Fr. Philip, OP, gave an impromptu vocations pitch at the end of Mass last night in which he questioned the courage of Catholic men.
The young men God is calling aren’t saying YES to the call. Why? The reasons are as old as the world: money, sex, prestige, or should I say the fear of not having any money sex, or prestige. Forgive me for saying this, but it needs to be said: there is a profound lack of courage among you who are called but will not say YES. What do you fear? If God has called you to the priesthood, what more do you need than His word setting you on the way? Yes, you will have to give up sex, money, and prestige. Why is this a problem for a Christian? Have you bought into the pagan ideal of the virile man? You can’t be a man if you don’t have a treasure box full of gold, an enviable career, and a little black book full of women?! No, I’m not saying that the vows of a Catholic priest are easy to live out. Far from it. It takes courage, resolve, and a lot of hard work with God’s grace to be a faithful ordained man of God. And the reward for this hard work isn’t always what we might want. But that’s what sacrifice is—giving to God the best we have and trusting that He will use it to the best possible end.
Gee, I wonder what got him so riled up? Heh.
Go read the whole thing.
Good for you, Father. We need priestly men of courage to inspire their fellow-workers in the vineyard who need that nudge.
Technorati Tags:Catholic, priesthood, vocation
This is perhaps one reasom young men are reluctant to enter the seminary:
The Chicago province of the Dominicans has accepted for ordination Patrick Baikauskas, the most prominent gay activist of Springfield, Illinois. Baikauskas is open about his background: “I’m 47 years old. I’m divorced. I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’m gay.” When a lay Catholic activist asked him to publicly renounce his gay activist background, Baikauskas replied: “I’m not sure what he wants me to denounce. My working for services for people living with AIDS? My working to secure equality in the workplace and housing for gay men and women? The church is not against these things. Neither is the church opposed to people being in love. So I cannot denounce any of those things.” He hopes to become “a college campus minister recruiting other men into the order” because gay priests “seem to be very successful—compassionate, pastoral.”
Baikauskas may be sincere in his desire to be celibate, but it is odd that his hopes focus on recruiting more gays into the Dominicans. He may think it best for the gays, he may think it best for the Dominicans, but does it serve the Church to have a gay clergy, who seem obsessed with gay issues? The Dominicans and the Vatican Congregation of Religious both see no problem with ordaining Baikauskas and only criticize him for his lack of “prudence,” that is, openly declaring what he is and what he is about. A quiet, discreet conversion of the clergy into a homosexual club is acceptable.