No more priest shortage with this idea!

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Madaglan

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Earlier today I was looking online at new video games that are coming out. (I have pretty much stopped playing video games because it digs too much into other aspects of my life, but I was interested anyhow in the new games coming out.) One of the new games is created by the U.S. Army and is created with the intent of getting young people to better understand what the U.S. Army is all about. It is a recruiting tool.

So, I was thinking: Why doesn’t the Catholic Church create a video game on what it’s like to be a priest, monk and nun? In the game you would act as a parish priest, a monk, a missionary or a religious sister. Your objection: build up the faith. As a parish priest you would have to find ways to increase mass attendance, repair leaky roofs, build additions, fight off Christian fundamentalists who try to convert your parishoners as they exit the Church, and settle with an iron fist disagreements at church meetings. As a missionary you would do many of the same things–plus appeasing angry tribesmen, who, in not yet understanding the Catholic faith, desire to have your head. As a sister you could create certain school programs and discipline unruly children, among other things.

Of course, the game would also allow you to choose your vocation from several orders–Jesuits, Franciscians, Marians, Carmelites, etc.; and the player, in order to advance his priest, monk, or nun’s hierarchal rank, would have to answer difficult questions about the Catholic faith. Rising to the level of bishop, the player would then have the duty of ensuring that all the Catholics in his diocese have a Catholic priest close by. As bishop, the player would also have to continue in his pastoral duties and resolve legal confrontations.

Perhaps if there is enough room, the player would be confronted with moral situations in which, if he answers incorrectly, he acquires mortal sin. An exorcism or two might add some excitement to the game.

Anyhow, I think a video game would be great for young people. I’m 21 and I think it would be really cool. I would imagine if the game is amazing enough, more people would join religious life. :bounce:
 
I think your on to something:thumbsup: . I would guess you want the sister to move up the ranks to being a mother superior and not bishop ofcourse.😉
 
Originally Quoted by Rayne89:
I think your on to something:thumbsup: . I would guess you want the sister to move up the ranks to being a mother superior and not bishop ofcourse.😉
Yep! And instead of becoming a bishop, a monk would become an abbot. :yup:
 
Hi,

Good idea. But, I think the real problem lies with their parents.
 
Originally Quoted by John R.:
Good idea. But, I think the real problem lies with their parents.
What exactly do you mean by that? Are you suggesting that parents push their children away from religious life and in the direction of financial success and marriage?
 
If you want priests you don’t need a game just have a priest formally ask the young to consider the possibility while they are still in High School. Many vocations have been lost because nobody was there to witness for or nuture its development.

God Bless
 
Originally Quoted by Deacon2006:

If you want priests you don’t need a game just have a priest formally ask the young to consider the possibility while they are still in High School. Many vocations have been lost because nobody was there to witness for or nuture its development.
Sure, that would be great. Unfortunately, my own personal experience of priests talking about vocations has been fairly negative. Mostly it’s the same old deal:

PRIEST
  1. God has a vocation for everyone in life.
  2. For some people that vocation is to get married, have children, and to instruct them in the faith.
  3. For others, that vocation is to become a priest or to enter religious life.
  4. [priest recalling his own experience] When I was your age, I had no idea that I was going to be a priest. Like many of you, I was too busy drinking beer at your age.
  5. Come, consider becoming a priest. I’m not going to give you any further incentives for becoming a priest, but I can tell you that I personally am glad I made the choice.
(Ironically the priest in our diocese who is in charge of discerning vocations came to our campus mass today. He followed the above model to a T.)

Now, I don’t know about other people, but if I am to consider the priesthood, I need to hear stories–real, manly stories. I want to hear about how Fr. X, at 2 a.m. and in some old, dilapildated structure with a history of violent death, expells thirty demons from a frothing and frenzied thirteen-year-old. I want to hear stories about how Fr. X, when a missionary trudging through the jungle of some country no longer politically recognized as such, comes across a primitive tribe which never has had contact with civilization before (much less a Westerner); and, after miraculously curing all the lepers in the sick house with a 1st-class relic of St. Ignatius, converts thousands of them to Catholic Christianity. I want to hear about how Fr. X receives frequent visions from angels and saints–and how Mary has given him private revelation about the end of the world. I want to hear how Fr. X studies history, languages, theology–for hours on end–and deep inside vaults containing thousands of books scribbled in the Middle Ages by long dead monks, stored below long ago and never read since; and I want to hear about how Fr. X, in going through these works, frequently rediscovers ancient manuscripts and passages hitherto thought lost. I want to hear how Fr. X rebuts the attacks of Christian fundamentalists in his multi-volume works–demolishing their logic as did St. Thomas Aquinas his opponents. In short, I want to hear some pizazz. :yup:

By the way, does anyone know of any orders that fall into the above description? I was thinking the Jesuits, but perhaps there’s another order that better fits the description.
 
