The Catholic Standard and Times

More than 100 young men attended
Vocation Awareness Day at St. Charles Seminary
A taste of the Seminary

By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer

It turned out there were at least two reasons 130 young men, aged 15 to 35, took four precious hours of their weekend to go to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.

Dan Compas, 18, from St. Jude Parish, Chalfont, said he is seriously discerning a vocation.

However, other young men came to Vocation Awareness Day March 19 at the request of a priest — while at least one high school student jokingly said he was especially interested in the free food!

Whatever their reason for attending, one priest told the young men in breakout discussion groups that they had made a good choice — because the day was designed to give them the opportunity to get closer to the Lord and His Church.

And it obviously worked. Compas was among the more serious discerners. On a scale of 1 to 5, he considers his degree of discernment to the priesthood a 3. That’s what he wrote on a card that was distributed at the vocation day.

“This is not an issue that I’m pressing, but it’s something I keep an open mind about,” said Compas, a high school senior who plans to attend Holy Family University in Philadelphia in the fall.

Among the highlights of the day for him was seeing the priests interact with one another. Not only did all the priests seem to know each other, they were also joking with one another, Compas observed: “They’re really just your ‘average Joe,’ who decided to do something extraordinary with his life by following God’s calling.”

The priests whom Compas saw were precisely the priests that the director of the Vocation Office for Diocesan Priesthood must have had in mind when he said the most effective way to attract men to the priesthood is “a happy priest.”

The auxiliary bishops, seminarians and some priests met with the young men in breakout discussion groups.

Meanwhile, Father Christopher B. Rogers, the director of the vocation office, prayed the rosary with the large contingent of priests who brought young men to the vocation day, along with priests who serve at St. Charles. Later, he discussed with them the collaborative role of priests in promoting vocations.

Screenings of the recently released “Fishers of Men,” a vocational film commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, were also held.
Ed Gasiewski, 19, a sophomore communications major and member of the Newman Center at Temple University, said he got chills from the movie that depicts dramatic as well as every-day activities to which a priest is called to respond around the clock.

“I’m not a guy who cries, but it was close,” he said with a laugh. “It struck a chord with me. It’s a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week calling. It’s not a job — it’s a life.”

A 2004 alumnus of Father Judge Catholic High School for Boys who graduated in 2000 from St. John Cantius Parochial School, Gasiewski said he received a lot of religious instruction growing up. So, at the end of his first semester at Temple, he asked himself, “Where’s the theology?”

In earlier years, Gasiewski had toyed with the idea of becoming a priest. He even served as an altar boy at St. John Cantius, his home parish. But it wasn’t until Father Shaun L. Mahoney, the chaplain of Temple’s Newman Center, helped Gasiewski see that he needed to develop a deeper focus on prayer, that he began to consider the priesthood more seriously.

The “Fishers of Men” film served as a springboard for a breakout discussion group led by 39-year-old Father Andrew C. Brownholtz, a parochial vicar at St. Eleanor Parish in Collegeville, who was ordained in 2001.

Father Brownholtz held up his cell phone to drive home the point that priests must be accessible around the clock.

Michael D. Lutz, 21, a senior marketing major who is also a member of the Newman Center at Temple University, said he is in the early stages of the discernment process.

A 2002 alumnus of Msgr. Bonner High School in Drexel Hill whose home parish is St. Philomena in Lansdowne — where he served as an altar boy in his youth and graduated from the parochial school in 1998 — Lutz also had high praise for the priests he has known.

Lutz said he related to the seminarian in his breakout group who said the call to the priesthood is gradual, as opposed to a one-time, bolt-of-lightning-like calling.

Msgr. Joseph G. Prior, rector of St. Charles Seminary, assured the young men that the Seminary community would be praying for them as they continued to discern.

Gasiewski was particularly inspired by the many other young men discerning a possible vocation who filled the Seminary’s Chapel of St. Martin of Tours.

There, Cardinal Justin Rigali served as celebrant and homilist at evening prayer, which included Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Also in attendance were Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua; Auxiliary Bishops Robert P. Maginnis, Michael F. Burbidge, Joseph R. Cistone and Joseph P. McFadden, and numerous priests, including Msgr. Timothy C. Senior, the Archdiocese’s Vicar for Clergy, as well as seminarians.

“Some of you young men here today, like the priests next to you, have a vocation to the priesthood,” Cardinal Rigali said.

“There are some of you who have heard God’s mysterious call, to leave other things behind and to follow Jesus.

“Do not be afraid of such a call. Rather, with all your heart, submit to it, accept it. It is an awesome call, a call that will not leave you wanting.

“Rather, it will bring you fulfillment, joy and peace. And if you follow this call, you will help so many other people reach salvation.”

For more information, contact the Vocation Office for Diocesan Priesthood at (610) 667-5778 or e-mail the director, Father Christopher B. Rogers, at frcrogers@adphila.org. Access the Web site at www.scs.edu/vocations/vocations.html.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.