He told the story of an excellent Catholic student who, when he asked him where he went to Mass on Easter, replied that he hadn’t gone – that he went to a San Francisco Giants game, with a 1 p.m. starting time. Bishop-elect Daly gave him an earful.
“That just shows you how, I think, insidious secularism can be,” he said.
There are, he said, other odds facing a vocations director:
-- “We live in a sexually charged society and it may be that the concept of chaste living is a harder sell than it was 50 years ago.”
-- “At one time I think the church strongly shaped the culture. Now, it’s the culture less influenced by the church that is still shaping individual lives.”
-- “Parents may see me or a vocations director interfering in their hopes and dreams for their children … Of our younger seminarians, at least half had to deal with lack of enthusiastic support by their parents. I like that. That is a tactful way of saying it.”
At the same time, Bishop-elect Daly has seen “a real, genuine passion for vocations by a group – not all – but by a group of our seminarians and that has been inspiring. We have a handful of seminarians who really want to go out and be disciples. They really want to talk about their calling and they want to encourage others to consider, to pray.”
Bishop-elect Daly’s job description for a vocations director also includes: “Pray for vocations. You can’t build a vocation culture unless you have a culture of prayer. Second, have seminarians assist you who have a passion for vocations. Third, don’t get in a numbers game (to inflate the rolls) because one crazy, weird seminary candidate will chase away five normal guys.”
At about the time Bishop-elect Daly took over vocations, he remembered when the seed was likely planted in him. He was an altar boy at Our Lady of the Visitacion Parish in San Francisco, looking for a way to escape the obligation. He asked his mother to tell the pastor the family would be on vacation all summer. That didn’t fly.
It happened the church was being painted and weekday Mass was moved to the small Daughters of Charity Convent chapel, where only one altar boy was needed. “For some reason I said yes, I would serve at the Masses,” said Bishop-elect Daly, “and from that point on the Mass took on something different.”
Printed with permission from Catholic San Francisco.
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