By Tony DeGol
Proclaim!
During his more than four decades as a Catholic school teacher, Joe Maschue always encouraged his students to engage in the life of their parish faith community.
“Since I retired, I notice a lack of people who are interested in developing their children to become more active in the Church,” stated Maschue, a member of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Altoona.
Mary Casto, a parishioner at Saint Clement in Johnstown, also sees reason for concern.
“Not just at our parish, but throughout our diocese, we have fewer young people participating in all of the ministries we have, and we’re getting to a critical point with our priests, who are being spread thin,” she said.
Casto and Maschue were among the dozens of representatives from parishes throughout the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown – selected by their pastor – who attended a training session with Vocation Ministry on October 19 at Saint Benedict Parish in Johnstown.
Vocation Ministry is a national organization which trains, equips, and encourages priests and lay parishioners as they strive to cultivate and nurture vocations to the priesthood.
The Diocesan Director of Vocations Father Peter Crowe and a small group of other diocesan priests have been collaborating with Vocation Ministry for the past several months, and recently, the founder visited our diocese to meet with Bishop Mark and diocesan priests.
Bob McMorrow, a representative of Vocation Ministry, led the October 19 gathering, during which the parishioners learned how to return to their parish faith community and create a team to build an environment in which more men will be open to the Lord’s call.
“This will raise awareness about a vocation to the priesthood, religious life, or sacramental marriage, and really try to create a culture where everyone is thinking about what God wants them to do with their life,” McMorrow commented.
Morgan Casto, a teacher at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown, joined her mother at the session, also representing Saint Clement Parish.
“I want young people to think about what the Lord actually has in store for their lives because whatever He has in store is going to be good – beautiful beyond their imagination,” she assured.
“We need priests, but we need to build up the culture in parishes to build up the culture within family life,” Father Crowe stressed. “The parish is the most direct contact most people have with the Church, so if the parish can build up that culture, then it can build up within individual families, so moms and dads won’t say, ‘yes we need priests, but not my son.’ Rather, they’ll be saying, ‘we need priests, and it would be a wonderful, beautiful gift from God if He were to call my son to be a priest.’”
[Photo: The Very Reverend John Byrnes, JCL, JV, with a team of representatives from the Basilica of Saint Michael the Archangel in Loretto participating in the October 19 training with Vocation Ministry.]
