Discipleship is ground zero

Why does a man become a priest? Because he saw a clever poster that says, “Consider a White Collar Job”? Because someone gave him a brochure about priesthood? In God’s economy of grace, these things can help, but there is something deeper going on in the hearts of would-be seminarians.

A document about fostering priestly vocations released by the Vatican in 2012 titled “Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry” noted that “despite the organized and creative” promotion of priestly vocations, “the results obtained do not correspond to the efforts made.”

A well-reasoned article by Father Damien Ferrence expanded on this theme. Provocatively titled “Why Vocation Programs Don’t Work,” the piece challenges Catholics to re-think their approach to reaching young men about the priesthood. His logic is as follows: Millions of dollars have been spent by vocation offices with only mildly positive results…The root of our current vocation problem is a lack of discipleship, and therefore the remedy is to make more disciples…The best way to make disciples is personal witness, such as, the example of good spouses and good priests…Thus we need to re-evaluate every parish and diocesan program on the basis of what they do to create disciples.

The main point should be obvious—by and large, men only consider the priesthood after they establish an authentic relationship with Our Lord. Bishops, vocation directors and seminary rectors who read the autobiographies of seminarians corroborate this thesis repeatedly. Before seminary, these men had a conversion on a retreat; they fell in love with service on a mission trip; they had a profound encounter with Jesus during Mass one Sunday, etc.

Just as the first men who followed Jesus were attracted to him by sincere faith, so will be each generation of men who are called to follow him in the priesthood.

But the title of Father Ferrence’s article should not deflate the morale of those who do, in fact, help with programs to promote vocations. Rather, it should refocus our energies in the right direction.

Let us say, for example, that we help run a vocation essay contest for middle-school students. Topics in the past included, “What are your favorite things about Father Smith?” and “Why is a priest’s job so important?” To be sure, these are good topics that can get students thinking. But we should keep in mind the primacy of discipleship. Perhaps consider tweaking this year’s contest with a topic like, “Write a fictional story about a young man who encounters Jesus and decides to go to seminary.”

Yes, a simple vocation essay contest helps. Yes, we need vocation posters and prayer cards. Yes, we need to encourage prayer for vocations. In all these efforts, though, let us remember Jesus’ command, “Go and make disciples.”