rejoice in our “hands on” historical heritage. Now you know why it is said that the faith is “handed on.”

"Raleigh Vocations" - new website for the Diocesan Office of Vocations

Click the image above to go to the new website.

USSCB site hosts pictures of class of 2009 Priests

Click on the image above to see the Ordianation Class of 2009!

Diocese of Raleigh Unveils Year for Priests Vocations Poster

"What made the Curé of Ars holy was his humble faithfulness to the mission to which God had called him; it was his constant abandonment, full of trust, to the hands of divine Providence. It was not by virtue of his own human gifts that he succeeded in moving peoples’ hearts nor even by relying on a praiseworthy commitment of his will; he won over even the most refractory souls by communicating to them what he himself lived deeply, namely, his friendship with Christ. He was “in love” with Christ and the true secret of his pastoral success was the fervor of his love for the Eucharistic Mystery, celebrated and lived, which became love for Christ’s flock, for Christians and for all who were seeking God." Pope Benedict XVI

Special thanks to John D'Amelio and the folks at Fabrik Agency for the design and Cameron Smith for his beautiful painting of St. John Vianney.

NY PRIEST - Ordination 2009

The lastest from Grassroots films...

The Rome Experience - A Summer Program for Diocesan Seminarians

The Rome Experience Blog

'ST. JEAN MARIE VIANNEY: PATRON SAINT OF ALL PRIESTS"

VATICAN CITY, 16 MAR 2009 (VIS) - "Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of priests" is the theme of the Year for Priests announced today by the Holy Father, according to a communique issued by the Holy See Press Office.

The Pope will inaugurate the Year on 19 June, presiding at Vespers in St. Peter's Basilica where the relics of the saintly 'Cure of Ars' will be brought for the occasion by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France. He will close the year on 19 June 2010, presiding at a "World Meeting of Priests" in St. Peter's Square.

During the course of the Year, Benedict XVI will proclaim St. Jean Marie Vianney as patron saint of all the priests of the world. A "Directory for Confessors and Spiritual Directors" will also be published, as will a collection of texts by the Supreme Pontiff on essential aspects of the life and mission of priests in our time.

The Congregation for the Clergy, together with diocesan ordinaries and superiors of religious institutes, will undertake to promote and co-ordinate the various spiritual and pastoral initiatives which are being organised to highlight the role and mission of the clergy in the Church and in modern society, and the need to intensify the permanent formation of priests, associating it with that of seminarians.

OP/YEAR FOR PRIESTS/... VIS 090316 (230)

"HOLY FATHER ANNOUNCES A SPECIAL YEAR FOR PRIESTS"

VATICAN CITY, 16 MAR 2009 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican the Holy Father received members of the Congregation for the Clergy, who are currently celebrating their plenary assembly on the theme: "The missionary identity of priests in the Church as an intrinsic dimension of the exercise of the 'tre munera'".

"The missionary dimension of a priest arises from his sacramental configuration to Christ the Head", said the Pope. This involves "total adherence to what ecclesial tradition has identified as 'apostolica vivendi forma', which consists in participation ... in that 'new way of life' which was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus and which the Apostles made their own".

Benedict XVI highlighted the "indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every truly priestly heart. In order to favour this tendency of priests towards spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends, I have", he said, "decided to call a special 'Year for Priests' which will run from 19 June 2009 to 19 June 2010". This year marks "the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly 'Cure of Ars', Jean Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ's flock".

"The ecclesial, communional, hierarchical and doctrinal dimension is absolutely indispensable for any authentic mission, and this alone guarantees its spiritual effectiveness", he said.

"The mission is 'ecclesial'", said the Pope, "because no-one announces or brings themselves, ... but brings Another, God Himself, to the world. God is the only wealth that, definitively, mankind wishes to find in a priest.

"The mission is 'communional' because it takes place in a unity and communion which only at a secondary level possess important aspects of social visibility. ... The 'hierarchical' and 'doctrinal' dimensions emphasise the importance of ecclesiastical discipline (a term related to that of 'disciple') and of doctrinal (not just theological, initial and permanent) formation".

Benedict XVI stressed the need to "have care for the formation of candidates to the priesthood", a formation that must maintain "communion with unbroken ecclesial Tradition, without pausing or being tempted by discontinuity. In this context, it is important to encourage priests, especially the young generations, to a correct reading of the texts of Vatican Council II, interpreted in the light of all the Church's doctrinal inheritance".

Priests must be "present, identifiable and recognisable - for their judgement of faith, personal virtues and attire - in the fields of culture and of charity which have always been at the heart of the Church's mission".

"The centrality of Christ leads to a correct valuation of priestly ministry, without which there would be no Eucharist, no mission, not even the Church. It is necessary then, to ensure that 'new structures' or pastoral organisations are not planned for a time in which it will be possible to 'do without' ordained ministry, on the basis of an erroneous interpretation of the promotion of the laity, because this would lay the foundations for a further dilution in priestly ministry, and any supposed 'solutions' would, in fact, dramatically coincide with the real causes of the problems currently affecting the ministry".

AC/PRIESTS MISSION/CPC VIS 090316 (530)

"Catholic priests meld sacred duties with personal lives"

One of our own from the Diocese of Raleigh!

