All In: Breaking Barriers to Discerning the Priesthood

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

What do you want to be when you grow up? If you think back to your childhood, you can probably remember being asked the career question by family, friends, and teachers. People are asked the career question hundreds of times throughout their childhood and adolescence. Most children are full of enthusiasm when they describe their dreams of becoming a professional basketball player, an astronaut, the President of the United States, or a Jedi Knight. Indeed, childhood is a time to dream big. We have tried moving objects with our minds. Unfortunately, the Force does not work like it does in the movies.

By the time adolescence strikes, some of the glimmer and enthusiasm of our younger years wanes. Our minds often shift toward more practical careers. As young adults, our attention turns from President to accountant, Jedi Knight to engineer, and from professional basketball player to lawyer. When we think we finally have it figured out, life happens. The world is quick to help us fall back into questioning whether we picked the right career. Let’s fill you in on a little secret: figuring out what you want to do with your life is bigger than picking a career. We are meant to dream, to set big goals, and to explore the wonders of uncertainty. Our exploration is supposed to go beyond discovering what will provide us with money to pay the bills.

This idea is not new. In the early 1900s, a man named Frank Parsons helped immigrants in the United States find work. His passion led to the establishment of the first Vocational Bureau in 1908, and his influential work, On Choosing a Vocation, was published in 1909. The title of the book does not contain the word career or job but vocation. Parsons always believed that choosing a vocation meant much more than picking a job. A job pays the bills in exchange for a service that you provide. Someone with a job may say, I work from 9 to 5. I clock in and clock out. That is the essence of paid employment. On the other hand, a vocation is something much deeper. It requires reflecting on your interests, strengths, values, and abilities. A vocation is intended to provide purpose and meaning to your life. Someone who lives his vocation may say, "I enjoy what I do so much, I have never really worked a day in my life."

Vocation has special meaning in the Catholic Church. Catholics believe that God plays a key role in helping people think about, identify, and commit to their vocation (USCCB, 2017). Choosing a vocation does not just include considering what you want to do, but also what God wants you to do. We believe that people find ultimate happiness and purpose in their lives when they commit to a vocation that integrates both their desires and God’s desires for them. Matching our desires with God’s desires for us is ideal, but it can be extremely challenging as well. There are thousands of examples of people who, upon learning of God’s desires for them, have replied with a thanks but no thanks. The thanks but no thanks impulse occurs in most men when the idea of the priesthood slowly enters their minds. Whether they hear this calling in prayer, or someone from church says, I think you would make a great priest, they often respond with a resounding No way!

WHAT IS A CATHOLIC PRIEST?

A Catholic priest is an ordained minister within the Catholic Church. Catholic priests administer the sacraments, run parishes, and are responsible for the spiritual life of their parishioners. This basic description is something you might find in a Religion 101 textbook. Yet, priests are so much more. Their role in the Catholic Church and people’s lives is almost beyond description.

Priests represent God to the people. They become intimately involved in people’s lives at their highest and lowest points in life. Priests are present in experiences of deep despair and grief like funerals and celebrate the most joyous occasions like weddings and baptisms. As Pope Francis says, a priest is meant to get his hands dirty while working closely with people in the messiness of their lives. Of course, dirty is not meant literally but metaphorically to emphasize the intimate, difficult, and indispensable relationship between priests and people. Try to imagine the immense responsibility and awesomeness that comes with being a priest.

The life of a priest offers such a wide array of powerful experiences that some or all of these aspects must seem appealing to you. You may have thought of a priest from your life who has made a lasting and positive impact on you. Some part of you may be thinking of becoming a priest as well. If you are thinking of becoming a priest, our simple response is give it a try. We recognize that it is too simple of a response. We have helped numerous men decide what they want to pursue with their lives. It is a complicated, tough decision. The reality is that there are so many reasons not to be a priest.

DON’T DO IT!

For all the amazing life experiences that come with being a priest, there are many reasons not to be a priest. Let’s identify some of the more common reasons why you may say to yourself, Yeah, the priesthood is great and all, but not for me.

First, Catholic priests don’t make a lot of money. In our culture, people often view money as a sign of power, respect, and success. Men are usually expected to be providers, and men who fail to provide for others can be viewed as lazy, unsuccessful, or less valuable. A common phrase is, "Here is the real Golden Rule. . . the one with the gold makes the rules." The point is well known and well taken. Money brings power, prestige, and respect, which almost everyone desires on a basic level. You’ll learn this message a lot throughout the book—the priesthood is very countercultural. Priests are definitely countercultural when it comes to money.

Priests who belong to a religious order such as the Jesuits, Franciscans, or Servants of the Christ Jesus take a vow of poverty. A vow of poverty is pretty significant. Let’s look at one example. The Servants of the Christ Jesus are a new religious order of priests in Denver, Colorado. They keep two to three uniforms for their clothing, two pairs of sandals, and budget $1 per person, per meal. Yes, $1 per meal sounds impossible. On the other hand, diocesan priests aren’t part of a religious order; you typically encounter them at your local parish. Diocesan priests don’t take a vow of poverty but are expected to live a simple life. A promise of simplicity means that a diocesan priest can still buy a smartphone and have other possessions. Each diocesan priest has the freedom to live as simply as he chooses.

For example, St. John Paul the Great was a diocesan priest in Poland before becoming pope. In the pope’s biography, George Weigel describes St. John Paul’s early years as a young parish priest in Poland. According to Weigel, St. John Paul could fit all his possessions in one suitcase, which he took with him when he was transferred from parish to parish. All of your possessions in one suitcase is pretty extreme. Of course, not all priests live as simply as St. John Paul. We have helped a few priests move and can say that some priests have a lot of stuff, just like everyone else. Some diocesan priests have a boat or season tickets to their favorite sports team. Here is the point—if you are looking for a life and career full of money and power, the priesthood does not make sense, but its life of simplicity may not be as extreme as you may think.

Second, these days Catholic priests don’t get the respect or hold the high social status that they used to. Ask your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents about how people viewed priests when they were younger. You may hear stories about the mythical Fr. Patrick from their parish years ago, who ruled the parish like a prince, dispensed wise advice that was never questioned and always followed, and caused grown men to straighten their ties in his presence.

Perhaps nobody embodied the old-school image of a priest during that time than Archbishop Fulton Sheen. If you have not heard of him before, a quick Google search can fill in some blanks for you. Think about this: Archbishop Sheen had a primetime television show called Life Is Worth Living on a major network