Jesus reminds us: `Be not afraid’
By Fr. Kent Bowlds, Vocation Director
“Be Not Afraid!” proclaims the current vocation poster you may have noticed at your parish. I need to hear that reminder from Jesus Christ often — not only as we face the challenge of having fewer priests for our parishes, but also as we face the new, blessed challenge of having more seminarians, which has greatly increased our vocations budget.
The annual Catholic Service Appeal (CSA) has become even more essential for that reason, since a portion goes to seminarian education. I thank you for your past generosity and for your continued prayers and financial support through the CSA. “Imitate Christ’s Love” is the theme of the 2009 CSA collection set the weekend of May 2-3, 2009
Between $350 — 400,000 per year is needed to fund vocations, which includes everything from my salary and living expenses to the tuition, room, and board for our 10 seminarians.
For those in the four years of graduate theology the seminary cost is well over $25,000 per year, much like any private college; in addition we pay the seminarians’ health insurance and give them a small monthly stipend.
Those in undergraduate seminary college are expected to pay a portion of their tuition or take out a student loan (repaid by the diocese if the individual is ordained), though no seminarian will ever be turned away due to a lack of funds.
The income for vocations comes from a variety of sources: last year approximately $29,000 from an Extension Society grant to the diocese, $40,000 from Knights of Columbus council fund raisers, $22,000 from the interest on various trusts within the Catholic Foundation, $57,000 from the annual Easter Sunday second collection for vocations, and about $65,000 allocated from last year’s Catholic Service Appeal.
Do the math, and you find that vocations fell short by well over $150,000, which was met by taking from a reserve surplus in the general diocesan funds earmarked for vocations. The urgent situation now is that over the past few years that reserve has been totally depleted, due to an increase in the number of seminarians, forcing the diocese to take away from other reserve accounts and so affecting other important diocesan needs.
Of course, this is not just about finances. I only share the details because people generally feel more comfortable giving to a cause when they know more about how their money is being spent.
What we give to the Catholic Service Appeal is simply giving back a portion of all that God has given to us — a token recognition that every good thing in our life comes from God. And our giving bears fruit for ourselves and for generations to come, which is especially true of what the CSA contributes to the formation of our future priests.
Our seminarians are being formed to attend to what lies at the very heart of our faith — the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. As we have always believed, Vatican II reminded us, and our catechism still proclaims, the celebration of the Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.”
For ourselves, our children, and their children to keep drawing from that source and heading to that summit, it will require good men to keep stepping forward and the financial resources to give them proper seminary formation.
Know that I take very seriously the responsibility to be a good steward of what you give to the CSA, whether it is $5 or $5,000 or more. Again, thank you in advance for supporting our seminarians through the annual Catholic Service Appeal. (If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me by any of the following means: 601-720-7273, 4000 W. Tidewater Ln., Madison MS 39110, email: frkentb@gmail.com, website: jacksonvocations.com)
