NEWS

The singing trio "The Priests," comprised of Father Eugene O'Hagen, Father Martin O'Hagen, and Father David Delargy, has been making big strides in its musical pursuit since signing a contract with the music company Sony BMG back in April worth nearly $2 million. The three men said they would donate the money made from the music to charity. Click here to read a recent article from CBS News to see what "The Priests" have been up to lately or visit their website.

Her name is Jenna Marie Cooper. She is 23 years old and a graduate student in theology at Ave Maria University in Florida. On Saturday, January 3, 2009, she will be consecrated to a life of virginity at an 11:30 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church in Newburgh, NY to be celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Dominick J. Lagonegro. As a consecrated virgin, the oldest form of consecrated life in the Church, Ms. Cooper will spend much of her time in prayer. It will not be a great departure from her current daily life, which includes praying the Liturgy of the Hours five times, attending Mass and spending other time in prayer. Chief among her intentions are the Church and people of New York.
Click here for the complete Catholic New York Editor's Report.

St. Joseph's Seminary will host the annual Mass and Dinner for Priestly Vocations on Thursday, March 19, 2009 in the evening. Young men in grades 8-12 are invited to attend. For more information and to register, please contact the Vocations office at (914) 968-1340 or vocations@archny.org.

The next Cathedral Prep Weekend will be held Friday, January 16th (arrival from 4:45 PM until 9:00 PM) until Sunday, January 18th following a Mass with your families at 9:00 AM and a light breakfast.
The Prep Weekend is a chance for a young man to draw closer to the Lord Jesus and to experience good fraternity with others considering the call. All high school age young men interested in a vocation to the priesthood are encouraged to attend the weekend at St. Joseph's Seminary. For more information, please call (914) 968-1340. To register contact vocations@archny.org.
Click here for Cathedral Prep's website and for 2009 weekends.

Each month the priests of Staten Island get together to pray and eat pizza with young men in high school who are considering the priesthood. The next evening will be on Wednesday January 14, 2009. Future dates in 2009 will be February 11th, March 11th, April 15th, May 13th and June 10th. The evenings last approximately 90 minutes. For details about location and time and to register, please call the Vocations Office at (914) 968-1340 or e-mail us at vocations@archny.org.

Fr. Luke Sweeney and Fr. Luis Saldaña will lead the Spring Discernment Weekend for young men 18 to 40 years of age from the 3rd until the 5th of April 2009. The weekend starts with 6:00 PM Evening Prayer in our mangificent chapel on Friday afternoon and will conclude about 2:00 PM on Palm Sunday after joining the seminarians at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
It is an opportunity to meet and to speak with other young men who are considering this profound calling to the Priesthood. There are also chances to meet with seminarians, both those who have recently taken the step out of the world and into the seminary, and those getting ready to step back out of the seminary and into parish life as priests. We will discuss who a priest is and what promises a priest takes (obedience and celibacy). There will also be an opportunity to hear a few young diocesan priests tell us what it has been like for them offering the sacraments, preaching, visiting and being with their parishioners whose souls have been entrusted to them.
For more information, please call (914) 968-1340. To register contact vocations@archny.org.

Nicholas Fernandez, 25, traded in his gun and badge for a Bible and rosary in August, resigning from the NYPD after 2½ years so he could enroll at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers for six years of study.

Click here to read the full New York Post article.

The archdiocesan Vocations Office will promote vocations to the priesthood this fall through a print campaign appealing to young people and their families.
Posters, prayer cards and brochures are being sent to parishes, schools and religious education programs for the rollout of the campaign in September and early October.
"We need to appeal to and to build up our base," Father Luke Sweeney, the Director of Vocations, explained. "Young men in our parishes, our schools and our religious education programs need to be the backbone of future candidates."
Click here to read the full story from Catholic New York.

