PAPERS

CLERICAL AND RELIGIOUS

VOCATIONS FROM

THE STANDPOINT OF THE PARISH PRIEST

REV. EDWIN DRURY, LORETTO, KY. ·

This distinguished assembly is proof of the importance of the subject we have come together to consider. The dearth of priests and religious necessary to promote the interests of re-ligion in this country demands especial consideration of all that appertains to the development of clerical and religious vocations. There is no dearth of vocations. The grace of God is not wanting and requisite signs and dispositions indicating vocations manifest themselves in childhood and youth with such frequency as to justify the assertion, there is no dearth of clerical and religious vocations in this country. Proper attention to the development of vocations would save enough from among the numberless buds of promise that are blighted by wanton exposure or lack of nutrition in childhood and youth, to supply the demands of both home and foreign missions.

It has been suggested that the leading idea of this paper might be "how to discover and cultivate clerical and religious vocations, telling just what the parish priest can and should do.”

This suggestion is as comprehensive as the scene depicted in the Gospel (Mark, X, 13-16), Jesus surrounded by the children. and their parents, and the Apostles, portraying the parish priest in his relations to parents and children, in all his efforts to bring souls to Jesus. The beginning must be with the children— "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." Forbid them not. Why was it necessary to add these words to the precept? The sad fact that not long ago, children were not permitted, were practically forbidden to come to Jesus in Holy Communion and confirmation until they were ten or

twelve years of age, tells why. Unquestionably the dearth of priests and religious necessary to promote the interests of religion in this country must be largely attributed to the prevalence of the pernicious practices condemned by the decree prescribing the age of admittance of children to Holy Communion. The enemies of God and religion know that the innocence of childhood is the Church's most vulnerable point. For that reason they have mustered all their strength and invented innumerable devices to corrupt the heart of childhood, to make it the slave of sin before it has been taught to love God, or strengthened by the sacraments.

Hence the parish priest's most important, most difficult, and most sacred duty, as the Decree teaches, is to safeguard innocence and nurture virtue, to the end that Christian character staunch in the faith, may be developed. Parents and teachers in primary schools are likewise in duty bound to direct their efforts to the same end. It devolves upon the priest that harmonious cooperation may be most effectual in bringing little children to Jesus, and in disposing them to receive fruitfully the graces, which may develop into the distinctive virtues with which Jesus wishes them to be adorned. "I have chosen you," He said. Like progress in any distinctive virtue, vocation grows; its development depends upon conformity of the will of the individual to the grace received. The indications of its growth in youth may be uncertain, indecisive, yet it is by the indications manifested that the priest is to be guided in his counsel and direction. Hence as a rule, it is not for the parish priest to decide the question in particular cases as to whether an individual has or has not a clerical or religious vocation. The scope of his duty in the matter is expressed in the word encourage. Where there are no canonical impediments he should never discourage-always encourage. Whoever lets worldly and material considerations characterize his counsels in such a way as to chill the aspirations awakened by grace, deserves to hear in thunder tones the divine "forbid them not." Encouragement should tend to find, and point out the available way and the open door leading to the realization of the soul's religious aspirations. To encourage timid aspirants is like guiding the tottering steps of childhood.

Fear that might paralyze, and treacherous by-paths, are to be guarded against by encouragement. In a wholesome atmosphere hopeful buds may develop and mature. To obtain for aspirants the nourishment of such an atmosphere, that is, a right sentiment among Catholics in regard to religious and clerical vocations, the parish priest will find it necessary to treat the subject carefully and thoroughly from the pulpit. The Council of Trent enjoins the preaching of the gospel of matrimony; and in our day grave reasons urge special attention to that precept. Surely it is equally incumbent upon the parish priest to preach the gospel of the higher and holier state of life. Solid instructions from the pulpit on the importance of vocations, clearly setting forth the gospel truths that have guided so many to the cloister and to the altar, are efficacious in counteracting that spirit which would base decisions in the choice of a state of life, primarily upon material, temporal and social considerations. The spirit of the world veils the cloister in gloom and despair, and bewails with doleful pathos the lonely celibate at the altar, while it lures youth and stimulates earthly ambitions by adorning transient prospects with glittering tinsel. As youth stands deliberating which to choose, shall the loveliness of thy tents, O Jacob, and of thy tabernacles, O Israel, be only whispered in the closet? Shall not thy promises, O Jesus, to those whom Thou invitest to follow Thee in the more excellent way, be proclaimed from the housetops? A word from the pulpit has often dispelled the ignorance and hesitation of perplexed souls, revealing to them the higher way, brought balm to aching hearts and given them courage to take up the cross and follow Jesus.