From the Rocky Mount Telegram

By Laura McFarland
Photo by Alan Campbell, Fr. Tim Meares on the left, Fr. Bavinger, S.J. on the right

Being a Catholic priest is not a 9-to-5 job.

It is a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week vocation.

If somebody calls while a priest is eating dinner and needs to him to come to the hospital, he goes. If a problem arises the day before his vacation starts, he stays.

The primary role of a priest is clear and constant: He is a shepherd, a confidant, a teacher and a herald of the gospel, said the Rev. Tim Meares, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Rocky Mount. It is a life he chose at age 27 and now at 41 has never regretted.

“I love being priest. ... I would have never picked myself to be a priest. God chose me, and it is just amazing. It is a wonderful life to be able to celebrate the sacraments, to be able to teach, to be able to be involved in peoples’ lives and to see God work in such incredible, miraculous ways,” Meares said.

Beyond that core role though, changes within churches and the culture, combined with the decreasing number of men entering the priesthood in the last few decades, have had lasting effects on the life of a priest, said the Rev. Bruce Bavinger, assistant pastor at Our Lady.

“We have been used to smaller numbers. I have been used to hearing that there were smaller numbers in the seminaries from the time I entered. The sexual abuse scandals did not help at all either,” said Bavinger, who has been a priest for 30 years.

Despite substantial growth in the Catholic population, the number of men entering the priesthood in the United States significantly has decreased in the last three decades. The total has gone down from 58,909 in 1975 to 40,580 in 2008, says the Web site for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a nonprofit research center that conducts studies on the Catholic Church.

There were 652 Catholics per priest in 1950, the site says. By 2000, that number had soared to 1,257.

That translates into more work, especially of the administrative kind. Meares is the pastor of two churches, Our Lady and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, and is responsible for the school attached to the former.

“I have a couple of priest friends of mine in Virginia, and they are responsible for four different churches, the two of them. That would not have happened, especially in predominantly Catholic areas, 50 years ago,” Meares said.

---

The numbers aren’t as good as they used to be, but there still are men answering the call to the priesthood, said Monsignor David Brockman, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. The diocese has a steady amount of men applying.

“That has provided a good number of candidates for the priesthood in our diocese, which is a good sign of not only the family life … but also the parishes they come from. It is a testament to both, as well as their own faith,” Brockman said.

It helps that priests are reaching out to people in new ways, such as using church Web sites, downloads to iPods and e-mail, Brockman said.

People see priests as more approachable today, Meares said. They can see the human side of the man as well as the servant of God.

Meares has hobbies, like everybody else. He enjoys reading, going to the movies, snow skiing and other sports.

“It is interesting because kids always want to know if you go to Taco Bell or if you play sports or that type of thing. Sometimes they think you are different and wouldn’t do those types of things. Yeah I go to Taco Bell. I go to baseball games. I tell them, ‘When I was young, I used to love sports. I played all different sports,’” Meares said.

Things are slightly different for Bavinger. Unlike Meares, a diocesan priest, Bavinger is a Jesuit, a member of the Society of Jesus. They dedicated themselves to the church and and celibacy, but Bavinger also took a vow of poverty. Everything he has belongs to the order, and he is allowed to use it.

“I still kind of live a normal life, making purchases, but pretty much with permission as far as any big items,” Bavinger said. “I am living the same kind of life that a lot of people are, kind of a middle class life. I have access to a TV, and I have my own laptop. That was a gift to me from another parish I was in. I was allowed to keep it.”

Even in their hobbies and special interests, priests still are set apart, Meares said. As leaders, they are held to a higher standard by the public, their congregations and themselves.

“The church teaches that you should avoid all occasions of sin. That can be persons, places or things that would lead you to sin. You want to be prudent about those things. Even as a follower of Jesus Christ, you don’t want to put yourself in a place of temptation because the church teaches we are all weak, and we can all fall,” Meares said.

"A Guy’s Guy: Dolan’s Personality May Help Archdiocese Recruit More Priests"

From The New York Times

By Paul Vitello

The big recruiters talk about him as if he were future Hall-of-Fame material — the kind you build organizations around. They talk about his “skill set,” the leadership qualities that make the young ones double their commitments.

They speak of Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee, the gregarious, football-coach-size prelate whom the Vatican named on Monday to take the helm of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

They hope he helps attract more men to the priesthood.

“He’s a professional extrovert, a banterer, a sports fanatic,” said the Rev. Edwin H. Obermiller, director of vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame. “He knows how to talk to young men.”

In his first foray after being introduced as New York’s next archbishop at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday, Archbishop Dolan visited St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers — where three diocesan priests are to be ordained in May, compared with the 30 or 40 who graduated each year in the 1960s — and promised to make recruitment one of his top priorities.

The depth and difficulty of the struggle to overcome a decades-long and nationwide priest shortage can be measured by how church officials define success.

Three graduates from St. Joseph’s this year is considered a disappointing number. On Monday, Cardinal Edward M. Egan referred to the lagging ordinations there as one of the chief disappointments of his nine-year tenure as New York archbishop.

But at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee, where the rector, the Rev. Donald J. Hying, credits Bishop Dolan’s “radiant joy” and “charismatic nature” with bringing new vigor to recruitment efforts, the graduating class this year will be six.

“We haven’t ordained six priests since 1992,” Father Hying said. He said the seminary expected to graduate “five or six each year for the next few years.”

