Milwaukee Catholic Herald – Vocations 1-16-03

ST. FRANCIS — 2002 was a year most Catholic leaders would like to forget. But despite negative publicity that surrounded the U.S. church's sexual abuse scandal, vocations directors around the country still found opportunities to promote the priesthood.

In Milwaukee, Fr. Bob Stiefvater, director of vocations for the archdiocese, kept a busy schedule, making visits to parishes and schools, talking at Masses, parish council meetings, retreats, youth gatherings and teacher inservices.

"I just finished a regional visit to District 10 (Ozaukee County) and I've been able to visit every single parish in the district," Stiefvater said in a late December interview.

While 2002 started out on a negative note, with initial news reports of abusive priests in Boston being reassigned to new parishes, Stiefvater was encouraged by developments that were in full swing by the end of the year.

The most exciting development, he said, was a renewed enthusiasm -- in church life in general and vocations in particular -- surrounding the appointment of Timothy M. Dolan as archbishop of Milwaukee.

"We were surprised with the publicity of Archbishop Dolan's high profile visits to parishes," he said. "He causes a certain excitement around vocations, especially around the college campuses that he visits."

Shortly after his arrival last August, Dolan recorded radio advertisements promoting the priesthood. Coupled with his frequent pastoral visitations to parishes and participation in civic events, Dolan has quickly changed negative attitudes about church ministry, said Stiefvater.

"We have several more college men interested (in the priesthood) to the point of contacting our office," he said.

Two other areas of recruitment that have proven to spawn interest in vocations, added Stiefvater, are a new Internet site launched in October by the vocations office and the recruitment of seminarians to promote vocations.

The new Web site, www.thinkpriest.org, is a companion to the seminary's original Internet site, www.sfs.edu. Among its numerous features, it includes links for educators who are searching for classroom material on vocations awareness, and for young men who are considering the priesthood.

"We hope to be getting a teacher's lesson plan for the teacher's section real soon," said Stiefvater. "That will become a very good resource for teachers in the archdiocese. Rather than packaging other material in other formats, we hope to create downloadable material" for Catholic school and religious education teachers.

While the Web site is "still pretty basic," Stiefvater said it will continually expand, giving various segments of the church community helpful resources to promote and discuss vocations.

Along with cutting-edge technology, good old-fashioned word of mouth is also employed by the vocations office to promote the priesthood. "Each of our seminarians has agreed this year, as well as last year, to donate five hours a year to vocations ministry," said Stiefvater.

The seminarians' volunteer work includes making two or three presentations each year at Catholic schools or at meetings for various Catholic groups, such as the Serra Club or Knights of Columbus. "Seminarians are part of the building up and rebuilding up of our church," added Stiefvater. "They create an excitement, much like Dolan does."