Jerry Usher's blog

(Posted by guest blogger Dr. Matthew Bunson)

For those who may not be familiar with it, the Annuario Pontificio, or Pontifical Yearbook, is an annual publication of the Central Office of Church Statistics in the Vatican that offers remarkable details on the Holy See, the Roman Curia (or central government of the Church), bishops and dioceses all around the world, and even a listing of every monsignor currently in service. For those of us who follow the Church’s bureaucratic life, it is one of the year’s must have books, along with the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae, the statistical book published every year by the Vatican Secretariat of State, that crunches the Catholic numbers for literally every region and country in the world.

The Annuario for 2010 was just published, and while you may be wondering what this has to do with vocations, the answer is quite a bit actually.

First, the Annuario for 2010 tells us that the number of Catholics has increased worldwide, (up 1.7%) to 1.166 billion baptized Catholics worldwide; there is also an increase in the percentage of Catholics who make up the global population (from 17.33% to 17.40%). 

And here is the really relevant part: There was a slight increase (around 1% between 2000 and 2008) in the number of diocesan and religious priests, from 405,178 in 2000 to 409,166 in 2008.

Europe still has the most priests; nearly half of the world’s priests serve there (47.1%), followed by the Americas (30%), Asia (13.2%), Africa (8.7%), and then Oceania (1.2%).

This is essentially unchanged from the previous years, but what is important to note is that the percentage in Europe has declined from 51.5% to 47.1%, while the percentages have increased in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This is not a big surprise as we have been hearing for years about the overall drop in the numbers of priests from Europe, just as we have seen similar declines in North America compared to Latin America. This has as much to do with the demographic deterioration of Western Europe as anything else, although vocations to the priesthood are still remarkably healthy in Eastern Europe.

The really good news, however, is the world’s numbers of candidates for the priesthood. We have heard about and even seen slight upticks in the number of new seminarians over the last years, but the 2010 Annuario helps to confirm the increase. It may not seem a huge bump (rising from 115,919 in 2007 to 117,024 in 2008, or an increase of 1%), but it demonstrates that the new vocations that are exploding in such areas as Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe are now overcoming the declines in Western Europe and North America. In the United States, of course, vocations are also on the rise (again, not by leaps and bounds, but slowly and visibly), but we have a long way to go. Overall, there are increased vocations in Africa (3.6%), Asia (4.4%), and Oceania (up 6.5%), while declines were recorded in Europe (down 4.3%). In the Americas collectively, the numbers have stayed about the same.

The 2010 Annuario brings great news for all of us, and it is a useful reminder that the Church’s vital enterprise of fostering new vocations must be looked at globally.

Which brings me to the remarkable speech I wanted to mention by the papal nuncio (or ambassador) to the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi. For those not familiar with him, Archbishop Sambi is a long-time Vatican diplomat who has served all over the world, including as the papal representative to Israel. He was named nuncio to the U.S. in 2005.

On September 28^th last year, Archbishop Sambi gave an address to the 46th annual National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors (NCDVD). His speech was memorable and worth studying both this month and next. The nuncio places the responsibility for fostering vocations squarely within the context of the Church. He declared, “It is true that the priestly vocation is a mysterious gift. It is a gift from God; it is a gift to the Church.” He then quoted Pope John Paul II’s famed Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis:

The Church therefore is called to safeguard this gift, to esteem it, and love it. She is responsible for the birth and the development of priestly vocations. Consequently, the pastoral work of promoting vocations has as its active agents, as its protagonists, the ecclesial community as such, in its various expressions.

The Archbishop extended his thoughts to the opportunity we have to foster vocations in our daily lives. While he was speaking to vocation directors, his words are very germane to all of us:

I am deeply convinced that today like yesterday the Lord gives the needed vocation to his church. Maybe today differently from yesterday it’s changing the way to discover vocations and to propose in the name of Jesus Christ vocation to the youth today…Many young people of today, they don’t know what to do with their life. They suffer a great sense of emptiness. They are terribly unsure about their future. Don’t be ashamed to call people openly to priesthood or to religious vocation in the name of Jesus Christ. This is a small problem that I can understand that can deceive you and your enthusiasm…If you love your priesthood, if you love your priesthood, you want to speak about your love. You don’t speak about what you don’t love. But if you love your vocation, you speak with even enthusiasm of your vocation. So before saying there are no vocations today, try to convince yourself and to convince the priests of your diocese to speak more frequently and more openly about vocation today.

