QUEENSLAND’S bishops have issued a pastoral letter on vocations to the priesthood, assuring the Church ‘this is not a time in which to lose our nerve’.
The letter, titled ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you’ (John 15:16), has been sent to parish priests around the state and will be officially launched early next year.
Bishop Michael Putney of Townsville said all bishops of Queensland played a part in formulating the document.
‘We’re very concerned that the shortage of candidates for the priesthood in Queensland is a major challenge for our dioceses, and we wanted to outline our own vision of it to all key people in the Church – priests, parish leaders, pastoral councils and people in leadership and people who are engaged in the life of the Church,’ Bishop Putney said.
He said the letter was not directed at young people as an invitation to priesthood but at men and women who are leaders in the Church and to parents, ‘to share with them the vision of priesthood we have’.
The aim was to encourage all dioceses to have a fresh look at promoting and supporting young men who may have a calling the become priests – ‘to be inspired to begin again’.