La Oficina de Vocaciones de la Arquidiócesis promoverá las vocaciones al sacerdocio este otoño a través de una atractiva campaña impresa para jóvenes y sus familias.
Afiches, tarjetas de rezo y folletos están siendo enviados a las parroquias, escuelas y programas de educación religiosa para el lanzamiento de la campaña en septiembre y principios de octubre.
"Necesitamos atraer y fomentar nuestra base" explico el Padre Luke Sweeney, director de la Oficina de Vocaciones. "Hombres jóvenes en nuestras parroquias, nuestras escuelas y nuestros programas de educación religiosa necesitan ser el elemento principal para futuros candidatos".
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Cathedral Prep graduate Joseph Loomis '08 poses for a picture with his family and Supreme Knight Carl Anderson at the Knights of Columbus Annual Convention in Quebec City on August 6th.

Click here for Catholic New York's full article

From the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI's Yankee Stadium Homily:
"My dear young friends, like the seven men, 'filled with the Spirit and wisdom' whom the Apostles charged with care for the young Church, may you step forward and take up the responsibility which your faith in Christ sets before you! May you find the courage to proclaim Christ, 'the same, yesterday, and today and for ever' and the unchanging truths which have their foundation in him (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10; Heb 13:8). These are the truths that set us free!"

"Young men and women of America, I urge you: open your hearts to the Lord's call to follow him in the priesthood and the religious life. Can there be any greater mark of love than this: to follow in the footsteps of Christ, who was willing to lay down his life for his friends (cf. Jn 15:13)?"

In the Philippine Daily Inquirer
"With St. Patrick’s Cathedral filled to capacity in a spirit of jubilation, Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York, ordained nine men to the Catholic priesthood at St. Patrick’s Cathedral last May 10.
Among them was Ronald P. Perez, a Filipino-American originally from Manila and Batangas. Prior to his Ordination, Fr. Perez was Deacon of the Word at the Papal Mass last April 20, 2008 at the Yankee Stadium."

Click here to continue reading.

In the Poughkeepsie Journal
"The Rev. Robert Bubel, who is one of the archdiocese's six newly ordained priests, played a major role as a deacon during the April 19 papal Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Bubel, whose formative religious years were spent in St. Columba parish in Hopewell Junction, said celebrating Mass for Pope Benedict affirmed his own decision to give his life to God."

Click here to read the full article.

Two seminarians share how and why they are pursuing the priesthood:
Listen here
Click on "Listen Now" under the first entry "Seminarians Reflect on Dearth of Priests"

"Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father."

Full text here

Son's Call to Priesthood Becomes Vocation for Parents, Pope Says

2/5/2008 - Catholic News Service

A son's call to the priesthood often becomes a vocation for his parents as well, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"You were probably more surprised than anyone about what happened and is happening to your sons," the pope told the parents of students at Rome's major seminary Feb. 1.

"Trying to understand them and following their progress, you, too, dear fathers and mothers, often have found yourselves involved in a journey in which your faith is reinforced and renewed," he said.

Pope Benedict led an evening prayer service at the Rome seminary in the presence of the staff, the students and many of their parents.

He told the parents that he knew many of them had another future in mind for their sons, and he imagined they had often reflected on the earliest signs of their sons' vocations or "in some cases, on the contrary, on the years in which the life of your son seemed far from the Church."

Pope Benedict said that now the parents are "participants in the marvelous adventure of your sons. In fact, even if it can seem that most people do not find a priest's life interesting, in reality it is the most interesting and most necessary adventure for the world, the adventure of demonstrating and making present the fullness of life to which all aspire."

Just before leaving the seminary, Pope Benedict told the seminarians that the bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, making their "ad limina" visits during the week to report on the status of their dioceses, had told him that although half the people in the Eastern part of the country claim to be agnostic "they have a great thirst for God and want to know him; they cannot live this way."

"So, even if there are many contradictions, resistance and opposition, the thirst for God exists, and we have the beautiful vocation of helping them, of bringing light. This is our adventure."

The pope asked the seminarians to prepare carefully for their future as priests, to take advantage of the periods of silence offered in the seminary, to pray and to study in order to become "the man of God that you must be and that people expect a priest to be."

"God calls you to be saints," the pope said. "From this moment on, holiness must be the objective of all of your choices and decisions."

