In an effort to respond to a "clear and pressing" need for priests, the Vatican released a set of guidelines to help bishops and church communities promote, recruit and educate a new generation of men for the priesthood. The church needs "suitable" candidates and must avoid men who "show signs of being profoundly fragile personalities," while helping others heal from any possible "individual deviations" from their vocations, the document said. "The witness of Christian communities giving account of the faith that is in them becomes even more necessary," because it's a community of believers committed to passing on God's love that "prepares the Lord's call that invites people to consecration and mission," it said. Based on responses to a questionnaire sent to bishops' conferences and directors of national vocations offices around the world in 2008, the Congregation for Catholic Education sought to address a widespread demand for pastoral guidelines for fostering vocations "based on clear and well-founded theology of vocation and of the identity of the ministerial priesthood." Titled "Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry," the 29-page document was released June 25. It also marked the 70th anniversary of the inauguration of the congregation's Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations. Describing the current situation of priestly vocations as “good and bad”, the document begins by focusing on traditionally Christian countries in the West. In notes how unbridled consumerism, falling birth-rates and a fall in religious practice have led to a decline in vocations and an increasingly elderly pool of priests to serve the Church. It puts this down to a series of reasons that leads to young men ignoring a vocation to priestly ministry: the spreading of a secularized mentality that discourages the response of young people to follow the Lord Jesus more radically and more generously; parents, who “reserve little space to the possibility of a call to a special vocation”; the gradual marginalization of the priest in social life, with the consequent loss of his relevance in the public sphere.These elements include "a tendency towards the progressive transformation of the priesthood into a profession". This can be associated with "the danger of exaggerated activism, an increasing individualism which not infrequently closes priests in a perverse and depressing solitude, and the confusion of roles in the Church which comes about when we lose the sense of distinction between roles and responsibilities, and not everyone comes together to collaborate in the one mission entrusted to the People of God". “Furthermore, in many places the choice of celibacy is questioned. Not only a secularized mentality, but also erroneous opinions within the Church bring about a lack of appreciation for the charism and the choice of celibacy”. It states that “however much the pastoral ministry for vocations in Europe and in the Americas is organized and creative, the results obtained do not correspond to the efforts made”. Instead it says that “where clear and challenging proposals of Christian life are offered”, particularly through new evangelisation initiatives that are carried out in cooperation with the domestic Church, there are signs of recovery. Again and again the document returns to the first form of Christian life and community – the family, parish and movement or association. It states young people are more open to God’s call when they are presented with a strong example of Christian life in the home, or wider community. Moreover, young men often feel encouraged to consider a vocation as a result of the “joyful witness of the priests” they have encountered in their lives.The Congregation suggests that pastoral ministry of vocations must offer boys and young men a Christian experience where they can know first hand the reality of God Himself. This means making families aware of the important role they play in forming a vocation. It encourages an experience of community life before entrance to the seminary and underlines the importance of a clear understanding of the commitments the priesthood entails, in particular with regard to celibacy. It concludes, “fostering vocations to the priesthood is a constant challenge for the Church” in particular, “a welcome for the call of God to ministerial priesthood”.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church now has more of a presence in the increasingly popular world of e-books. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made the catechism available as a browser-based e-book. The catechism is a compendium of Catholic beliefs structured around the four pillars of faith: creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer. The USCCB announcement about the latest e-book format comes at a time when more active readers are moving to e-books from traditional formats. A Pew study conducted in February shows 21 percent of adults say they read an e-book in the past year, compared with 17 percent in December 2011 who said they had done so. Additional research shows that overall e-book owners are more likely to read than those who read via print formats. In late 2011, the USCCB accommodated that trend by releasing the e-book edition of the catechism through Amazon, iTunes and the USCCB online bookstore. Why make it available through browsers? "Providing the catechism in this particular electronic format will make this foundational resource even more accessible to people," explained Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City. "It is free to anyone who has access to the Internet."

Are you prepared to pray for your religious freedom? The U.S. bishops have called for a fortnight of prayer to end the assault by our government on our right to worship. The fourteen days begin on June 21. According to the bishop's appeal, the fortnight will culminate on Independence Day. This special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. It is a time to remind ourselves of the importance of our faith. I know that I have never felt more threatened as a Catholic than in the past several years. The intense worldly pressure has certainly caused me to appreciate the freedoms that we hold dear in this nation. None are more important though than the freedom to worship as we wish. So over the next three days, prepare yourself for a spiritual renewal. And come this Thursday, join the rest of the nation's approximately 68 million Catholics and pray and don't stop for the next fourteen days. Who knows, you might just discover something about yourself.

June 13 is the feast day of one of my favorite saints, Anthony of Padua. He is usually pictured holding the child Jesus (history says that this is due to a man, at whose home St. Anthony was spending the night, came upon the saint and found him holding in his arms the Child Jesus, unspeakably beautiful and surrounded with heavenly light)and a book. St. Anthony is recognized as a Doctor of the Church because of his ability to preach plainly on any topic so that anyone could understand him regardless of their educational level. Saint Anthony was canonized less than one year after his death. There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St. Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco, in North Africa, and whose headless and mutilated bodies had been brought to St. Anthony’s monastery on their way back for burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order. St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most famous disciples of St. Francis of Assisi, another of my favorite saints. He was so energetic in defending the truths of the Catholic Faith that many heretics returned to the Church. That is the call for us in 2012. Are you bringing others back to the Church? Are you defending Her from the relentless attacks? Do you engage in conversation when someone tells you "I grew up a Catholic but..." or "I used to go to Catholic Church but..."? That is the message that still comes loudly from St. Anthony. Many of you know him as the saint of lost articles. It would be more accurate to call him the saint of lost souls. He suffered when others did not believe. He prayed endlessly that people would come to know Jesus Christ. He is a terrific example for all of us even after his death some 780 years ago. Saint Anthony, pray for us!

The Sacred Heart "is a reality that marks the core of Christ's being," Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop John J. McIntyre told attendees at the June 1-3 national conference for charismatic Catholics. It is Christ's heart "into which each of us is drawn, so that more and more, each day after day, each passing year, like his," we are "rooted in charity and full of that light which he has unleashed upon the world; a light that is stronger than sin and death and hell itself," the bishop said. Bishop McIntyre was the principal celebrant and homilist at the opening Mass of the conference, which drew approximately 2,500 Catholic women and men from around the country. They gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia for a joy-filled conference and celebration of the Holy Spirit. "Let us pray with one heart together with Mary in the Upper Room" was the theme of the conference, held every five years. It brought together four distinct branches of Catholic charismatics in the United States -- English speakers, Hispanics, Filipinos and Haitians -- with both general sessions and separate sessions for the four tracks as well as a fifth that targeted youths. Prominent among the concelebrants at the opening Mass was Ukrainian Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia. "This is my first time at this and I was really impressed by it," he said. "It was really beautiful to see the light and joy on people's faces. It was life-giving."