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On March 15, 1994, a virtual tsunami struck the Liturgy of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Antonio Ortas wrote a document to the Episcopal conferences announcing that the Vatican had, for the first time, permitted altar girls. Over 20 years later, many question the impact of this decision as the Church continues to reap a desperately meager harvest of young men responding to God’s call to the Priesthood.Born in 1997, I was blissfully unaware of the damage being wrought in the Eternal City. By the grace of God I was destined to remain ignorant of the fact for many years. Thinking...

Guiding Our Children to Discover Their Vocation Jessica Archuleta We all know there is a vocations crisis in the Church. We have a shortage of priests, deacons, and religious. Fewer people than ever want to get married or stay married (I would also add, there is a shortage of single people who are living out holy lives).To add to the problem, there is a lot of talk about discerning one’s vocation that can be confusing to young people. Some are waiting for a sign–some great experience that will leave them without a doubt as to God’s calling in their lives. Others feel they must follow a...

The Treasure of Singleness Tyler Blanski It can be difficult to be a single Christian. I remember watching as one by one my friends would marry, start families, and settle down. The cards would come just before Christmas with news of another baby or a new home, and I would set them on the table in my empty apartment and sigh. As a Christian, my newsfeed was like one long drawn out toast to holy matrimony, and I was getting tired of holding up my glass. The Kingdom of God is like a wedding feast, and the baptized faithful had so...

Pope Francis' Message for the Year of Consecrated Life "So I invite every Christian community to experience this Year above all as a moment of thanksgiving to the Lord and grateful remembrance for all the gifts we continue to receive" Vatican City, November 29, 2014 (Zenit.org) | 414 hits Here is the Vatican-provided translation of Pope Francis' message for the Year of Consecrated Life which begins tonight, with the vigil for the first Sunday of Advent. * * *Dear Brothers and Sisters in Consecrated Life,I am writing to you as the Successor of Peter, to whom the Lord entrusted the...

Floods of tears; ecstatic, frankly romantic visions of Jesus; low points and high drama — you’re either reading St. Therese’s autobiography “The Story of a Soul” or you’re watching “The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns.”Of course, one of these is a classic work of spirituality by a Doctor of the Church, and the other is a Lifetime reality show (premiering Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT), but they’re both the stories of emotional, expressive young women dealing with the notion of becoming a Bride of Christ.Granted, Therese would never have done anything like “twerking,” as does one of the five young...

Featured Term (selected at random:BROTHERS' INSTITUTES Religious institutes of men whose members are either entirely or mainly brothers who are not and do not intend to be ordained. There are more than forty such institutes of pontifical status in the Catholic Church. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

When I say this is a prophecy I don’t want to suggest that I have had some sort of supernatural vision. This is not a prophecy in that sense, but a prophecy because prophets not only sometimes have supernatural revelations, but they are people who are also able to see the big picture, understand the times and circumstances and know the past so they can therefore predict the future.So here is my prediction: the vocations crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States is over.Here’s why: Fifty years after the revolution of the Second Vatican Council we are moving...

In education circles, universal preschool is hot. But it’s only half the answer. If we really want to raise a generation of employable kids, we need universal 13th and 14th grades too. As taxpayers, we’ve decided to subsidize the education of every American child between the ages of 5 and 18. But current education funding structures reflect a bygone industrial age, when a high school diploma met or in some cases exceeded the needs of the local and national economies. Now, neither preschool nor college is a luxury, and families shouldn’t have to pay for the schooling that keeps society...

Santiago, Chile, Aug 16, 2013 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two twin brothers in Chile say that their mother’s determination in protecting them from abortion despite the advice of doctors helped to foster their vocations to the priesthood. “How can I not defend the God of life?” said Fr. Paulo Lizama. “This event strengthened my vocation and gave it a specific vitality, and therefore, I was able to give myself existentially to what I believe.” “I am convinced of what I believe, of what I am and of what I speak, clearly by the grace of God,” he told CNA....

    Like many Catholic fathers, I often pray that if my boys have vocations to the priesthood, they accept their callings.  Sadly, as Jesus told us, many do not.  The corollary to my prayer is the additional plea that I be given the graces to properly assist them along their way.  There are some obvious ways to do that: talk about my (very imperfect) love of God, pray with them, and take them to liturgy and the sacraments.  But I also believe that part of that grace is the ability to explain the priesthood in a positive and encouraging...

7/27/11 | So you want to be a nun? What to do when you feel called to the convent   By Katie Bahr | Catholic Herald   Courtesy Photo Women in discernment speak with Nashville Dominican sisters during a retreat at the order's motherhouse in Tennessee.     Maybe you’re losing sleep over it. Or there’s a nagging feeling in the back of your mind every time you watch “The Sound of Music.” Or perhaps you simply feel called to live out your faith in a deeper way and are curious about what life is like for those women...

