As the Year of St Paul approaches, Bishop Roche has urged young people in the diocese to imitate this great saint's boldness and contemplate how they may make a radical response to God's love. In a Pastoral Letter which he issued for Vocations Sunday (13 April) he invited young men and women to consider the priesthood or the religious life. "These are two marvellous life-paths which bring untold joy to those who are courageous enough to embark on them, " he wrote. "In both these callings, grace enables ordinary young men and women to achieve something extraordinary, through which God's people are sanctified and He is glorified. All that is required, if you feel that God may be calling you in one of these ways, is that you open your heart to his Holy Spirit whom you received in Baptism and at Confirmation. The Spirit will guide and encourage and enlighten you. Also, be bold and speak about your feelings to somebody whom you trust, especially a priest or a religious. It is in speaking about our hopes and desires that they become clearer to us."

The Bishop also appealed to lay people in the diocese to pray that the Lord will inspire more young men and women to embrace these vocations. He wrote, "Whether or not we personally feel called to the priesthood or the religious life, we are certainly called to petition God that he will provide new ministers and witnesses to his gospel in our time. St Paul wrote, "Pray all the time, asking of what you need, praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion" (Ephesians 6:18). We certainly need apostolic and contemplative male and female religious who, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in his Message for today still play "the main role in the evangelisation of the world" (Ad Gentes n. 40) (Message, n.6). And we most assuredly need priests who, like St Paul, are "stewards of the mysteries of Christ" (Ephesians 3:9). He added: "Priests and religious are essential if our local church in this diocese is to thrive. What better way could there be to express our affection and gratitude to the priests and religious whom we know, and have known, than by asking the Lord, through the intercession of St Paul, to send us more of them, so that each of us may be encouraged in our own vocations by their example and sustained through their ministry and prayer?" For the full text of the letter, please click here.

Bishop Roche commended various forthcoming vocations initiatives to the people of the diocese. These include the following: Deanery Prayer Srvices for Vocations; a new Serra Club, a High School Visiting Programme, the Monthly Discernment Group for adult men, the Youth Discernment Group for boys aged between 13 and 18, the Vocations Fair for 11-year-olds on 24 and 26 June, the ongoing Parish Preaching Missions, and the Diocesan Vocations Pilgrimage to Walsingham on 21 June. Details of all these events may be found in these pages.

We are currently blessed with nine seminarians in this diocese: two at three at St Alban's College in Valladolid, two at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, and four at the Venerable English College in Rome. Men who are considering applying for entry into seminary in September 2008 are invited to participate in the monthly Friday discernment group meetings at Leeds Trinity and All Saints. In addition they meet with me regularly on a one-to-one basis and are assigned a spiritual director.

Personal testimonies are without doubt one of the most effective ways of promoting vocations to the priesthood. With this in mind, a number of diocesan priests have recently written pieces about the priesthood, drawing on their own varied experiences. New articles, on a range of related subjects, will be written in the coming months by our "Calendar Priests" and will be published in the diocesan Catholic Post as well as being posted on this website.

I would invite any men or boys who think that the Lord may be calling them to this joyful and demanding ministry to contact me for a cup of tea and a chat. A sign of a vocation to the priesthood is that the idea keeps recurring to us, even if, at times, we may feel fearful about it. The most important thing is not to try to sort things out by ourselves. We need somebody in whom we can confide. I am also glad to speak to men or women who feel that God may be calling them to religious life and whom, in time, I can refer to others more able to provide the specific guidance they need.

Paul Grogan
Vocations Director, on behalf of the Diocesan Team for Promoting Priestly Vocations