During this period of declining numbers in the priesthood, this nation's 238 Catholic colleges and universities are a natural place to gauge the future of vocations. Seminary enrollment in the United States has dropped from 8,159 in 1967 to a little over 3,300 today. Fortunately that drop has leveled off, due in part to the success of some Catholic colleges helping their students to discern vocations.

"The bottom line is people join people." This is how Fr. Bill Seetch, CSC, explains the attraction of college students to a religious vocation. Fr. Seetch has been superior of Congregation of the Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame for nine years.

When speaking to Fr. Seetch, you get an entirely different feel for Notre Dame than the picture Fr. Richard McBrien, well-known Notre Dame dissenting theologian, presents on the cable news. (Fr. McBrien is a priest from the diocese of Hartford, CT.)

Fr. Seetch has spoken about the number of students from Notre Dame who went into the priesthood or religious orders in recent years. "Many guys feel called. We have guys going into dioceses and other religious orders all the time. Usually it is the guy you least expect who will suddenly say, I've been watching you and I like what I see and want to give it a try." But the Holy Cross priests only keep records on students who enter their order.

It was encouraging to hear that since 1998, an average of seven Notre Dame graduates per year have entered into the Holy Cross order to discern priestly vocation.

Vocations director Fr. Kevin Russeau, CSC, explains that on the campus, 50 to 60 priests are continually working with students, "they help us know who's thinking about a vocation."

These students are invited to what is called "Corby Night." The students meet with religious and seminarians; they pray together, eat pizza, and fill out a survey to determine their interests in the formation programs.

If a young man has expressed an interest but does not enter seminary right out of college, the Vocations office stays in touch with him to nurture planted seeds. Fr. Russeau admits, "This is not always easy, and I think we can do better in this department, but many of our Notre Dame grads come to the seminary a year, two, or three after they graduate."

As Fr. Seetch made clear, it is crucial that students encounter some kind of personal witness about the opportunity of serving the Church as a religious. This attitude reflects the teaching of the Church's authoritative statement on post-secondary education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. Ex Corde recommends that students should consider the possibility of vocation in the context of pastoral ministry. Pastoral ministry "can assist in developing and nurturing the value of marriage and family life, fostering vocations to the priesthood and religious life, stimulating the Christian commitment of the laity and imbuing every activity with the spirit of the Gospel."

The emphasis on revealing vocations through pastoral ministry is also being implemented at the Catholic University of America where president Fr. David M. O'Connell, C.M., reports that his university sends between 10-15 men and women each year to the seminary or the religious life. The University hosts ongoing men's and women's discernment groups -- this year 26 men are considering a vocation to the priesthood.

Fr. O'Connell explained to me that "We find the key to nurturing vocations is to intensify students' experience of prayer." Rather than using the kind of volunteer groups found on many other campuses, O'Connell thinks it is important that students nurture their awareness of vocations through "a life of prayer and devotion to the Eucharist."

The smaller conservative Catholic colleges also use retreats, discernment groups, prayer, and liturgy to encourage students to reflect on their vocation. It's no secret that these small colleges have contributed disproportionately to the priesthood and religious life in recent years. The number of vocations at colleges like Christendom and Franciscan University often equal those of institutions with much larger student bodies.

For example, Thomas Aquinas College in California has recorded 58 vocations since its founding in 1971, (359 students are presently enrolled). Ann Forsyth, public relations director, calculates that 11 percent of all Thomas Aquinas graduates are headed toward the priesthood or religious life.

At Magdalen College in New Hampshire, Sarah Jane von Haack, assistant director for Public Relations, told me that the College numbered 39 vocations to the priesthood or the religious life out of their 28 graduating classes, including 15 out of their last 96 graduates.

Fr. Thomas K. Williams, professor of Moral Theology at the Legion of Christ seminary in Rome, confirms that these small Catholic colleges are an important source of vocations. "We have about 400 all tolled in the house here, of which probably 290 are theology students. There are several U.S. colleges that traditionally send us vocations: Christendom College, the University of Dallas, Thomas Aquinas, Franciscan University, and a smattering of others."

John Ciscanik who heads development at Christendom College estimates that 8 percent of all their graduates have entered the priesthood or the religious life. His estimate is based upon 90 of the 1185 students who attended the College between its founding in 1977 and 2002.

Surprisingly, the Catholic college with perhaps the greatest reputation for vocations does not keep any statistics. But, public relations director Lisa Ferguson explains that "The word is out that Franciscan University is fertile ground for vocations." Franciscan's annual Vocations Fair in the spring attracts over 100 dioceses and religious orders to the campus -- over 400 students usually attend.

Maybe the reason Franciscan University does not keep statistics on vocations is the presence of their 20 year old pre-theologate, college level instruction for men heading for the seminary. This program, which presently has 70 men in residence, has produced 60 ordained priests and 2 bishops.

Several colleges did not get back to us in time to meet our deadline. At Boston College, however, the attempt to get the data on vocations took a rather circuitous route. The first inquiry was at the Alumni Office, who thought the Development Office kept the statistics. The Development Office deferred the question to the Jesuit Community Offices, who deferred the question to the Jesuit Institute. The Jesuit Institute said the place to get the data was St. Mary's Hall where the priestly community is housed.

A call to St. Mary's resulted in a referral to the Boston College Chaplain, Fr. Jim Erps. Fr. Erps recommended that the Alumni Office be contacted again, who transferred the call to the Alumni Association. The Alumni Association said they were certain that Information Technology Services had the statistics. Information Technology Services transferred the call to Student Services who didn't have the information. No data on vocations was found.

Priestly vocations seemed oddly immaterial to the mission of Boston College. Their profound disinterest is disconcerting since the College has already absorbed one seminary (Weston School of Theology), and there is public discussion that it may be taking over St. John's Seminary in the Archdiocese of Boston.

On a sidebar: I noted in Notre Dame's statistics that a significant portion of their seminarians were attracted through their web site. However, the nation's largest seminary, Mundelein (215 students) in Chicago, must be credited with the biggest marketing coup. The seminary owns the domain name "www.vocations.org." Even casual clicking through their web pages convinced me that they were making very good use of their internet visibility. Anyone considering a vocation should take a look at their pages.

For the latest Catholic news, the Window recommends the Catholic News Agency. Click here to visit their site.

Please add us to your address book so that The Window will always arrive in your in-box not your bulk or junk e-mail folder.