Building Up the Church: St. Ignatius and Vocation Promotion
When Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa was elected Pope Paul IV in 1555, St. Ignatius famously panicked. He and the good cardinal never quite got along, owing to Ignatius’ stint in Venice as the lay leader of a motley crew of street preachers and general do-gooders. At that time, Cardinal Carafa was guiding his newly formed religious order, the Theatines, and Ignatius, in an effort to give the cardinal some honest counsel, indirectly told him that he thought quite little of his life’s work, critiquing at length the organization of his group of devoted priests. So, when Carafa became pope, Ignatius worried that he would end the Society of Jesus and, consequently, all the good work they were doing. Worry is perhaps an understatement: “his whole body shook” at hearing the news.
If the prospect of a sudden and certain end to the Society of Jesus inspired initial dread in Ignatius, one wonders how he would respond to the protracted decline of the Society (and of religious life broadly) that is currently taking place. The numbers are sobering, if familiar. In 1965, we boasted 36,000 members. Today, we stand at 13,700, and practically all religious orders tell the same tale.
Perhaps more troubling is the number of men entering the diocesan seminaries. Since 2015, only 16 of the 196 dioceses in the United States have ordained enough men to replace their current number of priests. According to a 2023 study, our Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston ordained just three men, far fewer than the estimated 11 we need to maintain the status quo. Those three new priests will be quite busy, since the current ratio of parishioner to priest in our Archdiocese is 8,500:1.
There are two common responses to this problem. The first is to give it to God, the author of vocations and the one who calls. This response highlights the importance of prayer and has inspired many Catholics to form groups dedicated to prayer for vocations. It emphasizes trust in God’s plan for the Church and in Christ’s words that the Church will endure until the end of time.
The second response is to launch an all-out strategy to identify potential priests, recruit young men, and fill the novitiates and seminaries. Critics of this approach argue that it misses what vocation is all about—God’s call to the individual, made in the secret of his heart—and risks pressuring a young man into choosing a path he may later regret.
Which would St. Ignatius choose? The conflict between him and the future Pope Paul IV provides some insight. Ignatius’ criticisms of the Theatines turned on the claim that they did not use human means to provide for their needs. For example, they did not seek out benefactors to support them but relied on God to bring donors to their doorstep. To depend so boldly on God’s will is admirable, but it is not Ignatius’ brand of holiness. No, for him, who was so dedicated to the greater glory of God, everything was a tool. He says as much in the core expression of his spirituality, the Principle and Foundation: “We are to use created things insofar as they help us attain [the end of praising, reverencing, and serving God].” Here and throughout his writings, Ignatius betrays a surprising willingness to embrace any means necessary (as long as they are not sinful) to bring about the good of the Church. It is the quintessentially Jesuit characteristic, the hallmark of our missions, and the key to our controversies. It is why we started schools.
We at Strake Jesuit are adopting this view and applying it to vocation promotion. I am privileged to work alongside 14 other faculty and staff members on the Vocations Committee to build a culture of vocations at Strake Jesuit, where we hope every one of our students would feel some holy pressure to consider giving his life to the Church and Society of Jesus. We invite promising students to think seriously about the priesthood. We facilitate events and retreats for our boys. We offer them resources to discern their vocation seriously and generously. And, of course, we pray for vocations, but we don’t do it sitting down, for the Church needs priests and the Lord needs people to call them in the same way He called His Apostles—through a human voice.
Copyright © 2020 Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. All Rights Reserved.