A culture of priestly vocation on campus

Dr. Timothy Muldoon is an award-winning author and Catholic theologian. He is a researcher in Catholic higher education in the Division of University Mission and Ministry at Boston College, and a frequent lecturer, speaker, and retreat leader in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He is also a contributing writer here at Patheos. He writes with some very heartening news as Boston College and CARA release a newly-commissioned study on College Experience and the Priesthood. For further information on this study you can contact Muldoon at muldoon@bc.edu 617-552-8258.-

Today Boston College has released the results of a report on the influence that college experiences had on young men in the United States who decided to begin studying for the priesthood. That report highlights a number of interesting points:

• Some 350,000 never-married men have “seriously” considered priesthood
• A large number of those who entered the seminary had at least three people encourage them to do so.
• Most seminarians or new priests have had some experience in a Catholic college (compared to only 7% of the Catholic population who attend a Catholic college).

Read the full report here, and the new study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, on which part of the report is based, here.

The report speaks for itself, so I will not repeat all its findings here. It will be of particular interest to bishops, vocation directors, Catholic college presidents, and directors of Catholic campus ministries. What I wish to highlight here is a specific point that emerges from the report: namely, the question of the extent to which campuses promote a culture of vocations.

Do go read the rest here.