Archbishop Sambi noted that there are six areas in the Church named in Pastores Dabo Vobis that are responsible for fostering vocations: the bishop, the presbyterate, the Christian family, the lay faithful, groups, movements, and associations of lay faithful, and diocesan and parish communities. Archbishop Sambi placed particular stress on the family, declaring, “A very special responsibility falls upon the Christian family, which by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony shares in its own unique way in the educational mission of the Church - teacher and mother…. The Christian family, which is truly a ‘domestic Church’ has always offered and continues to offer favorable conditions for the birth of vocations.”

In effect, the job for fostering vocations is not only the responsibility of bishop, priests, and vocation directors. It is a task for all of us. And reading the newest Annuario Pontificio, it is a universal task as well.

Next month, I will look at Archbishop Sambi’s meditation on the vocation of the young Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II.

Links: Pastores Dabo Vobis  Archbishop Sambi’s Address

Like most of those who choose to seriously discern a call to the priesthood, I remember well the interior tug-of-war I went through before taking that giant leap and entering the official formation process. One of the biggest obstacles for me was the choice to leave the most enjoyable job I had ever had up to that point in my life, one that I believed would take me on a professional path that would prove to be both fruitful and satisfying in the long run.

But as much as I have always loved sports, and wished with all my heart growing up that I would eventually make it to the “big time,” that prospect was not at all part of the picture in my situation.

For Grant Desme, however, that’s precisely what he is walking away from in order to enter priestly formation with the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael’s Abbey in Southern California. Desme, a second-round draft choice of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics in 2007, was considered one of the organization’s top young prospects, meaning that he had an excellent chance of making it to the big leagues, which, of course, is the highest level a baseball player can attain.

Instead, he has opted to pursue what is referred to as the Church’s “highest objective calling,” the Catholic priesthood. His decision manifests a triumph of God’s grace over the longings of the human heart. I’m sure Grant would say he’s only doing what he believes God is calling him to do. And that’s what’s most important with a choice like this. But it still sends a powerful message to both the world and to other young men who are grappling with giving up their own dreams and aspirations.

As for the “world,” there are countless people who are already saying, “What a waste!” But that just shows a lack of understanding of God’s ways, and of what the priesthood is all about.

When it comes to young men who will learn of Grant’s decision, the message will be just the opposite. They’ll immediately think, “If he can walk away from potential Major League stardom – not to mention potential piles of money – then what can possibly keep me from saying “Yes” to God and getting started on my own journey toward the priesthood?”

At the end of the day, nothing matters more than doing the will of God. And while, as Paul Harvey used to say, “The rest of the story” remains to unfold, Grant Desme’s decision to leave baseball behind to pursue a vocation to the priesthood should inspire many young men to follow in his footsteps. It’s a story not unlike that of Mother Dolores Hart, the famous actress who in the 1960s left the bright lights of Hollywood behind to become a nun.

For some people, God matters more than fame and fortune. Let us keep Grant Desme in our prayers.

(Posted by guest blogger Dr. Matthew Bunson)

Last month, I promised to talk about a recent journey I made to Pennsylvania. I have the privilege of serving on the Historical Commission investigating the life of Servant of God, the Reverend Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin (1770 – 1840) as part of the Cause of Canonization that was started some years ago by Bishop Joseph Adamec, the Bishop Altoona-Johnstown. I was in town for meetings, and the bishop asked me to give a talk to one of the local Catholic High Schools. The topic was Gallitzin.

For those unfamiliar with his remarkable story…

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin devoted forty years of his life to establishing the Church in Western Pennsylvania. Born in The Hague, Holland, he was the son of the Russian Prince and was baptized in the Orthodox Church; Empress Catherine the Great of Russia was his godmother. Under the influence of his mother, Demetrius entered the Catholic Church in 1787. While his father expected him to be a diplomat or a soldier, Demetrius had other ideas. He set sail for the United States, reached Baltimore, Maryland, on October 28, 1792 and presented himself to an understandably astonished Bishop John Carroll with the request that he be permitted to enter the seminary.

After studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, Prince Gallitzin was ordained a priest on March 18, 1795. He was the first priest to receive all his preparation for the priesthood and orders in the United States. In 1796, he was asked to make an emergency visit to the Allegheny Mountains to deliver the last rites to a Catholic in Capt. Michael McGuire’s settlement in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. The visit proved a significant one, for Father Gallitzin recognized the immense pastoral opportunities and needs in the region and went so far as to buy land there with the long-range objective of forging a true Catholic community in the mountains.  After several years of petitioning Bishop Carroll, Father Gallitzin was at last granted permission to serve as pastor in western Pennsylvania. Using thousands of dollars of his own money, Father Gallitzin built a church at what came to be known as Loretto, Pennsylvania and celebrated his first Mass there on Christmas Day, 1799.

