Shreveport, La., Aug 17, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Bishop William Friend has been praying for years that God would give the Diocese of Shreveport, in northwest Louisiana, just six seminarians. Now, he recently told the Shreveport Times, he thinks that God just may be listening.
Four new seminarians have recently begun studies for active service in the Church and will hopefully join 43 priests in the diocese currently serving at 50 parishes.
"It takes a vocations culture of asking people to think about their lives and what they might do for God," Rev. Pike Thomas of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish told the Times. "The more (seminarians) we have, the more we're going to have as long as we keep up the invitations."
Many credit the increased interest in vocations to changing times in the diocese and the culture at large.