What is the "call of the bishop"?

[excelsus]

I saw it from this site:

wikihow.com/Become-a-Catholic-Priest

It states, “The final test of whether or not you have a vocation to the priesthood is the call of the bishop. If the bishop does not call you to Holy Orders, you do not have a vocation to the priesthood. The bishop’s call is definitive.”

What is this “call of the bishop”? I have never heard of it.

 

[Statius]

I would think it is simply a way of saying that, if your bishop doesn’t agree that you have a vocation to the priesthood, you don’t. It is his recognition which confirms one’s vocation.

 

[excelsus]

I mean, hypothetically, could you go through all the seminary stuff and get ready to be ordained and the bishop could say “Nope, I don’t think so” and you can’t be ordained?

 

[rkrispies]

I mean, hypothetically, could you go through all the seminary stuff and get ready to be ordained and the bishop could say “Nope, I don’t think so” and you can’t be ordained?

Exactly. No man has the right to be ordained, even if he has completed his studies. Everything is entirely up to the bishop.

Chris

 

[puzzleannie]

It also means, whether or not the bishop accepts you into the seminary in the first place, or whether he finds something during your preparation that makes him suspend it. Also I believe there is a formal interview or some other process in the year before the diaconate ordination, and in again the final year before ordination where the bishop and candidate both have to consent. No doubt all during this time the bishop is advised by the candidate’s vocation director, seminary rector and others who guide his preparation. the word “vocation” means more than a calling, it means also “one who is being called” and the one who calls, in his office of representing Christ, is the bishop. No call, no vocation.

 

[OKCatholic]

The simplest explination offered to me was that no man is called to be a priest until he is kneeling in front of his bishop at his ordination.