By TARA CONNOLLY Staff writer
Bishop of Allentown Alfred Schlert has announced the organizational restructuring of the Diocesan Office of Vocations to ensure more holy and dedicated priests to serve Christ’s flock.
As part of the restructuring, Bishop Schlert has created two new part-time positions to further advance promotion and formation to the priesthood.
To enhance and prioritize the mission of the office, Bishop Schlert has named Father Mark Searles as the Director of Vocations Promotion and Father Christopher Butera as the Director of Seminarian Formation. They will report directly to the Bishop.
Father Searles, chaplain of Allentown Central Catholic High School, will focus on developing resources and programs to encourage vocational awareness, that can be used in parishes, diocesan elementary and secondary schools, and on college campuses.
In addition, he will build upon Quo Vadis and Fiat programs in the Diocese. and will speak about vocations at parishes, diocesan schools, and local colleges and universities. Father Searles will also recommend men for acceptance into a seminary formation program to the Commission for Orders and Ministries for Priests.
“He will be assisting men in discerning what God might be calling them to do,” said Bishop Schlert.
Ordained in 2014, Father Searles said he feels excited and blessed to serve the Diocese of Allentown as the new Director of Vocations Promotion.
“Although vocations promotion is a primary responsibility of every priest and lay person, it will be a joy to help to strengthen and to coordinate this effort for our local Church,” he said.
“Vocations to the Sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders are tremendous gifts and blessings in the life of the Church, and when these sacraments suffer or decrease, the whole Body of Christ is negatively impacted,” said Father Searles.
“So I consider it a great honor and challenge to help us all to live the motto that our Bishop has selected: ‘Pasce Oves Meas’ (‘Feed My Sheep’).
“The people of God are hungry for the truth, beauty and substance that we can only find in the Eucharist, and there is no Eucharist without vocations to the priesthood.”
Father Searles said he will build on the momentum established by Msgr. David James, Director of Vocations since 2011, and the vocational programs that have garnered success in increasing vocations. Msgr. James also serves as Diocesan Vicar General.
“With programs like Quo Vadis, our young men in high school no longer fear the unknown when discerning God’s call in their lives,” said Father Searles.
“This summer retreat for high school students helps young men to grow in prayer, to learn what discerning a vocation looks like, and to look to our seminarians and priests as mentors along the same journey so that there is no mystery when it comes to considering the priesthood or seminary life in their vocational discernment.
“I also look forward to building a strong relationship with all of our diocesan high schools to continue to encourage an environment rooted in the Eucharist where vocations can grow and find nourishment.”
With family values being challenged by society, he said priests do not come from perfect families. But when a family is rooted in Christ and in the life of the Church, even with a family’s imperfections, a young man has a much firmer foundation to properly discern where God is leading him.
“Although it is a struggle for some families to even spend one hour together in their parish at Mass on Sunday, when children grow up knowing that their parish is a second home to them, they will be more willing to embrace their vocation and to see it as a gift to the Church for the good of all, whether they are called to marriage or holy orders,” said Father Searles.
“The possibilities are endless, and I feel a remarkable sense of hope that the Holy Spirit is patiently and generously renewing and refining the Church and the priesthood. But we must keep offering our prayers and sacrifices for more laborers to work in the glorious vineyard of our King as humble, holy and courageous priests.”
Father Butera, ordained in 2007, who serves as chaplain of Catholic Campus Ministry at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, said his new role as Director of Seminary Formation will focus primarily on ensuring that candidates to the priesthood are properly prepared in the areas of human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation.
In addition, he will communicate directly with the seminary regarding formation of Diocesan seminarians, and provide reports on each seminarian to the Commission for Orders and Ministries for Priests.
“He will work to instill in the candidates a level of maturity, discipline and holiness. He will provide me with a recommendation on each individual who petitions for ministries and orders,” said Bishop Schlert.
According to Father Butera, formation is an ongoing process over several years, leading him to build on the great work of Msgr. James and adding several goals for seminarians as they grow.
“My own emphasis will be to instill a deepening sense of ‘intentional living’ within every aspect of the seminarians’ lives,” said Father Butera.
“By intentional living I mean beginning to foster a genuine and conscious responsibility for daily living so that good and mature habits become, over time, ever more easy and common decisions – such as waking up on time, daily prayer.
“I also want to emphasize the importance of Bishop Schlert’s three-fold priorities of prayer, study and discernment. These three areas are the primary reason why seminarians are in the seminary – to pray, study and discern God’s will.”
The ultimate goal of formation, he said, is to form future priests who have a zeal and internal happiness that fuels their individual priesthood, and properly nourishes the people of God to whom they are sent.
“In this respect, formation must always be understood as assisting a young man in God’s call to the priesthood and providing him with the necessary tools, structure and guidance – both spiritually and humanly,” said Father Butera.
From his perspective as the Director of Seminarian Formation, Father Butera said that the need for vocations to the priesthood is just as strong as it has ever been, if not more so.
“The responsibilities placed on priests today have grown in scope over the years.
So it is important to recognize the need to ensure that those in charge of seminarians’ formation are able to provide them with the proper resources and guidance to assist in their development as priests, so that they are ready for not only the joy, but also for the great responsibilities of the priesthood,” he said.
Father Searles and Father Butera will begin their new positions Tuesday, June 19 and will remain in their chaplain ministries.
