My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We are celebrating National Vocations Awareness Week, which began Monday, January 8, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We, as a Diocese, certainly have some wonderful news about vocations this year. We hope to ordain ten new priests in the coming year. It will be our largest ordination class in a decade. While this is a great blessing and a sign of hope for our Diocese, we only expect to ordain three or four new priests, on average, over the next five years. This reminds us of the great need and challenge to continue to pray for, encourage, and promote an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

National Vocations Awareness Week takes place at this time of year because it always begins with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on and be aware of the vocation, or call, that we receive by virtue of our Baptism to follow Jesus as His disciples.

The New Evangelization calls each of us to participate in the building up of the Kingdom by sharing the Good News of salvation. We know that we can live out our baptismal vocation, the call to holiness, in many ways. Some discern that they are called to live out their vocation as a single person. Some of those in the single state discern a call to a “secular institute,” taking vows and living in community. Others in the single state live out their vocation in their work, as a volunteer in their parish or other service, by caring for family members and through a life of prayer.

Many of us who meet and work with young people as they begin to consider a vocation to the priesthood and religious life come to realize that the family plays a most crucial role. Those who are living their baptismal vocation as parents and grandparents, in addition to being their child’s first teachers, are also their first “vocation directors.”

In meeting the parents of our seminarians (and priests), it is very encouraging to see the way that so many of them are fully supportive and encouraging of their son’s decision to discern a vocation to the priesthood. Yet, it is a sad reality in our modern society and cultural context that there are good, Catholic parents who do not respond positively when their son or daughter tells them that they are considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. As we pray for an increase in vocations, we need to pray for families and parents especially, that they can truly be the “fertile ground” where vocations are nurtured.

Another piece of good (and challenging) news: this past fall, over the course of six weeks, more than 400 young people in our Diocese “logged on” to the Vocation section of our diocesan Web site. The Vocation Office ran an “iPod” contest in which young people answered questions about the people and music they listen to and the ways in which they can hear God’s call in their daily “listening.” If you would like to learn more about the contest, or vocations in general, I invite you to “log on” to our Vocation Office Web site at: www.dioceseofbrooklyn.org/vocations.

You can also contact our diocesan vocation director, Father Kevin Sweeney, by phone: (718) 399-5900, ext.5505, or e-mail: vocations@diobrook.org.

I ask for your prayers in a particular way for three other “vocation intentions.”

First, Msgr. Robert Thelen will succeed Bishop Octavio Cisneros as rector of our college seminary, Cathedral Residence of the Immaculate Conception in Douglaston, and as Director of Seminarians for all our diocesan seminarians.

Second, at my suggestion, and thanks to the support and collaboration of Father Donald Harrington, C.M., president, and the staff of St. John’s University, we are working on an extensive sociological research project, “Youth Culture and the Catholic Church: A Survey of Student Attitudes Towards Religious Vocations in New York City.” We hope that the results of this study will help us find a more effective way to present to our young people the idea and possibility of a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

Finally, we know that there are young men in our Diocese who are in college or working full time, but, at the same time, are seriously considering the possibility that Jesus could be calling them to the priesthood. Many of them are not yet ready or able to “leave everything behind” and enter the seminary. For this reason, it is our hope, in the very near future, possibly September of this year, to open a House of Discernment where young men can live, while working or attending college, in an atmosphere of prayer and discernment. Two priests would live in the house with, it is hoped, four to ten men. These “discerners” would learn what seminary and priestly living is all about and, after some time, be ready to apply for priestly studies or know that the Lord is leading them toward another vocation.

In the area of vocation recruitment we are continually putting out into the deep. I take this opportunity to thank Father Sweeney, the vocation director, for his hard work and innovative programs. I call your attention to his article this week in The Tablet. It will give you information and insights into the vocation situation in our Diocese. Please join me in praying for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

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