When a full-time vocation director has the support of his bishop and fellow priests, and adequate staff to do his job, the number of candidates in a diocese increases significantly. The vocation director's tasks are many and varied. To be effective for his diocese, he must be able to focus his attention on the promotion, recruitment and training of seminarians for the diocesan priesthood. We promote vocations through newsletters, posters, radio and television and many other techniques. What we have learned, however, is that promotion by itself is not enough.
Someone has to personally invite prospective candidates to think about a vocation.
Personal recruitment of candidates is the only way to tap the potential for vocations, which exist in every diocese. This recruitment consists in identification of candidates, initial interviews, prayer with them, dinners and discussions, and the successful completion of the application process. The vocation director has to have adequate time for these follow-up meetings with candidates in order to help them discover and become confident of the Lord's call in their lives, to interest them in the seminary and in a process of discernment, formation and theological study, and to help them overcome the obstacles which may stand in their way. Vocation directors are in fact directors of recruitment for their dioceses since their main task is to follow up with viable candidates who are presented to them. Time With Prospective Candidates Vocation directors indicate that it takes much time to meet personally and frequently with all the prospective candidates who surface each year.