But it is not only youth standing at the parting of the ways that needs instruction on this subject. How many a true vocation is blighted by the ignorance or misunderstandings, not the perversity, of well meaning parents! Sermons, not merely emotional appeals, instructive sermons on vocations, setting forth the supernatural motives for choosing the better part, dispose parents to encourage with truly Christian and meritorious dispositions, the pious aspirations of their children, and the spiritual life of the family is strengthened. Not only that; such sermons contribute to strengthen the spiritual life of the parish. In fact one cri

terion for estimating the spiritual condition of a parish is the number of aspirants it sends to seminaries and novitiates. Where the subject of vocations is never treated from the pulpit the per cent. of aspirants to the population of the parish is usually very small, frequently microscopic.

When a youth reveals dispositions sufficiently definite to warrant his admission to a preparatory seminary, a difficult problem frequently confronts the parish priest. Where is the preparatory seminary? And if one is accessible are the necessary means available? If the youth or his parents have abundant means, there is still question of the preparatory seminary. The practice of educating aspirants to the priesthood in secular or mixed colleges, which the Council of Baltimore tolerated as a temporary necessity without approving, is chargeable to a high degree with the dearth of priests. The parish priest hesitates to recommend a temporary makeshift that has proved unsatisfactory, and for many a fatal experiment, as the avenue from the primary school to the theological seminary, for the boy over whose innocence he has watched with anxious solicitude. And if there is the question of available means the problem is more complex. The policy, very extensively adhered to, of leaving students to their own resources and devices to struggle through the college course as best they can, discourages and turns back many a worthy aspirant, and bars many others from that thorough training in the spiritual life during the formative period which is admitted to be so necessary for aspirants to the priesthood. What can the parish priest do in such a case? Will he say to the boy, you have no vocation because you have no money? How does that policy harmonize with the words of the Council of Trent— "And it (the Council) wished that the children of the poor be principally selected, though it does not, however, exclude those of the more wealthy, provided they be maintained at their own. expense, and manifest a desire of serving God and the Church." (Sess. 23, Chap. 18). A preparatory seminary in every diocese would relieve the parish priest's perplexity, and open the way to the sanctuary for many a worthy aspirant. But, they ask, how will the preparatory seminary be maintained? That question betrays oversolicitude for the things after which the heath

ens seek, and it is an evasion; the preparatory seminary is a primary necessity.

Or shall the parish priest in such a case personally assume, as some have done, the financial responsibility? That is isolated effort and cannot fully carry out the teaching crystallized in the decrees of Baltimore and Trent.

It is among the class needing assistance during the formative period, while making the college course, that the greatest number of the most desirable aspirants are to be found. Some of them are found in small country places, where parents and priests have successfully fostered vocations without the aid of parochial schools. Lack of assistance to such as these is another contributory cause of the dearth of priests and religious complained of. I knew a youth of this class who applied for assistance and was turned away with the answer, "Present yourself when you are ready to begin philosophy." That seems to have been a stereotyped answer years ago, and it is still in use. By chance, or, if you prefer, providentially, this youth obtained assistance by leaving his diocese and going afar. Well, he died an Archbishop. But his diocese lost his services as it lost the services of many others turned away with the same answer, who found their way to other fields or to the open doors of religious orders. Providential? Granted, if you wish; but what of the great number of vocations for which the policy outlined in that answer was a fatal blight? You are prepared to hear that that diocese feels the dearth of priests perhaps as much as any other in the country; though, with a different policy, such as is outlined in the decrees of Trent and Baltimore relative to preparatory seminaries, it would have been well supplied with native priests and might have furnished a phalanx for foreign missions.

The parish priest observes the signs and dispositions, that indicate the grace of vocations, growing more pronounced under his encouragement, till the youth has passed the primary grades, or possibly the high school. What then? So far he has cultivated the vocation which has grown to a point where it needs to receive nutrition from other hands than his; that is, receive the discipline that contributes to the development of the religious