Recruiting young men to make the commitment to become priests is a complex process that involves guidance by priests as well as the self-explorations of the candidates, said the Rev. Luke M. Sweeney, director of vocations at St. Joseph’s. An important if intangible factor is how a candidate imagines himself in the future, a priest in full — and his bishop can be an important role model.

“Whenever he met with them, Cardinal Egan did an excellent job of connecting with our seminarians,” Father Sweeney said. But Archbishop Dolan brings “a different skill set” to that meeting.

“Each man brings to the job his own abilities, and Bishop Dolan is obviously blessed with a particular ability to reach out and inspire potential recruits,” Father Sweeney said.

On Monday evening, after a vespers service at St. Joseph’s chapel in which Archbishop Dolan addressed the seminarians as “the future of the priesthood I love,” many of them stood around gaping with what seemed a mixture of curiosity and awe as he held court in a scrum of television cameras and sound booms, answering questions from reporters.

The bishop laughed a lot. He spoke glowingly of the Green Bay Packers, the Mets, the Yankees, hot dogs and jelly doughnuts. At one point he shouted over reporters’ heads: “Hey, when’s opening day at Yankee Stadium?”

One seminarian, standing with his chin resting on his closed hand, smiled broadly when asked by a reporter what he thought of the new guy. “They asked us not to make comments,” he said, turning to walk down a hall to a dinner in honor of Cardinal Egan and his successor.

“But I like him.”

A moment later, Archbishop Dolan followed him down the same hallway, a long stone corridor whose walls were lined with class photos, beginning with the classes of the 1950s and ending with 2008. The gallery told the whole story: With each passing year, the camera angle of the class picture gets tighter to frame the recent classes of three and four.

Archbishop Dolan’s qualifications as a recruitment magnet for young priests include a stint in the late 1990s as rector of the Pontifical North American College, the seminary in Rome for American priests pursuing post-ordination studies. He has also written a book, “Priesthood in the Third Millennium,” composed mainly of a series of lectures he gave while in Rome, which is used in some seminaries in the United States as a textbook.

It is hard to recruit people to the Catholic priesthood these days, experts say. Many social trends work against it, from declining church attendance to the declining size of Catholic families that once happily dedicated one in the bunch to the seminary.

Father Sweeney, who visits high schools and colleges to talk to young men about the job, said that most young men have the same questions: “Will I be able to live a celibate life? Will I be able to give up on having a family? Or on the idea of making lots of money.”

The biggest question, “Is this what God really wants for me,” he said, is the hardest.

What seminarians and prospective seminarians see in Bishop Dolan, said Father Hying of the Milwaukee seminary, is “a man who has answered all these questions and who is an obviously happy person with holiness and peace inside him.”

“That’s always good for us,” he added.

"Heeding call to priesthood DON'T AWAIT DIVINE E-MAIL"

From Fredericksburg.com
BY Amy Flowers Umble

As a young adult, Keith Cummings felt God calling him to become a Catholic priest.

He responded by leaving the church.

"It was a radical way of life, and one that I was not ready to embrace," Cummings said.

Overwhelmingly, young Catholic men are turning away from the priesthood.

The number of American priests began dropping in the late 1970s and has declined ever since, creating a priest shortage in the country, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Religious scholars and the Vatican offer a number of reasons for the decline: smaller Catholic family sizes, a tarnished image of Catholic clergy following sex-abuse scandals, a cultural shift in American priorities and the celibacy requirement.

But the impact is pretty similar. Parishes often struggle without priests. Some share clergy. Some shut down.

But this isn't much of a problem in the Arlington Diocese of the Catholic Church, which extends from Northern Virginia through Spotsylvania County. In fact, while nationally the priesthood has declined, the diocese has had a growing number of priests since its formation in 1974.

Now, more than 160 diocesan priests serve in 68 parishes. The number is adequate, but if more priests came on board, the diocese could open more parishes for the growing Catholic population.
With that goal, the diocese has an active vocations program to help those who, like Cummings, may feel a calling but hesitate to take the leap of faith.

Over the course of 20 years, Cummings came back to the church occasionally. In 2005, after the death of his mother, he began attending Mass several times a week. He knew he would probably end up a priest.

Still, Cummings--who worked as a computer scientist in King George County--doubted his worthiness. Priests, he thought, were a lot like the saints: extremely holy.

He brought his concern to the Rev. Brian Bachista, vocations director for the Arlington Diocese. It's a common worry.

"What we say off the bat is that you're not worthy enough, and you're not holy enough. There are no perfect priests," Bachista said. "We're all called to be faithful Christians and the reason one explores the priesthood is not their level of holiness but because they believe this is what God created them for."

On Easter 2006, Cummings said he definitely felt God calling him to be a priest with a very strong, peaceful feeling.

It took nearly a year to apply to seminary. The proc-ess involves a 38-page application, eight letters of reference, a criminal background check, a psychological evaluation, two essays and a 10-page biography.

"The process is similar to applying to a college, with a much more detailed analysis on our personalities and spirituality," said Jason Burchell, a Courtland High School graduate studying to be a priest.

The application is long and difficult, but Cummings said he understood.

"The church takes very seriously the problems of the past," he said.

The process weeds out the majority of applicants, Bachista said. They are not asked to continue to seminary if they've committed any sexual abuse or if they have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, he said. Also, anyone who comes to the priesthood immediately after a job loss or breakup is asked to wait a year.

