By Emilie Ng
A NEW film promoting the priesthood is hoping to share the message to young men that being a priest is a heroic vocation.
Global media ministry Word on Fire, which is headed by internationally-renowned priest, speaker and author Fr Robert Barron, produced the film with design and multimedia company Spirit Juice Studios.
Titled Heroic Priesthood, the film follows three seminarians from Mundelein Seminary, Chicago, as they prepare for their seminary’s national basketball tournament and their lives as future priests.
Although the three seminarians enjoy playing basketball, having been professional players before the seminary, their unity comes from their desire to be Catholic priests.
“There was already a kind of a bond there as guys getting ready to be priests,” Deacon Connor Danstrom said in the film.
“It was like we had the same best friend,”
Fr Barron said the sacrificial nature of the priesthood, where a man is called to be completely faithful to the Church as a husband is to his bride, was a heroic gesture.
“There’s a natural fear there, of the radical self-gift involved in priesthood,” Fr Barron said.
“John Paul II talks about the law of the gift, which is that your being increases the measure you give away.
“That’s a good Christian principle but it runs counter to a lot of culture.
“People are fearful of giving themselves away.”
Vocation Brisbane director Fr Morgan Batt said all vocations, not just the priesthood, were heroic.
“I like the video as it makes a point, but for me, priesthood is one hero among the heroes of mum, dad, Sister, Brother,” Fr Batt said.
“We’re about the heroism behind all the vocations.”
Fr Batt said Australians might be more in favour of celebrating people who were dedicated to a call rather than heroes, which was culturally more American.
“We honour people who do the hard yards,” Fr Batt said.
Vocation Brisbane has undergone a renewal in the past month, updating its website, now vocationbrisbane.com, and its public marketing.
“Our new tag line now is, ‘Face up to your vocation’,” Fr Batt said.
“We used to have the tag line ‘ask the question’, and we were truly asking people to ask the question of vocation.
“Once you’ve asked the question, what do you do?
“One is make decisions. That means to face up to where God’s calling you.”
Go to www.heroicpriesthood.com/ to see the film