For the next forty years, he served with great distinction as pastor over virtually the whole of Western Pennsylvania. Along the way, he lost his princely inheritance, braved blizzards and disease, stared down Protestant critics, and even struggled with his sometime unruly flock in the mountains. Above all, he sacrificed the companionship of those trained and raised in European culture. He spoke multiple languages and knew art, literature, philosophy, and music and thus had little opportunity to enjoy culture and the arts.  In the end, he died as he lived, celebrating Mass and spreading the truths of the Catholic faith in a wild land far from his birthplace and family.

The life of Demetrius Gallitzin is intriguing in itself, but it is especially interesting in light of National Vocations Week.

As many have written over the years (myself included), the path to ordination – or the religious life – is not always a straight or even an easy one. Demetrius Gallitzin was hardly a likely candidate to become a missionary in the wilderness of America. He could have stayed in Europe and likely would have become a bishop. Instead, when he heard Christ’s call, he did not try to answer it on his terms.

Which brings me back to the high school in Altoona. I told the students about Gallitzin, but I also reminded them about the adventure that could await them if they, like Gallitzin, give a yes to Christ. We all are called to a vocation, be it the priesthood, religious life, marriage, or single life. The key is accepting that God should be the one doing the driving. When we let that happen, we truly are setting out on an adventure beyond anything we might have imagined.

My blog this month ends with the marvelous words of the new bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Bishop Kevin Rhoades who was installed a few days ago at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on a crisp afternoon in Fort Wayne. Reflecting on being called by Christ, he chose for the Gospel reading at his installation Mark’s account of Christ calling the Apostles (1:14-20):

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” 16 And passing along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him.19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zeb'edee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them; and they left their father Zeb'edee in the boat with the hired servants, and followed him.

The Bishop declared in his homily:

During these past few weeks of preparation for this day, my thoughts during prayer have centered on the scene of today's Gospel: fishermen casting and mending their nets along the Sea of Galilee. They were ordinary men, busy with their daily work, but suddenly their lives changed. They met Jesus of Nazareth who said to them: “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” The two sets of brothers, Simon and Andrew, and James and John, allowed themselves “to be won over by (Jesus’) gaze, his voice, his warm and strong invitation” (Pope Benedict XVI). They left their work, their livelihood, and their families to begin a new life in communion with Christ. Their adventure as fishers of men, as apostles, thus began. They would become intimately involved in our Lord's mission of proclaiming the Gospel of God. The Church would be built on the foundation of these four men and the other apostles whom Jesus called to be fishers of men.

Next month, I will talk about a memorable speech given by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Yours in Christ,
Matthew Bunson

This week is National Vocation Awareness Week, the period set aside each year by the Church to increase the visibility and appreciation of Church vocations. At Vocation Boom!, we’re blessed to be able to offer our contribution to this special week by airing the first series of radio shows that are part of the Vocation Boom! Road Show.

All this week on Catholic radio stations across the United States, I’ll be hosting either live or pre-recorded shows that will feature bishops, priests, vocation directors, seminarians and their family members, and laypeople who are all as passionate as we are at Vocation Boom! about promoting vocations to the priesthood.

While National Vocation Awareness Week is designed to focus on all the different vocations within the Church, Vocation Boom!’s specific mission is to work for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. And if our week of radio shows is any indication, the future of priestly vocations is very bright.

My guests will include:

• Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul–Minneapolis
• Msgr. Eugene Morris of the Archdiocese of St. Louis
• Fr. Eric Andersen, a newly-ordained priest in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and his mother, Sharon, who will give us her perspective on having a son who’s a priest
• Tom Hickey, a father and grandfather, and a former Protestant minister and missionary studying at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, who will be ordained a Catholic priest in May
• Fr. David Toups, Associate Director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations
• Two young men just out of high school who are in formation at Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit
• And many more

The Vocation Boom! Road Show will air at various times around the country. If you’re not sure whether there’s a Catholic radio station in your area, you can check here. The shows will air Monday through Friday from 5-6 p.m. Central Time on Relevant Radio, including live broadcasts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Each new year brings new opportunities and new resolutions. Please make one of your resolutions be to encourage the young men you know to consider a vocation to the priesthood. And if you would be so kind, please also consider supporting the work of Vocation Boom! by making a financial contribution which will be used to help us continue our mission.

God bless!
Jerry Usher

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