After making it through the screening process, potential priests enter seminary. The diocese sends priests to one of six seminaries. Cummings attends a Massachusetts seminary, geared toward older men. Burchell, 29, attends one in Maryland.

For most men who, like Cummings and Burchell, already have college degrees, it takes about six years of study to become a priest. The diocese pays the $30,000 annual tuition. About 75 percent of those with degrees will go on to become priests. About 50 percent of those without college degrees will finish. Those who become priests serve in the sponsoring diocese.

Most of the 33 men now studying to become priests first finished college and had another career. The trend, Bachista said, has been for older men to enter the priesthood.

But he sees that changing and attributes it to Pope John Paul II's outreach to youth.

Burchell said that many of his generation felt closer to the recent pope and this, in turn, changed them from a "me-first" generation to one prepared to serve.

The sacrifices of the priesthood are great, he and Cummings said. Even now, they spend much of their time in class, teaching and and serving. And in the future, they expect to work hard as priests.

"All of our life is a balancing act between the sacrifices we make and the compensations we get from those sacrifices," Cummings said. "This is a radical sacrifice but we are compensated by Christ himself."

"Priestly vocations crucial for the church"

From The Catholic Star Herald

The incoming director of Vocations for the diocese, Father Tom Kiely, is well aware of the challenges facing the church, but is optimistic that there will be new vocations to priesthood.

“New vocations to priesthood are essential,” he said. “We cannot look at numbers and get discouraged. Nor can we put our heads in the sand and be in denial. In the face of a great challenge like this, we must prayerfully redouble our efforts to encourage young men to accept the call to priesthood, confident that the Spirit is at work in all of this.”

For Father Kiely, the pastoral priority of increasing vocations to priesthood is closely connected to the revitalization of parish life now underway in the diocese.

“It’s not a question of choosing between increasing vocations to priesthood and taking steps to call forth the talents of laity and to strengthen parishes. All these need to occur and are related. As parishes are united and become stronger, they will be better able to serve parishioners and to provide for the pastoral care of the people, including youth and young adults. By revitalizing our parishes, by offering the range of ministries that will respond to the needs of our parishioners, we actually will foster an increase in priestly vocations,” he said.

Father Kiely also said the attention to lifelong formation in the diocese also will help cultivate new vocations.

“By revitalizing Catholic life, by bringing about an increase in religious practice in our parishes, by forming all age groups in the faith, my hope is that parents and others will be more likely to invite young Catholics to consider priesthood,” said Father Kiely.

“Likewise, young Catholics, formed more deeply in the faith, will be more inclined to generously and confidently respond to God’s call that is often made through the invitation of others, such as priests, friends and family members, who ask, ‘Have you ever considered becoming a priest?’”

Father Kiely’s own family has had an impact on his vocation. He is a Third Order Franciscan, following the example of his mother. As a permanent deacon, his father was responsible for the pastoral administration of two parishes in the Diocese of Charleston. His brother is a Trappist monk at Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina.

“A vocation is a call to be Christ in a particular way among his pilgrim people, but always as one of the pilgrims journeying with all the others toward Christ’s intimacy with us,” he said. “I am thankful to Bishop Galante for the priority he has placed on priestly vocations and for the confidence he has placed in me to help cultivate priestly vocations in the diocese. I look forward to collaborating with our priest promoters and our parishes to do this important work.”

"More Seminarians Than One Stage Can Hold"

"40-year peak in seminary enrollment celebrated at S.O.S. dinner"

From The Catholic Key Blog
By Jack Smith
Catholic Key Editor

Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey led nearly 700 voices in a round of “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” at the Downtown Marriot January 30. “We bless and we thank you Lord for countless blessings,” Abbot Polan prayed as he opened the annual S.O.S. - “Support Our Seminarians” dinner and auction in support of men studying for the priesthood from both sides of State Line Road and for Conception Seminary College.

As he has every year, KMBC-TV anchor Larry Moore served as master of ceremonies at the event which was the brainchild of Moore and his wife Ruth. Recalling the humble beginnings of the effort, Moore said in 1994 there was only one seminarian from the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph. “Things got even worse the next year,” Moore said, when there were none.

This semester, Conception Seminary College has 110 men enrolled – a 40 year record according to Conception Seminary Rector Father Samuel Russell, OSB. Father Russell shared the great news that 26 men are currently in formation for Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph and 21 are studying for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Not all are studying at Conception, so the great numbers there indicate an increase in vocations from many dioceses.

Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn was celebrating the loss of seminarians that night though. “In June we lost Doug Langner,” Bishop Finn said, “to priestly ordination. And in December we lost Angelo Bartulica to ordination.

“As God is good, we look forward to losing another two seminarians in May,” Bishop Finn said. “And the following year, if all goes according top the plan that we would pray for and hope, we’re going to lose another four seminarians to priesthood.”

Bishop Finn told the crowd, “We have to replace these men . . . This is a dilemma we’ve prayed for and worked for.” Bishop Finn thanked all those who work to support the formation of men to the priesthood and urged the audience to pray and “do everything you can to encourage your sons, your grandsons to listen carefully to the call of Almighty God.”

Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann said as a bishop, he receives a lot of “interesting” mail. But the mail “that brings the most joy” to his heart is from parishioners who take the time to relay “the difference a priest is making in their lives.” A letter that particularly touched him recently was from a woman he remembered from a youth group in his first parish. She wrote, “If there is a debt that we can never repay, it is the priesthood that serves us so faithfully and brings us our greatest gifts in the sacraments.”

Archbishop Naumann thanked God “for young men today that are open to that call to the priesthood,” and thanked all present for supporting them.

Larry Moore also thanked all those who help to make S.O.S. a success, in particular, Mike and Marsha Keenan who served as co-chairs of the event for the second time in a row this year.

Preliminary reports show $68,000 was raised this year from the auction and marketplace and $98,000 from ticket sales.

(pictured above: More seminarians than one stage could hold. One hundred ten seminarians from Conception Seminary College climbed to the stage for a round of applause at the annual Support Our Seminarians dinner Jan. 30. Most are not pictured because of the stage’s small size.)

"Last Orders" - Stella Artois ad

Great ad, but remember that it's not cool to blame the parish priest for drinking a dying man's Stella Artois. There's a special place for people that do such things.

"Cincinnati native heeds call to priesthood in Erie diocese"

From Catholic News Agency
By Carmen M. Hubbard

Sometimes hearing God’s call to minister can be difficult to understand. Although Father Johnathan Schmolt’s family knew he had the makings of a priest, it wasn’t always clear to him, he said.

"My family said ‘it was about time.’ Everybody who knows me wasn’t surprised, so I’m the last to figure this out," Father Schmolt said. "In high school and in college, I looked into the religious path as a Jesuit or Dominican. At that time (becoming) a diocesan priest was not particularly appealing. I believed in what I wanted to do and said, ‘Lord, stop bothering me. I tried it and it didn’t work out.’"

Ultimately, the Anderson Township native heeded God’s command and was ordained on June 6, 2008, at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral in the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania.

He now serves as the pastor of St. Jude the Apostle Church, ministering to 2,300 families. Father Schmolt is one of three priests in the area who entered the seminary over age 30. Typically, men are in their twenties when they enter the seminary right after college, he said.

As a child, Father Schmolt attended Immaculate Heart of Mary School and is a graduate of Covington Latin High School. Father Schmolt, 36, made his way to Erie seeking volunteer opportunities through the diocese while in college during the early 1990s. He spent summers assisting economically disadvantaged Appalachian residents in the area. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Northern Kentucky University, he moved to northern Pennsylvania to work as a computer programmer and continue volunteering through the Diocese of Erie.

"I thought about the priesthood in the sixth grade," he said. "When I got the calling again, I finally asked God what He wanted me to do. It took six years to re-ask the question. It took two months to answer ‘What am I going to do about it?’" he said.

During the ordination, Father Schmolt’s mother, Jeanine, was presented with her son’s maniturgium — a cloth used to wipe his hands with holy oil. His father, Paul, was given another cloth that Father Schmolt wore when he heard his first confession.

"It’s an honor. God has blessed us. The most powerful thing is when you go to Mass and say, ‘That’s my son,’" Jeanine Schmolt said of her oldest of three children. "He was always interested in the church. I said, ‘God is using you for something.’"

Last summer Father Schmolt returned home to celebrate one of his first Masses at Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was a chance for Father Schmolt’s family members who were unable to attend his ordination in Erie to celebrate with him locally.

"His grandmothers would be so proud," Jeanine Schmolt said.

Father Jan Schmidt, pastor of St. Margaret of York in Loveland, was a longtime pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary and met Father Schmolt when he returned home for Christmas, Easter and on break from the seminary.

"He’s very likable and very helpful," Father Schmidt said. "He’s been involved in liturgy. He’ll make a fine priest. I’m glad and joyful, but I wish he was a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati."

Father Schmolt said he was never against becoming a priest and enjoys the rewards and challenges it brings. "The priesthood means being full of God and prayer. I get to talk to people who are in trouble. That’s the best part of what you do," he said.

Father Schmolt also leads various staff meetings to "move the organization forward" and "balances the (parish’s) checkbook."

"The whole business component may not have been in the priesthood 50 years ago. I’m very satisfied," he said.

"Priest once was million-dollar ad man"

From a press release:

By Leita Crossfield
Herald Writer

SHORELINE -- Father Bob Camuso likes to tell people he's still in advertising, only now he has just one client and he doesn't worry about getting paid.

Camuso, the former pastor at St. Thomas More in Lynnwood, is a priest and the voice behind "Conversations with Father Bob," an internationally broadcast radio program he created in 2004. The program is heard on stations from Seattle to Baltimore and from Texas to Toronto. It's also on the Internet.

Camuso wasn't always Father Bob.

For the first 20 years of his career, Camuso was an art director creating million-dollar-advertising campaigns for clients of some of the world's largest advertising agencies. He started his career working at Ogilvy & Mather in New York City under legendary ad man David Ogilvy. Later, he co-founded his own ad agency in Seattle.

In 1992, that all changed.

That's when Camuso was ordained by the Archdiocese of Seattle.

"I went to his ordination at St. James on First Hill, and it was spectacular," said Larry Asher, Camuso's former business partner in the ad firm Asher and Camuso Advertising in Seattle, and now president of Worker Bees in Seattle.

