THE TABLET, DECEMBER 10, 2005

UPDATE ON PRIESTLY VOCATIONS

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Vocations are a top priority for my episcopal ministry in the Diocese of Brooklyn. When we look at our needs as a Church, we see that vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are critical to our future. We cannot carry out the New Evangelization without those who will give their lives completely to the service of the Church.

I am happy to give an update on the situation in regard to priestly vocations as we find them now in our Diocese. We have a total of 40 seminarians: 19 philosophers, that is, those who are completing their college work (most live at the Cathedral Seminary Residence in Douglaston, although one is enrolled at the Theological College at Catholic University in Washington in the Basselin Philosophy Program); two pre-theologians taking required courses in philosophy preparing them for entrance into the major seminary, and 19 theologians completing four or five years of theological preparation for ordination to the priesthood. Our theologians are divided among the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, where 14 are in residence, and five at the North American College in Rome.

This year we also have two new seminarians that come to us from the Neo-Catechumenal Way, a new ecclesial movement that had early U.S. roots here in the Diocese of Brooklyn. A lay movement with representatives in six local parishes, it concentrates its attention on catechesis and a lively worship style, focusing on bringing non-practicing Catholics back to the faith and sustaining the families who are practicing the faith.

Through a special request, I have asked the International Neo-Catechumenal Movement for two seminarians who would be incardinated into the Diocese of Brooklyn upon their ordination to the diaconate. These two seminarians---one born in Italy to a family on mission here in the United States and the other a native of El Salvador---are currently studying at the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary in the Archdiocese of Newark. Since the Neo-Catechumenal Movement has a separate formation program, the seminarians will continue there until they are prepared for ordination, at which time they will be incardinated into the Diocese of Brooklyn and assigned here. Perhaps at some point they will be assigned as missionaries as part of the Neo-Catechumenal Way. Both are fluent in Spanish and one also in Italian. This opportunity to have seminarians that eventually can serve the Neo-Catechumenal Way in our Diocese is a wonderful one.

I am happy to announce that on December 8, Wladislaw Kubrak was ordained a deacon for the Diocese of Brooklyn, and he will be joined, God willing, for priestly ordination in late spring and early summer with Deacon Robert Keighron who received diaconate on October 6 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. This year, we will have two priestly ordinations, one for Wladislaw on June 3 and the other for Robert on July 1.

I ask you to pray for Father Kevin Sweeney, director of our Vocation Office, and the others associated with him, that they may continually be instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit, issuing calls to those who might serve the Lord and His Church, especially here in Brooklyn and Queens.

As I have said many times, the work of promoting vocations is a work of the Spirit. Only the Spirit can inspire those who have received a vocation to respond. We have celebrated this past week the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady and we will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Monday. Please join me each day in the recitation of the Prayer for Vocations. As I state in that prayer, which I composed, we must put out into the deep, searching for laborers for the vineyard. Take this opportunity to seek Mary's intercession for an increase in vocations.