A diocesan deacon at our parish and I were having this conversation just the day before the Holy Father gave this talk. The deacon was trying to convince me that I should promote vocations to the priesthood instead of to our Franciscan Brothers of Life. I told him something that is reflected in the Holy Father’s talk and now I feel good that I finally got something right.
I said, "Yes, we do need priests and deacons. But we cannot stop recruiting brothers (consecrated religious men). Most priests end up in parishes. There is an obvious need in parishes.
However, who will walk the streets of our cities proclaiming the Gospel of Life? Who will run pregnancy centers to save the life of the unborn? Who will sit up all night with a dying person praying them into heaven or sustaining the family? Who will advocate for the rights of the most vulnerable members of society? Who will take in the babies that motehrs want to abort, after we persuade them to give birth? Who will spend time teaching Christian parenting to expectant fathers? Who will feed the pregnant mother who comes in without any resources and wants to abort, because she believes that she’s too poor to have another child? Whoi will care for the child after he’s born, when moms and dads have to work and are too poor to afford childcare? Who will lead youth through chastity days, preach healing retreats to those who have had an abortion, teach chastity to our youth and children, and teach the Gospel of Life to the laity? Who will travel from parish to parish, city to city, country to country proclaiming the Gospel of Life?
If a man becomes a diocesan priest or a deacon, does he want to be poor? Does he want to give up all controls to a superior? Does he want to live in a community that prays five hours a day? Does he want to work in a soup kitchen instead of a parish, stay up all night in a homeless shelter cleaning bathrooms, feeding the guests, bathing some of them, darning their socks so that they are not cold when they go out again or doing their laundry? If that were his desire, why become a diocesan priest? Why not become a consecrated religious?"
My friend, who is a wonderful guy and a very holy man looked at me with eyes wide open and said, “Gosh, I didn’t realize how much we need the brothers. You’re right. We need more of both, priests and brothers. No diocesan priest is going to do that. That’s not their role in the Church. Their role is to celebrate sacraments and run parishes. Married deacons can do that either. We have families and wives.”
We both laughed and decided to ask the Lord to send us an equal amount of priests and Brothers of Life. We spent an hour before the Blessed Sacrament praying for more deacons, priests and brothers. It was pretty cool.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