"Advertising is this kind of glamorous field, life in the fast lane, hard-drinking, hard-living," Asher said. "Bob was no goody two-shoes. So I think some people couldn't put it together, but if you knew Bob, it totally made sense."

Camuso grew up in the Catholic church.

At 16 -- when young men start thinking about their futures -- he said he stopped going to church.

For more than 20 years, Camuso said he turned his back on God to live his own life -- first graduating from high school, then joining the Navy, then going to art school and finally working as an art director in New York and Seattle.

In 1977, things began to change.

"I realized I was on a spiritual search. I was searching for God but I didn't know it at the time," Camuso said. "I decided to get off the fence when I came to Seattle. I finally met someone who invited me to church. When I left Mass to go home, I felt uncomfortable but I knew I had to go back."

At 40, he wasn't married. He was hanging around with priests. He knew he needed to do something.

"We don't always know what our calling is 100 percent," Camuso said. "Now, looking back, I can say this is what I was meant to do, 100 percent."

He went to seminary school and became a priest. Now he serves as the pastor at St. Luke's Parish in Shoreline, where he looks after more than 1,000 Catholic families, mostly from the Richmond Beach area. He was assigned there in July after being in Lynnwood for three years.

During the height of the priest-sex abuse scandals, in the early part of this decade, Camuso said he felt troubled about the dark cloud overhanging the church.

At the time, he appeared on a Catholic television show. A producer who was a friend told him the television camera "really likes you but would you like to do a radio program?" Camuso said.

He declined at first, but agreed after she kept asking him during the next six months. He's been doing it ever since.

At a taping at KKNW studios in Bellevue last Monday, Camuso quizzed two Snohomish County teens about attending World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia with Pope Benedict XVI. The show is scheduled to air today.

During the interview, Camuso let the teens, Paul Dellino, 17, of Snohomish High School and Sam Mostovoy, 17, of Edmonds-Woodway describe their experience at a gathering of 500,000 Catholic youth.

He prompted them with questions to keep the pace of the show going.

Like an art director, Camuso carefully orchestrates his weekly radio broadcasts and the homilies he delivers at Mass with the precision he once used to create attention-grabbing ads.

"When I'm writing my homilies, I think, 'They could change the channel on me,'" he said. "I was so trained in that. When you're spending a million dollars on a 30-second commercial spot and you have to capture the attention of an audience in three seconds or less, you learn how to do that."

Diocese of Raleigh launches new vocations poster

Several months ago we began thinking about a theme for our new vocations poster. Providentially the process ended with the above poster. After many hours spent going through archives and cleaning up old pictures in photoshop and getting photos of our seminarians from Paul Tomas, I sent the images over to John D'Amelio with Fabrik Agency and we began crafting this year's poster. We're pretty thrilled with the outcome with the possible exception of the fact that we could certainly use more seminarians - but who couldn't? A slightly edited version of a forthcoming article which will explain the poster in the NC Catholics Magazine is below:

Tomorrow, the Diocese of Raleigh Office of Vocations will be mailing the 2008-2009 Diocesan Seminarians vocation poster to Parish Vocation Liaisons in parishes, missions and schools of the Diocese. This year’s poster, entitled “In the Footsteps of the Tarheel Apostles,” highlights not only the 16 men in formation for the Priesthood in the Diocese of Raleigh, but also the men in whose footsteps they follow. Most prominent on the poster is the Servant of God, Fr. Thomas Frederick Price, as a young seminarian for what was then the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina. Fr. Price was the first native North Carolinian ordained to the Priesthood and later became widely known as “The Tarheel Apostle” for his extraordinary missionary zeal. The handwritten text making up the background of the poster is from an actual letter Fr. Price wrote to Bishop Haid, O.S.B., the third Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, reporting his missionary activities in Eastern North Carolina and mentioning his correspondence with St. Katharine Drexel and her spiritual and financial support of several parishes and schools in the State.

Also featured on the poster is the Apostolic succession of Bishops who have shepherded Catholics in Eastern North Carolina, from Cardinal Gibbons, the First Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, to Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, the Fifth and current Bishop of Raleigh. Among the Bishops is a photo of a young Fr. Mark Gross, one of the first resident priests in Eastern North Carolina. Fr. Gross was personally responsible for bringing hundreds of people to the faith, and nurturing the faith and vocation of an even younger Thomas Frederick Price.

In the lower left of the poster is a group photo of the seminarians of the Diocese in 1954. The photo highlights not only the men whom today’s seminarians follow, but two prominent African American priests from the Diocese. Msgr. Thomas Hadden was the first black seminarian to attend the North American College in Rome and was the first African American ordained in Rome for the Priesthood in North Carolina in 1958. The following year, Bishop Joseph Lawson Howze was the second African American ordained to the Priesthood in the Diocese of Raleigh and later became the second black priest ordained a Bishop in the United States.

The Office of Vocations hopes the new poster will serve not only as a tool to promote more vocations to the Diocesan Priesthood, but also as an aid to begin teaching the rich history of Religious, Priests and Bishops serving Catholics in the State of North Carolina and the Diocese of Raleigh dating back to the early 1800’s.

Also available upon request is a poster version of a vocations ad that recently ran on the back of the NC Catholics magazine. The “No One is Born a Priest” ad features a young boy from St. Peter’s Church in Greenville, NC, who frequently pretends to celebrate Mass for family and friends. The photo used in the ad was actually taken by his mother on one of these occasions and serves to highlight the words of Pope Benedict XVI on the poster to the effect that religious or priestly vocations are a matter that should be explored and encouraged in families today.

