Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
It’s hard to believe that five years have passed since the last Ad Limina visit to Rome for the bishops from our Province. Bishops are normally allowed on those occasions to invite any of their seminarians studying in Rome to accompany them to greet the Holy Father. While the Holy Father and his team were expecting a handful of seminarians, we brought with us not only our seminarians studying at the North American College but also the students from Saint John Vianney Seminary who were in Rome for the semester and The Saint Paul Seminary students who happened to be there for their J-term study and pilgrimage. Pope Francis, seeing the number of seminarians from our region, quipped that he would no longer believe there was a vocation crisis in the U.S. I imagine he might have said the same thing if he had been in our Cathedral last year for the ordination of our 13 new priests or if he had a copy of our annual vocations poster.
Nonetheless, I am well aware that despite those very hopeful signs, we are sorely in need of more priests, especially as we consider the number of priests who will soon be reaching retirement age and the good number of those who have already passed retirement age but are still generously serving in our parishes.
Given that priests are essential for the Eucharist, it is not surprising that one of the most important challenges in every diocese is to encourage young people to consider their calling. Prayer is, of course, an important first step in that work. Didn’t Jesus himself tell us that we should be asking the Master of the Harvest to send laborers into the vineyard? We are blessed that so many of our local parishes pray our Archdiocesan Prayer for Vocations each Sunday. Composed and popularized by Archbishop Brady in the 1960s, the prayer was revised and promoted by Archbishop Flynn. It gives me goosebumps whenever I hear the prayer echoing in a packed Cathedral of newly confirmed young people. I love seeing copies of the prayer when I drop into the many adoration chapels throughout our archdiocese.
I am mindful as well of the dedicated prayers and activities of our local Serra Clubs. The members commit to praying for vocations and have long been an important part of this archdiocese. They are always so generous in collaborating with our Archdiocesan vocations director, Father Mark Pavlak.
To be effective, however, the work of promoting vocations has to go beyond prayer. It falls to us to form our youth to know and love our Lord from a young age, and to open their hearts and minds to the Lord’s call, no matter what it might be. How important is the work of parents and grandparents in these endeavors. As we begin looking ahead to Year 3 implementation of our pastoral letter, which will focus on parents as primary educators of their children, I anticipate that we will have many opportunities to consider how we might best empower parents, catechists and teachers to form our young brothers and sisters to respond in trust to the Lord’s invitation, equipping them with the tools that they will need to discern their calling and to respond with generosity.
This week, I would ask for your prayers in particular for our upcoming Andrew Dinner (Feb. 25) for young men discerning a call to priesthood or religious life. We just had a wonderful Miriam Dinner for young women and are hoping that the Andrew Dinner will be equally successful. Participation in these events has steadily grown over the past several years. I attribute the strength of the Andrew Dinners to your prayers, to your boldness in reminding our young brothers that the Lord has a plan for them, and finally your willingness to share with them that you see in them traits that suggest that the Lord may be calling them to priesthood or religious life. Registration for the dinner is still open if you know of such a person in your life.
Finally, I remain grateful for your support of our current seminarians through the Catholic Services Appeal, which funds their room and board during seminary. The 2025 Appeal is off to a strong start, but if you haven’t yet had the opportunity to donate, you can do so at archspm.org/catholic-services-appeal.
Please be assured of my gratitude for all that you do to cultivate the soil for future priests in service of this local church.
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