By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

On May 11, I will ordain four young men to the priesthood at St. Mary Cathedral for the Archdiocese of Miami and on June 1, at Our Lady of Belen chapel, I will ordain another young man a priest for the Jesuits.

Five new priests is certainly good news — especially when there is much talk about a crisis of vocations to the priesthood. And here in the United States, where ordinations continued to be admittedly too few, and our priests are aging, we are rightly concerned.

While we joyfully celebrate those who will soon be ordained, we cannot, at the same time, deny that there is a crisis. But despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, the priest shortage is not the result of celibacy but of a crisis of faith and, in the ascendant secularism of our culture, the closing of the window of man’s mind to infinity or transcendence. Also, young Americans today, many of whom have suffered the consequences of the divorce of their parents, fear making any long-term commitments.

This fear of assuming risks in the face of an apparently uncertain future also accounts for the contemporary crisis in marriage today. In the West (North America and Western Europe), young people caught in a culture of instant gratification and fleeting interests are in no rush to marry, much less enter a seminary or convent. Today in the U.S. there are more adults not married or no longer married than there are married adults. So, we’re not lacking seminarians because young people are rushing to get married.

God does not cease to call – but sometimes the ambient noise can make it hard for the young today to hear the call.  All members of Christ’s faithful have an obligation to encourage vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Priests should not only invite young men to consider a vocation to the priesthood but also attract them by their priestly integrity and joy. Pope St. John Paul II once wrote to priests: “Particularly in the context of the new evangelization, the people have a right to turn to priests in the hope of ‘seeing’ Christ in them (cf. Jn 12:21). The young feel the need for this especially; Christ continues to call them, to make them his friends and to challenge some to give themselves completely for the sake of the Kingdom.

Vocations will certainly not be lacking if our manner of life is truly priestly, if we become more holy, more joyful, more impassioned in the exercise of our ministry. A priest ‘won’ by Christ (cf. Phil 3:12) more easily ‘wins’ others, so that they too decide to set out on the same adventure.” (Letter to priests for Holy Thursday 2005, #7)

Parents also should be willing to encourage their children if and when they wish to discern a vocation to priesthood or consecrated life. Vocations must be cultivated if the numbers are to grow. And that is a task for the entire Catholic community. And so, whenever you see a particularly promising youth, you should also encourage him or her to think about dedicating their lives to God’s service.

To quote Pope St. John Paul II again:  “...young people, whatever their possible ambiguities, have a profound longing for those genuine values which find their fullness in Christ...If Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an answer that is convincing and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the cross.” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, #9.)

A superficial knowledge of Christ — the fruit of an inadequate or faulty religious formation — is a formidable obstacle to fostering vocations. Whatever can foster in children and youth the authentic discovery of the person of Jesus and of the vital relationship with him will be beneficial to awakening vocations.

World Youth Days — on a global level — have done just that when Christ is presented “as he really is.” If we do that, then young people will be able to experience Jesus “as an answer that is convincing.

”Young people, whether in our parishes, campus ministries, schools, or religious education programs, can and will respond to God who does not fail to call — for he is not outdone in generosity. They will be able to overcome “their possible ambiguities” with the confidence that Christian hope inspires — if all of us members of Christ’s faithful continue to support the ordained ministry of our priests and if all of us support the young by introducing them to a personal and real relationship with Christ, a relationship that is nurtured with a solid catechesis and sacramental life.

For the desire to become a priest is nourished essentially from intimacy with the Lord, in a really personal relationship, which is expressed above all by the desire to be with him.