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Madaglan:
What exactly do you mean by that? Are you suggesting that parents push their children away from religious life and in the direction of financial success and marriage?
I have heard of parents discouraging their chidren away from a religious vocation to the more financial rewarding laity. Sad reality but true.
 
I think the “balance the parish budget while trying to find money to fix the leaking roof and repair the broken furnace before winter while the rectory is also in bad shape” level would scare them away.
 
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Madaglan:
Yep! And instead of becoming a bishop, a monk would become an abbot. :yup:
Better yet: you could get a prize for NOT becoming a bishop or abbot.

Here are two game scenarios, the first from real life; the second could be:

Bishop: you’re appointed bishop of a diocese where your predecessor ignored an infamous child predator, and the first week on the job you deal with 125 law suits against the diocese because of one priest . . . :bigyikes: You have to testify in court about things you never heard of and figure out whether to file for bankruptcy while trying to rebuild confidence among your people.

Abbot: you have a monastery that comfortably houses 150 monks but you have only 21 guys on board and the building is falling apart. Seven of the monks are virtually incapacitated by illness and old age and are confined to the infirmary. The middle aged ones are all sitting around in a circle going “om” and walking around the new labyrinth, :rolleyes: and new vocations come and go before they get to first vows.

Missionary: for the missionary scenario, the grand prize should go for converting the Emperor of Japan! 😃
 
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Madaglan:
Now, I don’t know about other people, but if I am to consider the priesthood, I need to hear stories–real, manly stories. I want to hear about how Fr. X, at 2 a.m. and in some old, dilapildated structure with a history of violent death, expells thirty demons from a frothing and frenzied thirteen-year-old. I want to hear stories about how Fr. X, when a missionary trudging through the jungle of some country no longer politically recognized as such, comes across a primitive tribe which never has had contact with civilization before (much less a Westerner); and, after miraculously curing all the lepers in the sick house with a 1st-class relic of St. Ignatius, converts thousands of them to Catholic Christianity. I want to hear about how Fr. X receives frequent visions from angels and saints–and how Mary has given him private revelation about the end of the world. I want to hear how Fr. X studies history, languages, theology–for hours on end–and deep inside vaults containing thousands of books scribbled in the Middle Ages by long dead monks, stored below long ago and never read since; and I want to hear about how Fr. X, in going through these works, frequently rediscovers ancient manuscripts and passages hitherto thought lost. I want to hear how Fr. X rebuts the attacks of Christian fundamentalists in his multi-volume works–demolishing their logic as did St. Thomas Aquinas his opponents. In short, I want to hear some pizazz. :yup:
See, stories like that are fun and all, but upwards of 90% of priests aren’t going to have those stories, and to only present those as a picture of the priesthood is false advertising.

The reality is that priests today are going to be in charge of larger and larger numbers of parishoners, and are going to find their duties ever increasing. You will be more likely to hear stories like those from the priests at my parish, who have been priests for 40 and 45 years, respectively. Stories of playing hockey for the seminary team, and the teammates who are still friends today. Stories of serving in the armed services as chaplain, and all the places they’ve seen. Stories about their own personal “dark nights of the soul” and how God helped them rise above and persevere. Stories like the one our pastor told recently during a homily on the Eucharist: last summer he met a woman on a retreat who had recently converted to Catholicism, and she told him that the main reason that she converted was because it would allow her the opportunity to hold Jesus in her hands, to receive Him in the Eucharist. He told us that stories like hers made being a priest worthwhile. Or what our former pastor (retired but currently living and serving at our parish) has told us about the hundreds of miracles he has seen when administering the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick- not always physical healing, but always healing of the soul.

Okay, never mind, I just killed my own point. I guess they do have some pretty good stories (although not as dramatic as your examples). 😛 Enough at least to counterbalance the leaky roofs, the pushy Pastoral councils, and all the other irritating stuff.
 
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Madaglan:
Now, I don’t know about other people, but if I am to consider the priesthood, I need to hear stories–real, manly stories…
I don’t think it would be wise to sell a game for the priesthood on something most priests don’t encounter (such as a child in need of exorcism).

It should certainly be a goal oriented game…perhaps the game could have real life experiences incorporated into it. For instance…the life of Maximilian Kolbe…a real priest with a real adventure serving our Lord.

One part of the game could deal with circumstances dealt with in a similar fashion as he encountered. …Just a thought.
 
