Four priests of the archdiocese recently conducted an informational program at the Catholic high schools in the Atlanta area on the subject of vocations to the priesthood. Fathers Jim Scherer, Paul Kelley, Jerry Hardy, and Tony Morris made their panel presentation at St. Pius, Marist, St. Joseph, and Drexel high schools. In each school, they spoke to the juniors and seniors in classroom—size groups.

The priests spoke of three different areas of the ministry and tried to present the work of the priest as they have actually experienced it. Reaction to the panel in all the schools was very favorable and encouraging. “They seemed to be genuinely interested at all the schools and we feel that we were able to convince them that the priest does a lot more from one Sunday to the next than just sit in the rectory,” one of the four priests said.

RETREAT

April 7, 8 and 9 are the dates for the first Role Call Retreat, a chance for any high school junior or senior, college freshman or sophomore to spend some time getting a closer look at the whole idea of a priest, his work, his role, his worth in the community.

Each priest spoke of a particular aspect of his work as a diocesan priest, Father Hardy spoke of the normal parish situation where the priest must function in several areas at once. He emphasized the freedom he has to engage in almost any work that he finds necessary and valuable. He also indicated the importance of the priest’s role as a counselor in dealing with people and their problems. “My aim in this is to enable people to deal more effectively with their own difficulties and to give them the support, encouragement, and guidance they need to do this,” he said.

Fr. Kelley and Fr. Scherer directed their attention to the areas of specialized concern in which the diocesan priest can become involved. Fr. Kelley spoke of the fields of inner-city work and education; he pointed out the important contributions that priests could make in these areas. At the same time he said this was one more instance of the individual priest’s freedom to engage in particular work. Fr. Scherer supported this point by indicating that his work as the director of Catholic Social Services was a development stemming from his interest in this area while he was in the seminary. He also talked of the various experiences he had had while doing postgraduate work in psychiatric social studies at the University of Georgia. Both he and Father Kelley spoke of the mission apostolate in northern Georgia where so much is yet to be done.

Father Morris spoke of the somewhat “extra-circular” involvement’s open to the alert and willing priest in the parish. He cited his own work in the firemen’s strike of last summer as well as a more recent involvement in the legislative action on the abortion and sterilization bills. “In each case,” he noted, “I was operating as a priest but on purely human principles and convictions of the rights and wrongs involved.’

This panel presentation of the priest and his work is part of the Archdiocesan Vocations Commission’s current effort to show the importance of the priesthood. In each of the schools, a representative of the Serra Club of Metropolitan Atlanta accompanied the panelists and spoke of Serra’s interest from the layman’s point of view, in the area of vocations to the priesthood.

“Following up the initial interest is our next step,” Fr. Hardy said, “ To do so, we have scheduled the Role Call Retreat for April 7, 8, 9—a chance to look into the role of the priest in more details. Also the retreat will give these young men an opportunity to think through their ideas on how they can best use their abilities in the future. Responses to the ‘Role Call’ idea has been so favorable that we have had to change our plans; the place originally secured for the weekend won’t be large enough.”

The retreat is limited to juniors and seniors in high school and first and second year college students. At present, between 15-20 young men have indicated an interest in pursuing these ideas further.”