Jan. 10-16 has been designated National Vocation Awareness Week, a time to place a special emphasis on Church vocations and foster a culture supportive of them.

Observance of this special week began in 1976. That is when the National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the year as the beginning of National Vocation Awareness Week. In 1997, the time was moved to coincide with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which will be on Jan. 10 and marks the initiation of Jesus into public ministry.

Each parish in the Diocese of Helena received a packet of information about National Vocation Awareness Week. Parishes decide individually how the week will be observed.

At Cathedral of St. Helena Parish in Helena, Catholic vocations will be emphasized in homily and prayer, said Msgr. Kevin O’Neill, the parish pastor. Vocations are a frequent topic of discussion during adult classes in faith formation, the monsignor added.

The number of people pursuing Catholic vocations is in decline and the call to consider church work is encompassed in the Year for Priests, which was declared by Pope Benedict XVI and began on June 19. The year will conclude this June in Rome, when the pope will meet with an international gathering of priests.

National Vocation Awareness Week “provides an opportunity for parishes across the country to promote vocations through prayer and education,” Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston said in a statement released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It is our responsibility to encourage young people to be generous in their response as they discern the possibility of a call to service in the Church,” said Cardinal O’Malley, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

In a study for the National Religious Vocation Conference, the Georgetown University Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate found that about 90 percent of people who are new members in religious life and responded to CARA surveys were raised Catholic. Seventy-three percent attended a Catholic school for at least part of their education, and about half attended parish-based religious education. Most went to college and hold at least bachelor’s degrees. More than two-thirds of new members surveyed first considered religious life by age 21.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 25, No. 12, December 18, 2009.