At the Bottom of this post is an encouraging excerpt taken from a video, The Catholic Priest Today, produced by the Cresta Group. In it we are reminded once again of the resiliency of the Church, and that the Holy Spirit can make a way out of no way. From a worldly perspective one would expect vocations to the priesthood to take a real hit in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal. Yet in many, if not most dioceses, vocations are up, or at least steady. One of the seminarians in the film clip says, “I want to get...

Amazing but true. Details: There aren’t a whole lot of priests in the Latin Church with two grown sons, but the Archdiocese of Seattle’s newest priest, Father Mark Kiszelewski, is one of those few. He was ordained to the priesthood June 8 by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain at St. James Cathedral.From an early age, Father Kiszelewski, now 58, felt a tug toward the priesthood, but his path to ordination was obviously not a direct one.From seminary to ‘real world’Growing up in Merrick, N.Y., he admired the priests at Cure of Ars Parish, where he also attended the parish school.“I oftentimes...

As I noted in a previous post (see here), the Diocese of Worcester has some sort of animus against men who feel called to the priesthood but who accept, promote and defend the Church's Magisterial teaching. There really is no denying this. Candidates such as Jonathan Joseph Slavinskas are entirely welcome within the diocese (see here), but I am not permitted to even apply as part of a discernment process. This is most unfortunate. Dr. Germain Grisez explains that, "Since the ordained priesthood and diaconate provide the necessary ministries of the word and sacraments to the whole Church, every member...

The average age of men in the USA ordained to the priesthood in 2013 is 32; (on average over the past six years seminarians have been getting slightly younger) two-thirds are Caucasian, and 26 percent carry educational debt.These figures stand out in The Class of 2013: Survey of Ordinands to the Priesthood, the annual national survey of men being ordained priests for US dioceses and religious communities. The study was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Georgetown University-based research center.The report is the 17th annual survey of ordinands commissioned by the Secretariat for Clergy,...

Church in U.S. Set for Annual Week to Focus on Vocations Study Suggests 600,000 Youth Have Considered Religious Vocation WASHINGTON, D.C., January 10, 2013 (Zenit.org). The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week this coming week, beginning with Sunday's Masses.The annual event calls parishes to consider their role in promoting the role of priests, deacons and men and women religious and consecrated persons. "National Vocation Awareness Week gives dioceses and parishes across the country a chance to promote vocations through prayer and education," said Archbishop Robert Carlson, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life...

From Speed Skating to Religious Life Former Olympian on the Call to Join Franciscan Order By Ann SchneibleLONDON, JULY 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).- With the London summer Olympics commencing today, a former Olympian – now a sister with the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal in Leeds, England – shared with ZENIT her journey toward answering the call to the religious life.For CFR Sister Catherine Mary of the Holy Trinity the Olympics were a family affair. The Wisconsin native -- whose legal name is Kirstin Holum -- is the daughter of Dianne Holum, who gained international fame by becoming the first...

Religious women at World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain. Washington D.C., Apr 11, 2012 / 04:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A recent study of men and women who professed perpetual vows in 2011 shows that new members of religious orders are younger and more educated than those in the past. “We are encouraged by the report’s findings that men and women are considering a vocation at a younger age,” said Mercy Sister Mary Joanna Ruhland, associate director of the U.S. bishops’ secretariat of vocations and consecrated life.“As the Catholics recognize their responsibility to build a vocation culture in its...

Number of Priests Worldwide Continues Steady Increase While Women Religious Fewer in Number VATICAN CITY, MARCH 12, 2012 (Zenit.org).- On Saturday, Benedict XVI's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, presented the Holy Father with the 2012 edition of the "Annuario Pontificio" or pontifical yearbook, and the "Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae". A note concerning the presentation highlights some of the facts contained in the new edition. In 2011, the Pope erected eight new episcopal sees, one personal ordinariate and one military ordinariate. One archdiocese and eight dioceses were elevated to the rank of metropolitan see; one prelature, one apostolic vicariate and one apostolic...

Pope Benedict XVI Vatican City, Jan 15, 2012 / 11:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized need for good spiritual counsel for those who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. “I would like to emphasize the critical role of spiritual guidance in the journey of faith and, in particular, in response to the vocation of special consecration for the service of God and his people,” the Pope said during his Jan. 15 Sunday Angelus address.“God’s call to follow Jesus more closely, giving up forming their own family to dedicate themselves to the great...