Vocations campaign hinges on power of inviting men to priesthood

Published: 2005-10-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new vocations campaign is being launched by the U.S. bishops with the idea that more men simply need to be invited to become priests by priests who are happy with their lives. Announced in Washington Oct.14, the program, called Priestly Life and Vocation Summit: Fishers of Men, is based on having dioceses and religious orders convene priests to discuss their vocations, emphasizing the positive aspects, and then encouraging them to invite other men to consider following them. Father Edward Burns, director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited a survey of the 2003 U.S. ordination class in which 78 percent of the men about to be ordained said a priest had invited them to consider the priesthood.

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