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Madaglan:
Sure, that would be great. Unfortunately, my own personal experience of priests talking about vocations has been fairly negative. Mostly it’s the same old deal:

I want to hear how Fr. X rebuts the attacks of Christian fundamentalists in his multi-volume works–demolishing their logic as did St. Thomas Aquinas his opponents. In short, I want to hear some pizazz. :yup:

By the way, does anyone know of any orders that fall into the above description? I was thinking the Jesuits, but perhaps there’s another order that better fits the description.
I was educated by Jesuits in the 70’s, most were ordained in the 40-60’s. Great bunch of guys however every classmate who went to the in jesuit novitate all left in a year because the 70-80’s Jesuits are real flakes for the most part.

I suggest check out Opus Dei or if you are in a good diocese then they might have what you are looking for. I routinely meet priests who have heroic stories in their lives like you are considering.

God Bless
 
Great Idea. Don’t forget to include deacons. They could be running around waiting on tables with obstacles like cups and plates being thrown at them.

Deacon Tony SFO
 
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Deacon2006:
I was educated by Jesuits in the 70’s, most were ordained in the 40-60’s. Great bunch of guys however every classmate who went to the in jesuit novitate all left in a year because the 70-80’s Jesuits are real flakes for the most part.
Some say the vocations shortage is bogus anyway, meaning it shouldn’t have happened and didn’t happen for the reasons everything thinks. culturewars.com/2002/may02_ggm.html

From a review of Goodby, Good Men:

*…*Rose’s portrayal of vocational and seminary abuses could lead the reader to the conclusion that American Catholics have, by and large, been deliberately deprived of priests by men and women whose agenda was “reshaping” and “re-imaging” the Church. In Rose’s view, there hasn’t been a shortage of vocations, there has been a shortage of what the progressive Catholics in power desired as the “right kind” of vocations: those supportive of the progressive agenda of women’s ordination, married clergy, and the like. Rose’s contention is that many men who had genuine vocations were deliberately screened out of the priesthood because the liberal Catholics in control of the process found them unsupportive of their agenda. Those who read Goodbye, Good Men will come away with an appreciation of the prophetic nature of Archbishop Elden Curtiss’ claim that the vocations shortage is “artificial and contrived.”
 
Re: Good Bye Good Men,

I actually found the book at my public library. Along with Gregorian Chant CDs. I think someone is on to something there in attacking liberalism. I just got the book and read the intro. Pat Buchanan has the right idea according to the quote the author used. Can’t wait to read the book.
 
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Voice_Of_Reason:
Re: Good Bye Good Men,

I actually found the book at my public library. Along with Gregorian Chant CDs. I think someone is on to something there in attacking liberalism. I just got the book and read the intro. Pat Buchanan has the right idea according to the quote the author used. Can’t wait to read the book.
You’d better be strong in your faith. Someone who isn’t really grounded in the faith could lose it reading that book. The stuff that was allowed to go on will turn your stomach.
 
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mercygate:
Better yet: you could get a prize for NOT becoming a bishop or abbot.

Here are two game scenarios, the first from real life; the second could be:

Bishop: you’re appointed bishop of a diocese where your predecessor ignored an infamous child predator, and the first week on the job you deal with 125 law suits against the diocese because of one priest . . . :bigyikes: You have to testify in court about things you never heard of and figure out whether to file for bankruptcy while trying to rebuild confidence among your people.

Abbot: you have a monastery that comfortably houses 150 monks but you have only 21 guys on board and the building is falling apart. Seven of the monks are virtually incapacitated by illness and old age and are confined to the infirmary. The middle aged ones are all sitting around in a circle going “om” and walking around the new labyrinth, :rolleyes: and new vocations come and go before they get to first vows.

Missionary: for the missionary scenario, the grand prize should go for converting the Emperor of Japan! 😃
Nope in the footsteps of St.Francis, the prize would go to the person that can convert the most Muslims! St.Francis tried to convert the sultan during the crusades but that failed 😦
 
The problem with many of the stories about the exciting lives and adventures of those in “religious life” (a term I don’t like but will live with, since it is so thoroughly established) is that they really aren’t exclusive to that state. Obviously some are exclusive, such as those belonging only to those who are priests such as the administration of the Sacraments of Holy Communion and Reconciliation…
 
this idea has great potential, so I am hereby putting you in charge, able assisted and advised by the younger (under 25) generation on these forums, with designing and producing these games, and I am sure we can talk Karl into marketing them through CA (if he says no, try Jimmy, he’s a little wilder).

Catechumens - game of Christian survival in ancient Rome
40 Years in the Wilderness - make it to the Promised Land and subdue the Canaanites to keep it
Crusaders - Islamic jihad repelled by the united forces of Christendom
Cross and Sword - Christianization of the Americas

This will give CCD a whole new look
 
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