Vocations ministry should focus on individual, U.S. priest says

Published: 2003-10-08

DUNDRUM, Ireland (CNS) -- A new model for vocations ministry should focus on discernment, not recruitment, a U.S. priest told an Irish conference on vocations. Father Dave Hulshof, former president of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocations Directors in the United States, was keynote speaker at the workshop for vocations personnel from 20 Irish dioceses in Dundrum Oct. 6-9. Father Hulshof was in Ireland to share insights gained at the Third Continental Congress on Vocations to Ordained Ministry and Consecrated Life in North America held in Montreal in 2002. "We have moved from a model of vocation ministry that has been geared toward recruitment to one that acknowledges our place as vocations directors in the longer journey with candidates, offering skills and opportunities for discernment, prayer," Father Hulshof said Oct. 6.

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