Additionally, new vocations prayer cards with the names and pictures of Raleigh’s Seminarians will be distributed throughout the Diocese via Parish Vocations Liaisons. These too will be available upon request from the Office of Vocations.

New Society of Diocesan Priests

From their website:

The Apostles of Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim, is a new society of diocesan priests, founded in the Archdiocese of Chicago with the permission of Francis Cardinal George, whose charism is to sanctify its members through conformity to Christ crucified in a mission of shared charity.

Our fundamental mission is to save the greatest number of souls and to renew parish life according to the following specific means:

Reverently offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms, thus communicating the beauty and nobility of the Sacred Liturgy.

Zealously preaching and teaching in order to extend Christ’s universal Kingship.

Fostering sanctification of the family through the sacramental life and consecration to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Forming men in their vocation to natural and spiritual fatherhood, including priestly vocations, through devotion to St. Joseph.

In our mission to save souls, which we carry out in communion with the Pope and the Bishops, we offer our lives and sufferings daily in union with Jesus, High Priest and Victim, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and with Mary, our Mother in the Order of Grace.

"Seminarians get hands–on summer assignments"

From the Florida Catholic (St. Petersburg)
By Janet Shelton

College students home for summer break typically hang with friends or work jobs. Diocesan seminarians often spend their summer breaks serving without pay and hanging out in churches.
Summer continues a seminarian’s preparation for the priesthood. It’s a time when they learn firsthand what is involved in the service of a priest.

“I think it’s a great thing because it helps you learn what priests do, even though it’s during the summer and so a little more laid back,” said Brian Fabiszewski, a theology student at St. John Vianney College Seminary who is serving at St. Paul Parish in Tampa. “I’ve gotten a little snapshot of what their life is like.”

Because they live in the parish rectory, seminarians get a realistic view of life as a priest. They see how priests work to fit personal prayer and public service into an always-changing schedule filled with administrative and ministerial duties. They get to ask questions about real situations that simply have no parallel in the classroom.

“You’re kind of putting them out there on the front lines,” said diocesan Director of Vocations Father Len Plazewski.

Father Plazewski said the pastor hosting the seminarian has to be a good guide and the parish has to have a rectory with room for the seminarian. The parish also has to be active during the summer. Diocesan seminarians cannot spend summers in service until they have completed at least a year of theology. How they serve depends on their progression toward the priesthood. Seminarians never go to their home parish and often are sent to places that have no seminarians. That way, more people can learn about the process of a priest’s formation.
Having a seminarian around can be a boost to vocations. Young people considering the priesthood or religious life can feel more comfortable approaching seminarians than a priest.

“Parishioners come up and ask me what my first year was like, about classes, our daily activities, different things we’ve done. … There’s a lot of interest in the people here,” said Fabiszewski. “(A couple of altar servers) ask a lot of questions about the classes and the different experiences we have.”

Kyle Smith, a diocesan seminarian on his first summer assignment at Light of Christ Parish, Clearwater, said his biggest surprise of the summer is that priests really do serve 24 hours a day. Seminarians are told that, he said, but seeing it firsthand was a surprise.

“Just the constantness of the parish (surprised me),” he said. “I knew that, but it never encapsulated in my mind for some reason.”

A seminarian is exposed to many different experiences through his working summers. In his last summer assignment before ordination, transitional Deacon Carl “Buster” Melchior has served in a hospital, in parishes that are mostly elderly and in parishes with schools and a younger demographic. Because he is now ordained a deacon, his duties are closer to what he will do as a priest. Now serving at St. John Vianney Parish, St. Petersburg Beach, he performs baptisms and graveside services and wears a clergy collar.

Deacon Melchior said his summer assignments and in-parish service have been a great preparation for the priesthood. He has comforted those whose loved ones have died, prayed to find words of hope for those whose health is failing and encouraged young people to grow in the service of God in a world designed to pull them away.

But he added that all summer lessons do not relate to active ministry. These are times when the seminarian practices what he preaches on a practical and personal level. The men learn what it means to behave as priests.

“We’re public people and that’s something they kind of beat into our heads,” he said. “If we’re in a restaurant, we have to temper our conversation. … That’s not something you wake up one morning and say, ‘OK, I’ll temper my conversation.’”

Since coming to Light of Christ Parish in Clearwater in late May, Smith’s service has given him a broad look at ministry.

“I’ve done a wake, which was interesting,” he said. “I worked the vacation Bible school – taught third- and fourth-graders; they kept me busy. I’ve been working with youth ministry and young adult ministry and as a eucharistic minister.”

One of Smith’s most enlightening tasks has been bringing the Eucharist to elderly residents of a nearby nursing home. He said it has helped him better appreciate the ministry needs of people in the last stages of their lives.

Fabiszewski helps answer the phones in the parish office, serves at Mass and assists with funerals and weddings. He and other seminarians organized a diocesan candlelight vigil on the night Florida resumed its executions. He said St. Paul’s has shown him the needs of a large, active parish. His home parish, St. Catherine of Siena, is much smaller.

“I guess my favorite part is meeting the diverse number of people here,” he said. “The parish is just a great parish: very vibrant, active, just a lot of different cultures. It’s just been great meeting the people and interacting.”

