Kansas City, Mo., Apr 8, 2008 / 00:07 am
Efforts to encourage vocations that now include marketing campaigns featuring polished, modern posters of seminarians are seeing success, the Kansas City Star reports.
In the Diocese of Raleigh in North Carolina, the faces of 2008’s 20 seminarians appear against the background of a priest’s black cassock on a poster bearing the words “Heroes of Sacrifice.” In the Archdiocese of Houston, seminarians were photographed holding a giant fishing net to illustrate the theme of “Fishers of Men.” And in Austin, Texas, photos of this year’s seminarians are displayed on a treasure map similar to “Pirates of the Caribbean,” bearing the motto “Discover the Priesthood.”
Adam Haake of the Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph is one seminarian displayed in a similar vocations poster. One poster shows him and his peers from the diocese in a group shot before the ornate altar of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.
Haake said that he sees in the poster “a whole array of men who have answered the call.” He also commented that, “So many people tell us that when they see the poster, it causes a great hope for them.”