So with all of your altar girls, what are you and your priests doing to foster vocations and a Catholic spirituality in young men? Anything? I certainly do not mean youth group or lifeteen.
What specific programs do you have for the young men and boys?
Let me guess...
Poor babies. I feel really sorry for the modernists who have gained NO ADHERENTS from the younger generation. Poor little babies...
Whatever you do, do not EVER address the content of the message. Just look for ways to pick one point apart which you determine to be the weakest. Don't ever address the real issues. "We have a priest shortage. We are overworked. Woe is me."
Boo hoo hoo... Go cry in your mother's milk. What a bunch of crybaby whimps.
The thing that works best is for priests to talk to young men who might be interested in the priesthood. I've talked to a couple in our parish, but they're not convinced the priesthood is not a haven for gays, and I can't reassure them to the contrary. They're taking a "wait-and-see" attitude while they get their college degrees. They also want to determine if lifelong celibacy is for them.
We've got four men in training for the permanent diaconate, however, all of whom I encouraged to check it out and consider it.
I have to chuckle when laymen come on here and dismiss the concerns of men who are actually IN the priesthood.
It's very easy to take shots at something you know nothing about.
"What specific programs do you have for the young men and boys?"
We will have our third annual altar servers' camp (Sorry, NO GIRLS ALLOWED!) for the Latin Mass this summer at the beach. We'll have three days of Masses, rubrics/Latin training, help from two or three priests and two or three seminarians, fun at the beach, and will top it off with a High Mass and then a priestly ordination on Saturday.
What specific programs do you have for your parish's young men and boys?
"So with all of your altar girls, what are you and your priests doing to foster vocations and a Catholic spirituality in young men?"
Good point. With all these girls and women now on the altar, this feminine atmosphere hardly encourages men to become priests.