Promotion work for priests and laity to boost vocations culture in Adelaide.
By Anthony Barich
The Archdiocese of Adelaide aims to promote the priesthood and the permanent diaconate within a new “culture of vocations” to save itself from an impending lack of priests.
A number of parishes in the archdiocese have already merged, and the concept of promoting a vocations culture, the brainchild of Archbishop Philip Wilson, has been “in gestation” for two years.
Adelaide currently has two permanent deacons and two more who have nearly finished their training at the Adelaide College of Divinity, an inter-denominational institute used by Flinders University and comprising Catholic Theological College, St Barnabas’ Anglican Theological College and Parkin-Wesley College of the Uniting Church.
The development of the concept of promoting the priesthood within a ‘vocations culture’ coincides with the Archbishop’s Leap Ahead Project, which seeks consultation to address “major issues” facing the archdiocese over the next 10 years, including the looming priest shortage as many are due to retire soon due to old age or illness, or both.
The diocese’s acting vocations director Fr Mark Sexton, who at age 50 is the last graduate of its St Francis Xavier Seminary that closed in 2000, said the plan to focus on local vocations would steer clear of scouting priests from overseas, as doing so would “deprive other countries of priests and the sacraments”.
If men from other countries ask the Adelaide archdiocese if they can study for the priesthood for South Australia, Fr Sexton said they would be asked to first enquire into their own diocese.
“Priesthood is part of a culture of vocations, and we need to build it across the whole community. If we can get people thinking in terms of living their vocation as a mother, parent, teacher, etc, and if the younger ones hear people using those words unreservedly, they’re more likely to think ‘what’s my vocation, maybe I’m called to Religious life, or the priesthood,” he said.
He said the current perception is that ‘vocations’ only relates to priests and Religious, which must be changed if vocations to the priesthood are to rise.
Four men are currently in training for Adelaide – three at Corpus Christi College in Melbourne and one in Rome.
Several young men are enquiring, including two Sudanese, which is a large ethnic community in Adelaide.
The long-term goal, Fr Sexton said, is to re-start St Francis Xavier Seminary, as Archbishop Wilson has made it clear “we’d like to train our own here”. At least 10 students are needed for this to happen.
Fr Sexton, parish priest of Barossa Valley and Kapunda, one of the oldest parishes in Australia that formed in 1847, joined the army after high school and taught as a secondary school teacher before entering St Francis Xavier Seminary aged 37.
He and other priests addressed a number of schools on August 4-5 promoting Vocations Week, which was a special focus for the archdiocese, with a celebration similar to its pre-World Youth Day 2008 Days in the Diocese events.
Vocations Week celebrations include a prayer vigil for the Catholic Church on August 7, with an evening Mass, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, followed by a special Mass the next day on the centenary of the death of Blessed Mary MacKillop.
Mary MacKillop started the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in Penola, South Australia. Vocations Week is to conclude with a Youth Ball that evening.
There is also a monthly Diocesan Youth Gathering (DYG) that rotates around the archdiocese’s Deaneries, where a youth council decides the topic of Catechesis and plans the liturgy.