GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Around the time he was entering high school, Andrew Hamilton started thinking about answering the call to the priesthood.
But it wasn’t like picking up his cellphone. The call was, at times, hard to hear, and he didn’t always know how to respond.
Hamilton, 20, of Ford City, Armstrong County, said he would have benefitted from a program such as the one the Diocese of Greensburg is starting to help middle school-age boys discern such a call.
“That’s a pivotal time in your life. That’s when I really found myself having the inclination to pursue the priesthood,” said Hamilton, a third-year student at St. Mark Seminary and Gannon University in Erie.
At a time when the Greensburg diocese and Roman Catholic dioceses across the country are adjusting to priest shortages, programs such as Jeremiah Days are designed to fan the spark of a priestly vocation in boys from sixth through eighth grade (ages 11 to 14).
“This isn’t a direct response to the priests we’re going to lose in the next five years. . It’s work for the future, of course,” said the Rev. Tyler Bandura, associate director of the diocesan Office for Clergy Vocations.
Bandura, chaplain at Greensburg Central Catholic, developed the Jeremiah Days program after observing that young men in the four-county diocese don’t have a formal way to nurture a religious calling.
The program’s name, borrowed from the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., comes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, who accepted a call to the prophetic ministry when he was a child, Bandura said.
“We have nothing for these younger guys who are coming forward and are interested and think they do have a vocation and know at a young age,” he said.
Jeremiah Days is organized around a series of five meetings that will be held at St. Barbara Church in Harrison City this year and in 2018, and then repeated. The first meeting, held May 27, had eight registrations and six boys who attended. The second meeting is scheduled for July 29.
Although he was encouraged by the initial response, Bandura said vocation development is not just the job of the diocese. It is a joint work, he said, of the parents, the parish and the priest.
“Everyone plays a key part. It might be small, but even that little drop of water that falls in a garden waters the seed that’s there and helps bring life to it,” he said.
Hamilton, who attended the May 27 meeting, said he was inspired by two men at his home parish - Bandura and the Rev. Eric Dinga - who became priests, as well as his parish pastor, the Rev. Bryan Summers of Christ, Prince of Peace Church.
“(It was) largely my pastor, who really had a joyful priesthood and was always present as a spiritual father,” Hamilton said. “I saw a priest fully live out his priesthood.”
Hamilton said he went through a period of uncertainty in high school but became more comfortable with his calling as a freshman at St. Vincent College in Unity. Exposed to the Benedictine spirituality there, he said he developed a better prayer life and a closer relationship with God.
Hamilton said his father, a Catholic convert, was OK with his decision, but his mother, a lifelong Catholic, was shocked.
“She knew I was involved (in the parish), but she just never saw me progressing to the priesthood,” he said, noting that both are now supportive.
The Jeremiah Days program won’t answer every question, Bandura said, but it endeavors to answer two in particular: “What am I going to do?” and, “Who is God calling me to be?”
Bandura said the church wants to be in the mix when a middle-schooler considers a college or career path, especially since those decisions are made earlier and earlier.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re doing our part to make sure that gospel message is just as loud as all the other voices they’re hearing,” Bandura said. “God has always called men into the priesthood, and he always will. We’ve just got to make sure we’re doing our part to help these guys hear that voice and not be distracted by all the other voices.”
Easing the shortage
Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic noted in March that a priest shortage is not being experienced everywhere. Some countries have enough vocations that they are able to send priests to serve parishes in the West. In the Diocese of Greensburg, for example, several parishes are being served by priests from the Philippines.
There are 79 priests active in the diocese - 59 diocesan, 12 international, eight Benedictine - compared to 150 in 1987, according to diocesan records. To meet the pastoral and sacramental needs of the diocese, more international priests are planned, spokesman Jerry Zufelt said.
Of the eight Benedictines serving the diocese, six are at the parish level and two are hospital chaplains. Of the 32 retired priests, 11 are still active in ministry in some capacity.
Zufelt said anticipated ordinations in the next two years will not be enough to offset the expected retirements. In 2018, four priests are eligible to retire, while one ordination is scheduled. In 2019, seven priests are eligible to retire, and one ordination is scheduled.
This year, three priests are retiring and no ordinations are scheduled, he said.
“We anticipate that the total number of priests serving the diocese will be approximately 67 in 2019, down from 79 right now,” he said.
The number of registered Catholics has dropped by 35 percent in 30 years, from 217,704 in 1987 to 141,041 as of June 30, according to diocesan records.
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