Its mid-January national meeting in Oceanside, Calif., focused on the new challenges. The conference was founded in 1979. Priest Call,'' is the cardinal's program to promote vocations to the diocesan priesthood in 2001. The cardinal, who will celebrate 52 years in the priesthood June 11, unveiled the campaign at a news conference Jan. 25. The Philadelphia Archdiocese is airing television and radio commercials, and print advertisements in regional and college newspapers.
Billboards are in place throughout the five counties covered by the archdiocese.
The promotion also includes placing placards on trains and buses, as well as a mass mailing to the archdiocese's approximately 424,000 registered Catholic households. Speaking Feb. 1 to members of the Roman Rota, a Vatican tribunal that handles appeals of marriage annulment cases, the pope said a related danger for church courts was imposing higher standards for the validity of the marriage sacrament than for nonchurch marriages. The capacity of a person to get married is rooted in human nature, the pope said. Religious leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina criticized the newly elected president of Yugoslavia for failing to condemn Serb war crimes during a visit to Bosnia. A senior priest said Catholics still faced severe discrimination in parts of the country, and he urged equal rights for all citizens.