Group aids priestly vocations

As the Catholic Church in the United States struggles with a priest shortage, a growing number of lay members are working together to help people heed the call to religious life.

For more than four decades, Mike Doohan, of Spokane, has been gathering with other Catholics in the area to pray for and support the clergy of the church. Known as the Serra Club, its mission is to foster and promote the priesthood and other religious vocations.

“Priests are human beings, and they need our support,” said Doohan, a member of St. John Vianney in Spokane Valley. “Our goal is to serve the bishop and work in harmony with the church to promote the proper environment for vocations.”

Their efforts appear to be bearing fruit. While many parts of the country are experiencing a serious decline in priestly vocations, the Diocese of Spokane is witnessing a surge. Last fall, 21 young men were studying for the priesthood and preparing to serve the Diocese of Spokane. That’s the highest number of seminarians the diocese has seen in the last six years.

“We’re holding our own,” said Doohan, one of the 75 members of the local Serra Club. “We do a lot of work in the parishes, where we’re on the lookout for people who might be touched by God to follow a vocation.”

This weekend, Spokane’s Serra Club will host more than 800 people from throughout the country and other parts of the world for the 64th annual Serra International convention. For four days, these devout Catholics will gather for prayer and worship while participating in planning and leadership training sessions. The featured speakers for the convention include Bishop William Skylstad, of Spokane, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops, and the Rev. Robert J. Spitzer, Jesuit priest and president of Gonzaga University.

The number of U.S. Catholic priests has declined significantly in recent years – down 25 percent from 57,317 in 1985 to 42,839 in 2005, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

With fewer men entering the priesthood to replace those who have died or retired, parish priests must shoulder more responsibilities than ever before. Last year, 3,251 of the 18,891 parishes in the United States had no resident pastor, according to CARA. With the shortage, many priests are often assigned to several parishes at once. Larger churches that once had at least two priests to lead the congregation now have only one to do the job.

At Spokane’s Bishop White Seminary, about 14 of the men training to become priests grew up in or have connections with Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The rest come from Mexico and other countries and will likely serve the growing Spanish-speaking population in the parishes of Pasco and Walla Walla.

In the next two years, 10 of these men are expected to be ordained priests, increasing the total number of active priests in the diocese by 20 percent.

Working closely with the diocese and Bishop White Seminary in Spokane, the only college seminary program in Washington state, Serrans are involved in a number of programs that provide spiritual, emotional and sometimes financial support to priests and others called to religious life. Once a year, they host an appreciation brunch for all the nuns who live in the area as well as parties and other outings for the priests and brothers. They’ll invite them to their homes for supper or help the bishop host a breakfast. Members also send cards to all the diocesan and Jesuit priests on their birthdays and on the anniversaries of their ordinations.

Serra began in 1935 when four Catholic men in Seattle started meeting regularly over lunch to talk about how they could live out their faith. Today, the organization has a membership of more than 23,000 men and women in 35 countries. Named after Junipero Serra, a Franciscan priest who established many missions in California during the mid- to late 1700s, the organization was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II to seek out vocations for the church.

The Spokane chapter of the Serra Club is the second oldest in the world.

Besides serving their bishop, members of the Serra Club also get together for fellowship and to deepen their own faith, Doohan said. “We’re like family,” he said. “We’ve formed close relationships and support each other.”