One of the biggest lessons summer assignments bring seminarians may be perspective. Smith and Fabiszewski both realized that church ministries run through people who have many different ideas on how things should run, so it’s good to remember why everyone is there in the first place.

“I just learned even though there are a lot of differences, everybody is pretty much looking for the same thing when they come to church – which is getting to closer God,” Fabiszewski said. “I’ve been able to see that, up close. Everyone has different views and has their different devotions and everything, but pretty much everyone is looking for the same thing: to get closer to God and to find order in their life.”

Smith said: “It takes all types of people to run a parish and you need to be flexible and understand there are all sorts of personalities. … Everybody has different opinions on what the church needs to do. The purpose of the church is to (bring Christ to) every ministry – that’s basically the bottom line.”

"Seminarians immerse themselves in parish life"

Future priests learn to balance rigors of ministry, prayer life

From the Catholic Sun (Pheonix)
By Andrew Junker

CHANDLER — Deacon Will Schmid stood at the ambo in St. Mary Parish July 29 and preached.

It was the feast of St. Martha. She was a friend of Jesus who had Him over for a visit with her sister Mary.

While Martha busied herself preparing the home, Mary sat at Christ’s feet and listened to Him. Martha complained to Jesus, who said that Mary had chosen better in spending quiet and untroubled time with her Lord.

“As Americans, it’s really easy for us to identify with Martha,” Deacon Schmid said. “But there are times when we just need to put aside all the things we want to do or think we need to do and just be with Jesus.”

Balancing quotidian activity with time for contemplation is a struggle most Christians share. But the lesson of Martha and Mary is especially salient for seminarians like Deacon Schmid, who spend their summers at local parishes learning how to foster a strong prayer life amidst the sometimes-hectic schedule of a priest.

For Deacon Schmid — who is scheduled to be ordained next June — this is his fifth summer of parish work. He spent previous summers at St. Thomas the Apostle and St. Theresa parishes, as well as spending some time learning Spanish in Guatemala.

“I think it teaches you who the people of God are that you’re called to serve,” he said of the summers. “The seminary can give you good examples, but they can’t give it to you fully. It’s nice to be able to be at a parish and just get to know the people.”

Deacon Schmid has also been getting some on-the-job sacramental training from St. Mary’s priests. He’s baptized children, assisted at burials and led the vigils that happen the night before a funeral.

“It’s the opportunity to take what we’ve been learning at seminary and make it concrete — to live it so that it becomes part of who we are,” he said.

From learning to action

The years spent in the seminary prepare future priests in the finer points of philosophy and theology and give them ample time and structure to form their prayer lives.

But when they begin their priestly ministry, they’ll have to take what they’ve learned and apply it to real parishioners in all sorts of real situations, while at the same time maintaining a strong personal commitment to prayer.

Spending time with pastors who can manage both the parish office and the Divine Office — or Liturgy of the Hours — is the best kind of classroom for seminarians, said Fr. Paul Sullivan, assistant director of vocations.

“Firstly, it’s for their own spirituality. It gives them a sense of the prayer life amidst the work of the parish. Second, they get to see the work of the priest, the hospital visits, the Masses, the time spent hearing confession — just the daily schedule,” he said. “The third thing is that the parishes get to know the seminarians and the seminarians get to know the parishes.”

This last point struck Kurt Perera, who recently completed his first year at seminary. He spent his summer at St. Thomas the Apostle and got to know parishioners of all ages through his work with the parish’s vacation Bible school, youth group and assistance at Mass and funerals.

He’s also shadowed various staff members whose duties might include finance or sacramental preparation just to get a flavor of all that goes on in a day at a parish.

“I have come to see that it is a lot more than just praying and celebrating Mass and the sacraments each day, though those are very vital aspects and are at the core of the priesthood,” he said.

Brian Rollo agreed.

“You definitely have to have a sense of administration, to organize well, to be open to your staff so they feel like they can come to you,” Rollo said.

He’s also recently completed his first year of seminary training and is spending his summer at St. Anne Parish in Gilbert. He was impressed by how far ahead the pastor, Fr. Greg Schlarb, plans.

“There’s a lot more that goes on than I ever suspected,” he said. “It amazes me how much coordination is needed between everyone to make it go smoothly.”

That’s the kind of realization you just can’t get in the seminary, Fr. Sullivan said. The summers spent at local parishes can highlight the administrative duties of a diocesan priest, but they should also prepare the seminarian for his own responsibility toward prayer.

“You need to maintain your spiritual contact with Christ in the Eucharist despite the environment you’re in,” said Fr. Sullivan. “A spiritual life based on the Eucharist is not really an option.”

This can get played out in different ways, said Deacon Schmid. Some priests prefer to set aside prayer time in the morning, before Mass. Others like to end their days with a long visit with the Lord in adoration. Still others might slip away for an hour after lunch.

What’s important, he said, is that all the priests he’s worked with have recognized and imparted to him the absolute necessity of quiet prayer in the life of a priest. It’s what helps them grow in holiness and spiritual fatherhood, he said.

“People always ask seminarians, ‘Does it depress you at all knowing you’ll never have any children?’ And being at a parish reminds me how much a priest is such a spiritual father, to see the people as his children,” Deacon Schmid said. “That’s just a beautiful thing to me.”