Large religious events are events of grace for vocations.
Any contact that a religious has with a young person can be a “vocational moment,” says a Vatican bishop preparing for World Youth Day in Madrid.
Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told Catholic News Service recently that youths are “trying to sort it out,” and are thus open to consecrated life. Of course, follow-up with such youth is important, Archbishop Tobin said.
And the Vatican is stepping up its vocational efforts in connection with the event, which will be Aug. 16-21. For the first time at World Youth Day, 1,500 religious women under 35 will meet with Pope Benedict XVI. Read the article in the Baltimore Catholic Review.
Priests find vocations
Fr. Jim Heyd, of the Archdiocese of Chicago, is one such priest that I have known who traces his vocation to seeing the Pope in the United States. Many years ago, when Pope John Paul II came to Chicago, Fr. Heyd, then a young man seeking direction, came to the event, and through it, felt then that God was calling him to the priesthood. Years later as a priest, during the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, he shook hands with the Pope and wanted to tell him that he received his calling during the Chicago event. But I don’t think he could say much because of the crowd. Today Fr. Heyd is a fine priest who has served in pro-life ministries as well as a parish priest.
Another priest I know, a member of a religious order, met the mother of one of his future novices at the annual March for Life pro-life event in Washington, D.C. several years ago. While the man was not there, his mother was, and met the priest, and in their conversation she told him that her son was looking into various communities to become a priest. Today her son is in formation with the order.
