The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-08-05
DEARTH OF. VACATIONS.
Thousands of Our Growing Boys
Await an Opportunity.
Washington. ID. C.. All

Washington, D. c., Aug l.
Editor Intermountain Catholic:
Bishop D said recently in CONVEX
sation: IF 1 had twenty Apostolic
priests in my diocese / would make my
state ring with the claims of the
Church. AS it is. / must content my
self with giving Mass and the sacra-
ments to the few Catholics l have.
There is no better class of people in
all the country than the American peo-
pie that ] have living in my diocese,
but what they do not know about the
Catholic Church would fill family
Bible. Nor can / complain of my
priests They are all good men, but
they have inherited a tradition that
their duty is done when the Catholics
have a Sunday Mass and the Sacra-
ments when they ask for them. If
had twenty priests with carefully pre-
pared sermons on the fundamental top
les of religion that all the people would
like to listen to- they could get audi
ences every night in the week. l sup
pose there are three hundred towns out
of the seven hundred in our state in
which the voice of a Catholic priest
has never been heard above a whisper.
The difficulty is the lack of a spirit of
aggressiveness and a proper training
TO make ii effective and yet there is
not one of these towns that would not
extend an official invitation to a priest
10 talk from the front steps of the
court house to all the citizens, if he
would only come. wish ] could send
every priest in my diocese to the Apos-
tolic Mission House for a year"
In my judgment, one of the most Sc
rious problems that are facing us is
the deaTth of vocations. There are
enough priests to meet the ordinary
emergencies, but if we are content
merely to satisfy the ordinary emer-
gencies. the dry rot of lifelessness will
soon set in and history will say of the
Church in the United States-she has
lost her best opportunity. There is
whole lot of truth in what this observ-
ing bishop says. 1t is not so much the
dearth of vocations as the failure on
the part Of many priests to cultivate
them. There are thousands of our
growing boys in our parochial schools
who would gladly study for the priest
hood if only the opportunity were Civ
en- to them. The priests who are do
ing their duty in this matter are the
German priests. They make it a con-
scientious duty to support one or more
boys at college. They feel that their
full duty is not done to the Church if
through spiritual paternity they have
not brought other priests to the altar.
But not SO much with priests of other
nationalities. They will spend as much
on summer trip to the seashore as
would educate a boy at college for the
year.
There is. moreover, a great lack of
appreciation of the needs of the coun-
try in some places. There is one do
cese where the authorities are practi-
cally turning boys away from the
priesthood because just there there is
FOR the time being an over-supply of
priests. There is no consideration of
the needs of other dioceses where the
bishops are crying for priests. IF a
general movement were inaugurated
throughout the country having for its
purpose the cultivation of vocations
among the boys. and if the priests
would undertake to pay the way at
college of needy boys, in few years
the seminaries would have an adequate
supply. Then it would be possible to
supply the necessitous dioceses, and
then the demands of such bishops as
Bishop D. for twenty Apostolic
priests could easily be met. The Apos-
tolic Mission House is now thoroughly
equipped to train such priests.
(Rev.) A. p. DOYLE.