It’s no secret that the Catholic Church desperately needs priests. This year, the Columbus diocese lists 18 seminarians in various stages of formation, down from 36 four years ago, and so the diocesan vocations office is ramping up its efforts to reach out to young men considering a religious vocation.
Before Bishop Robert Brennan left Columbus to become the bishop of Brooklyn, New York, he appointed Father Brian O’Connor, pastor at Canal Winchester St. John XXIII Church, as the associate vocations director for the diocese.
Father O’Connor will assist Father William Hahn in the vocations office. Father Hahn, who was named vocations director in 2020, remains in that role while taking on additional duties as vicar for clergy in the diocese.
“When the bishop asked me to become the vicar for clergy, he said, ‘I realize this will take a bit more of your time, and so we could appoint an associate vocations director,’” Father Hahn said. “Then we started talking, and Father O’Connor’s name came up.”
Father Stash Dailey, pastor at Columbus Holy Family Church, continues to serve as vicar for religious. He is responsible for overseeing the religious orders of priests and sisters in the Columbus diocese, attracting new orders to the diocese and helping young men and women discern a calling to join a religious order.
In addition to Father O’Connor’s new role as associate vocations director, the office is looking to strengthen its outreach to young men through newly designated regional vocations promoters.
Father O’Connor is assigned the Center-South and East Columbus deaneries as a regional vocations promoter. Other regional vocations promoters are Father Frank Brown, Northwest Columbus Deanery; Father Sean Dooley, North High Columbus Deanery; Father Dan Dury, Northland Columbus Deanery; Father Seth Keller, West Columbus Deanery and Spanish speaking; Father Ed Shikina, Marion Deanery; Father Ty Tomson, Muskingum-Perry and Fairfield-Hocking-Pickaway deaneries; Father Steven Smith, Knox-Licking Deanery; Father Jeff Coning, Tuscarawas-Holmes-Coshocton Deanery; and Father Tim Hayes, Southern Deanery.
The expectations for these regional vocations promoters will be to make contact with potential candidates and host a discernment opportunity at least once a year, help facilitate school visits by priests or seminarians in the region once or more per year, meet with discerners and their families, obtain feedback about an individual from a parish pastor, accept opportunities to speak about vocations in public and provide spiritual direction for those discerning the priesthood.
“And so now if we get an email to the vocations office from someone, the priest in that region can contact them and get the process started,” Father O’Connor said. “The idea is, if someone wants to come talk about the priesthood, let’s have someone nearby.
“If it seems like a promising prospect, the priest in the region would keep meeting with them. If they let the office know that the young man might be ready to enter seminary, then we would facilitate the interview process.”
One vocations outreach initiative in the diocese is the Melchizedek Project, a program that facilitates gatherings of high school- and college-age men who are discerning vocations to the priesthood. Melchizedek groups have formed at Columbus St. Catharine, Hilliard St. Brendan, and Newark St. Francis de Sales parishes. A fourth is starting at Sunbury St. John Neumann with the seminarians at the Josephinum hoping to start a fifth soon specifically for college students.
Father O’Connor, who was ordained to the priesthood in 2015 and previously served as parochial vicar at Powell St. Joan of Arc Church before going to St. John XXIII, considers relationship building and a simple invitation as two key elements to fostering a religious vocation.
In days gone by, it was a given that young men, particularly those who attended a Catholic school, would consider the priesthood. A priest or layperson would often approach an individual who possessed a certain level of piety and suggest considering a vocation. But that’s not the case now.
“Guys who went to seminary then would have been encouraged by their priests in the school or in the parish,” Father O’Connor said. “Invitation is very much the center of why guys go.
“I remember I had to do a confirmation interview, and my pastor at the time said, ‘Brian, what you’re saying here today is a lot of the things a guy says when he’s going to seminary.’”
Because of clergy sexual-abuse scandals that have come to light during the past 20 years, “it’s like there is almost an embarrassment about the priesthood,” Father O’Connor noted. Some young priests or seminarians have experienced the shock of having a pastor removed because of allegations.
“But there are courageous men who have chosen to do this, almost in spite of that,” he said.
Now it’s part of his job to encourage other men to join the priests who have said “yes” to God.
“I’ve been emailing guys, and I’ve already had a couple of meetings,” Father O’Connor said. “With some guys who are just thinking about it, I’m getting to know them and where they’re at.”
He’ll also help with the vocations website, www.seekholiness.com, and social media and attend Melchizedek Project events.
“I’m going to try to be the guy on the front lines,” Father O’Connor said, “so Father Hahn doesn’t have to always be that guy.”
Father O’Connor understands that discernment takes time for young men. In his case, he attended Ohio State to major in environmental science and geology before entering the seminary at the Pontifical College Josephinum.
“The Lord has given us the priesthood, and I am amazed how God Almighty chose to create the Church and chose to dispense His grace to normal guys,” Father O’Connor said. “In the last meeting I had with a prospective candidate, that was the thing we talked about.
“He’d been on a live-in retreat at the Josephinum, and I asked him what he thought. And he was like, ‘You know, the seminarians were pretty good, they’re just like regular guys, and it was nice to talk with them.’”
Many young people look for a voice from God that tells them to follow a religious calling, but the signs often are more subtle and require attentiveness.
“Instead of having the one big sign, a lot of times it’s the Lord gives us very small but consistent signs,” Father O’Connor said. “When I was talking with this gentleman about his experiences on the live-in at the Josephinum, he said it was cool hanging out with the guys and, at the end of the day, that’s a sign that this is something you could do.
“I don’t think God works in absolutes like that a lot of the time, but it’s an assurance to you that, ‘Hey, if I go to seminary, I would have friends, I would get along with the guys. These are the sort of people I hang out with anyway.’”
As far as his own vocation, Father O’Connor said he “was pretty aware that Jesus wanted me to be a priest. And I responded to that in a variety of different ways throughout my young adult life – sometimes going along with it and sometimes not. I felt particularly at Mass that I was called to be a priest – like whenever I went to Mass that God was saying, ‘That’s supposed to be you.’”
There was a period as a young adult when Father O’Connor stopped going to Mass, and “obviously that was the wrong thing to do. But I reconciled and started going again, and that’s what led me to the seminary.
“God is always preparing you. He never calls you to something that He has not already prepared you for. We just celebrated the Immaculate Conception, and God was preparing Our Lady from the moment of her conception to be able to say ‘yes,’ but that wasn’t the only preparation. There were all of the other things in her life that led her to that moment where she was able to say ‘yes.’”
There’s no question the Church and the diocese need more men to say “yes.” For the first time in 20 years, no new priests will be ordained in 2022.
“It’s really about awareness,” Father O’Connor said, “and creating a culture in our Catholic institutions, where every man and woman asks the question, ‘What am I called to do? To be a priest or to be a religious brother or sister? And not just assuming that I’m going to be married and have kids.’
“Discerning to be a priest should be a normal thing that normal men do.”
