Tower Topics ~ Summer 2001

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VIP speakers call for prayers, encouragement

God does the calling. Everyone else needs to be praying and encouraging.

Speakers at the Diocese of Jefferson City’s second annual Vocations Investment Partnership (VIP) dinner in Columbia discussed several aspects of that message with people from all over the diocese.

“God, not people, calls men and women to the priesthood and religious life,” said Father Benedict Neenan, rector of Conception Seminary College, where many of the diocese’s seminarians attend. “If we don’t remember that — if we think this is purely a human action — we are likely to think priesthood is just another career. It is not. It is a sacred way of life, and it is initiated by God’s call.”

About 1,100 people attended the dinner and auction, which raised more than $250,000 for Conception Seminary College and vocations in the diocese. The event’s primary purpose is to unite the parishes of the diocese in a common goal of helping to increase and support vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

In his remarks, Father Benedict emphasized that there is no shortage of vocations. “God is calling many women and men to the priesthood and religious life,” he said. “But not many of them are hearing that call or responding. That’s why you’re here: to encourage a culture of vocations, where people can hear that call and people can be encouraged to follow it.”

Speaking at the dinner, Father Brian Driscoll, the diocese’s priestly and religious vocations director, read a verse from the Book of Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future full of hope.”

    Fr. Brian                Bishop John         Bishop Michael
  Driscoll                    R. Gaydos                McAuliffe

“My friends, I think that is ultimately what we are about this evening,” Father Driscoll, a CSC alumnus, said. “We are about hope for the future.”

Father Benedict said that although the number of priests and religious is decreasing and probably will continue to do so in the short run, the number of seminarians is increasing by an average of about 5 percent each year.

“And it’s not just the numbers,” he said. “The quality is very high. We see that at Conception Seminary College. I guarantee that you will have excellent priests in your future. You won’t have a lot of them in the near term, but you will have fine priests in the future, as you have had very fine priests in the past and in the present.”

Bishop John R. Gaydos asked the audience never to take the Mass for granted. “You will grow in your courage to encourage if you are truly grateful for every time you can celebrate the Eucharist and receive Holy Communion,” he said.

Conception alumnus Father Marion Makarewicz, rector and teacher at St. Thomas Seminary, Hannibal, the diocese’s high school seminary, said some of the bravest people are the parents who allow and encourage their sons to think about that question. Seminarians’ parents are “no different from anyone else in this room who have a faith given to them by God that they have been sharing with their children. We ask you this evening to be like them, to encourage their young children ... to have the courage to encourage them to think about being a priest, being a brother, being a sister.”

Bishop Michael McAuliffe, who led the diocese from 1969-97, said the shortage of priests and religious is one of the most serious problems the Church faces today.

“To me to be able to take in my hands the host and the wine, to breathe those words that our Lord uttered at the Last Supper — that’s the greatest thrill of all. To proclaim the Good News of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — that’s the challenge for you parents and your children to pick up, so the Church continues its task of preaching the Kingdom of God.” “They call this the seventh inning stretch,” he said in response to a standing ovation.

Father Benedict commended the attendees for standing up publicly for vocations. “Your presence here says volumes,” he said. “You are not only a witness to all the seminarians and people in formation who are here tonight. They are flabbergasted by your support. They are encouraged and hearted by your support. But you’re also telling everyone in this diocese — your sons and daughters among them — that this is an important thing for you.”

This article was reprinted courtesy of the Catholic Missourian, newspaper for the Diocese of Jefferson City.

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