By Amanda Hudson, News Editor
DIOCESE—Good Shepherd Sunday weekend, April 25-26, will launch a new effort by the Office of Vocations to identify and invite young men to explore a vocation to the priesthood.
“Called By Name,” says Father Jack Reichardt, Director of Vocations, is a campaign rooted in a program whose blueprint is currently used by at least 15 dioceses around the country. The Rockford version, he adds, is adapted to meet the needs of our diocese. We’re following the most exciting promotion trends out there and making them our own, he says.
However, “Called By Name is not a matter of mere recruitment or promotion — it’s about accompaniment,” says
Father Reichardt.
In the weeks leading up to Good Shepherd Sunday, priests and parish staff will receive campaign materials — pew cards, prayers of the faithful, a pulpit announcement, and bulletin inserts. The campaign will be announced in parishes on the weekend of April 18-19 and will launch April 25-26. The campaign’s website — RockfordPriest.org/Called — will go public then.
How does it work? During the weekend Masses of April 25-26, parishioners will be prompted to reflect on the goodness of the priesthood, considering and praying about the young Catholic men they know who may have a vocation. They will then be invited to recommend “by name” those young men. When submitting a name, Father Reichardt notes that these men do not need to have expressed a desire to be priests. They simply need to love Christ and the Church, exhibit a strong faith, and have a heart for service.
If someone recommends a young man, Father Reichardt and the Vocation Office will then invite them by name, starting with a letter of encouragement from Bishop Malloy. They’ll also be invited to attend a vocation event to see if the Lord will encourage them to consider it further. Father Reichardt points to some summertime holy hours in the works for various locations that will feature prayer, a reflection by the vocations team on the priesthood, and a time of socializing and fellowship with the seminarians of the Rockford Diocese. He also notes that all materials and some events will be available in Spanish.
The track record and success of this campaign is proven. The arch/dioceses of Denver, New York and Boise all received hundreds of names through the Called By Name program, Father Reichardt says, with Denver topping the totals with
900 names.
The program is designed to be zero pressure, and all is done informally. “We are throwing out seeds,” Father Reichardt says, “to see if any take root.”
