Dioceses call out for more priests

Put the CD-ROM into the computer and you're greeted by images of stained glass, heavenly music, and two video screens.

Click on the left screen, and the white-haired bishop of Trenton appears, smiling and beckoning. "I welcome you with an open heart as you begin your journey of discernment," Bishop John M. Smith says. Click on the right screen, and you meet the Rev. Mick Lambeth, the diocese's vocations director. He also makes a plea.

In person, Lambeth jokingly calls himself a "hound for heaven" who will walk right up to any young man in a Catholic high school jacket and ask: "Have you thought of becoming a priest?"

These are anxious times for most of the nation's 175 Catholic dioceses, where the supply of priests has plummeted 25 percent nationwide over four decades, even as the U.S. Catholic population has swelled by 30 percent. Most are resorting to some combination of mass media, the Internet and software to woo vocations.

In the Philadelphia Archdiocese - where about 20 priests die each year, and about five new priests are ordained - priestly vocations have become a "super priority," according to the Rev. Christopher Rogers, the archdiocese's vocations director.

This year's drive to raise awareness "is more ambitious than anything we've done in a while," Rogers said last week. There are nearly 1,000 active diocesan and religious-order priests in the archdiocese. In 1990, the archdiocese had about 1,200 such priests.

On Thursday, the archdiocese placed billboards on Interstates 95 and 76 featuring a smiling young man in a Roman collar.

"Some calls are meant to be answered," they read, and invite anyone who feels called - or merely intrigued - to visit the archdiocese's vocation Web site at www.heedthecall.org.

Those who do so are greeted by lively music, photos, profiles of "Philly" seminarians, and advice on how to discern a call to religious life.

"Priests are called to be a person for others," reads one section, which describes priesthood as an "awesome life . . . the life of Christ Jesus."

Local radio spots were spreading a similar message during last week's "vocations awareness week."

"Being a priest is exciting . . . intense . . . a very special calling," three priests of the Philadelphia Archdiocese said in commercials airing on news station KYW-AM (1060).

They were followed by Cardinal Justin Rigali calling "young Catholic men to consider a vocation to the priesthood," and inviting them to a special program Friday at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. The archdiocese said 200 people attended.

Not all who say yes come from devout Catholic families or from Catholic schools, said Rogers, the vocations director for Philadelphia.

"A lot of our seminarians come from broken families, but found something positive and nurturing in a youth group or parish" and feel at home in the church, he said.

For those who enter seminary right out of high school, the path to ordination typically takes eight years. They earn bachelor's degrees in philosophy after four years, followed by four years of theology and master's degrees. Summers are usually spent working in a rectory.

While the dioceses of Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton have all been obliged to close or consolidate parishes in the face of declining priest supply, none is predicting imminent doom.

"I do not expect, as far forward as we can look, that we'll have fewer priests than we have parishes," said Robert J. Miller, director of research and planning for the 1.5 million-member Philadelphia Archdiocese, which also includes Bucks, Delaware, Chester and Montgomery Counties.

"So we're looking better than a lot of the country. But we do have a whole lot fewer priests than we used to have, and they're getting older."

Typical of the local trend is the 500,000-member Camden Diocese, comprising the six southernmost counties of New Jersey. Slightly more than half of the diocese's 234 active priests are ages 60 and older.

Between 1960 and 1969, the diocese ordained 201 new priests and saw 15 die, spokesman Andrew Walton said last week. During the last decade, however, 85 died and just 32 were ordained.

"In 10 years, we'll have just half the number of active priests we have now," Walton said.

Like its neighbors, the Camden Diocese has a vocations link on its Web page. But throughout national vocations awareness week, which ends today, the Camden Diocese did not use mass media as did its big neighbor across the Delaware River.

"We're evaluating what has been done in the past, working to put in place new initiatives now and down the road," Walton said.

Much of that task falls to Sister Mary Ann, vocations director for the Camden Diocese. Appointed in September, she is one of just two female vocations directors in any of the nation's Catholic dioceses.

"From my limited experience, what comes to the forefront [when young people discuss entering religious life] is the idea of service," she said in an interview last week.

Many are unsure of what a priest does every day, apart from saying Mass, "so they don't exactly know what they're saying 'yes' to when they first approach," she said. "But they usually have a good idea of what they saying 'no' to: to a culture that values things like material possessions, status, influence and power."

The 750,000-member Diocese of Trenton invites young men to spend up to a year in residence at a parish before committing to seminary life.

"It gives me a proving ground for guys who are still not sure," said Lambeth, Trenton's vocation director. The diocese has 266 active priests.

Rogers, the vocations director in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, said religious life is "full of challenges and is sometimes difficult. But you get to meet people in a way that no one else does, in a very personal and deep level of their lives."

"You're with them at births, marriages, death, times of joy, times of loss, helping them to live their lives," he said. "And there's peace at the end of the day, knowing you're living the life God desires of you."

Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Members: about 1.5 million

Parishes: 270

Active diocesan and religious-order priests: 989

Seminarians: 41

For information about Catholic religious vocations: Contact the director of the vocation office for diocesan priesthood, the Rev. Christopher Rogers, at 610-667-5778 or visit www.heedthecall.org.

Diocese of Camden

Members: about 500,000

Parishes: 124

Active priests: 234

Seminarians: 15

For information about Catholic religious vocations: Contact the director of the vocation office, Sister Mary Ann, at 856-583-6170 or visit www.camdendiocese.org.

Diocese of Trenton

Members: about 750,000

Parishes: 117

Active priests: 266

Seminarians: 30

For information about Catholic religious vocations: Contact the director of the vocation office, the Rev. Mick Lambeth, at 609-393-2801 or visit www.dioceseoftrenton.org.

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