On April 5, 2008 at St. Eugene’s Parish in Yonkers, NY, the Serra Club of the Bronx and Westchester celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Adoration Chapel for Vocations that they staff. It was also a Bicentennial Event for the Archdiocese of NY.

In The Journal News

New York is a particular challenge, Sweeney said, because many obstacles to hearing God's call - secularism, relativism, hedonism, immature faith - are more accepted, even promoted, than in other parts of the country.

"If people are not convinced of their Catholic faith, that this is something true and worthy, why would someone want to give up a wife, children, a place of their own, for a 24/7 job?" he said.

Continue reading full article

See if you can spot the NYPRIEST ads in these photos. Play basketball, and think about your vocation.

A video of the game. See if you can find the ad.

From Christendom College:

Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of New York Rev. Luke Sweeney gave the opening remarks on Saturday morning in which he addressed some of the challenges to youth discerning vocations today.

"Now I'm sure in a way we're preaching to the choir, for myself and for yourself," he said. "You've grown up in a certain Catholic culture and tradition so that you know that priesthood, religious life, consecrated life, and marriage are good and worthy callings and I'm sure I would not hear what I hear from some parents: 'I don't want my son to be a priest-I don't want my daughter to be a religious-I want them to be happy.' Well, if we're doing God's will, we will be happy. There will be sacrifice, but God will give us those seeds of happiness."

Rev. Sweeney urged students to pray, to do spiritual reading, and to talk about their call with a priest.

"Speak with a priest," he said. "Be able to open up your heart and see if that's where the Holy Spirit is calling you to. Otherwise, time might fly by and you might regret never having confronted that issue-never having asked God, 'Is this what I want to do?' whether you really want to or not."

Listen to the full audio here:



Read what happened here.

On Vocations:

"The biggest thing is probably God is being moved off the picture for everyday life, for families, for society, and without God's grace, without communion with God, and without prayer with God, it's going to be impossible to have a vocation," said Sweeney.

On NYPRIEST.COM:

There, users can view a one-minute movie trailer called "The World Needs Heroes," which also ran in a handful of theaters. The website is chock of full of information and even answers questions like "how hard is celibacy?"

On Pope Benedict XVI's visit to New York in April:

"It's giving an opportunity to highlight the seminarians, the life that they lead and of course the preparation for priesthood, which in a way is shrouded in mystery for many, many people," said Sweeney.

Read full story here

From the Pope's Message for Vocations 2008:

Among those totally dedicated to the service of the Gospel, are priests, called to preach the word of God, administer the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation, committed to helping the lowly, the sick, the suffering, the poor, and those who experience hardship in areas of the world where there are, at times, many who still have not had a real encounter with Jesus Christ. Missionaries announce for the first time to these people Christ's redemptive love. Statistics show that the number of baptized persons increases every year thanks to the pastoral work of these priests, who are wholly consecrated to the salvation of their brothers and sisters. In this context, a special word of thanks must be expressed "to the fidei donum priests who work faithfully and generously at building up the community by proclaiming the word of God and breaking the Bread of Life, devoting all their energy to serving the mission of the Church. Let us thank God for all the priests who have suffered even to the sacrifice of their lives in order to serve Christ ... Theirs is a moving witness that can inspire many young people to follow Christ and to expend their lives for others, and thus to discover true life" (Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, 26).

...Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated.

"That’s the title of NYPriest.com’s new movie ad, and it makes the essential point. God has shown his love and respect for human beings by taking an incredible risk, putting the very future of his project of redemption into our hands. He has arranged things such that the graces he intends for mankind reach us primarily through the seven sacraments. If men will step up and accept the responsibility to be the channel of these graces, then the risk will pay off, with eternal rewards. If they don’t, it simply won’t."
Click here to see the full editorial.

"The inspirational and hard-hitting ad is part of a larger year-long campaign that targets young men who may consider becoming a priest -- and their parents, who, church experts say, also need convincing."

Click here to see the full article

4 seminaries, 4 teams, 1 day.