Glasgow launches vocation drive amid ordination shortage

THE ARCHDIOCESE of Glasgow has launched an initiative to encourage a culture of priestly vocations, writes Brian Morton.

The “Do This In Memory Of Me” programme, launched yesterday, includes a documentary presentation and lesson plan intended for schools, churches, youth groups and families, with regular updates on social media. The initiative follows a similar venture, “Come and See”, launched by the St Andrews and Edinburgh archdiocese in April.

Glasgow archdiocese has not had a priest ordained since 2013. It currently has two seminarians and a further two involved in the application process.

Fr Ross Campbell, Catholic chaplain of the University of Glasgow, who is leading the initiative, told The Tablet that it sought first of all to convey that most priests were happy and fulfilled. “Yes, it’s a life that involves sacrifice, but also a great deal of joy and privilege,” he said.

He said most vocations came from university chaplaincies, the new movements and the United States, “and we will need to look at all of those and ask why. But I think the place we want to begin is by encouraging young people to take their baptismal vocation seriously and to proclaim the Gospel. This is true of many young Catholic students and we want to give all Catholics that kind of confidence.”

He emphasised that the documentary presentation was not just about the life of a priest in Glasgow, but the perspective of the laity, too. Over the month of November there will be a campaign of prayer for new vocations, culminating in the Feast of St Andrew.

On the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in April the Archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, referred to the challenge of vocations as a “daunting” one for young men in the present circumstances but described his own sense of surprise and delight from working as a priest.