EDITORIAL

A front-page article in last Sunday's issue of the Albany Times Union noted that Catholic schools in the Albany Diocese are experiencing an upswing in the number of students after years of declining or static enrollment.

This week in The Evangelist, another front-page article chronicles how a building boom is underway in the Diocese in schools, parishes and healthcare institutions, a boom not heard since the 1950s. The construction testifies to the need for improved and expanded facilities to serve Catholics and the community at large.

The next boom, we hope, will be heard in enthusiasm for promoting religious vocations. The trigger may be a new program being introduced in parishes throughout the Diocese over the next two months. Titled "A Future Full of Hope," the effort is part of a national strategy for increasing interest in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Catholic school enrollment has increased because more and more parents have become convinced of the importance of a Catholic education that stresses academic excellence, spiritual development, core values and other advantages the parents recognize as worthwhile for their children.

The building boom is occurring because those who make use of the facilities recognize how central to their lives Catholic agencies are. They want parish churches that serve their worship needs; they look for Church-related health care, in terms of prevention, hospitalization and long-term care; they see the value of reclaiming and renovating institutions that have long been part of their communities.

An increase in vocations will likely come from those same impulses: a realization on the part of Catholics at the grassroots level that there is something missing that must be reclaimed, that there are values to be preserved, and that their children deserve a chance to consider the full range of vocational choices, including those to the priesthood and vowed religious life.

As with the other positive trends, this will happen because it arises from the bottom up: from mothers telling their sons that being a priest is something to be admired...from fathers encouraging their daughters to think about becoming nuns...from neighbors and fellow parishioners creating an atmosphere in which a religious vocation is seen as a valued way of life for the young people around them...and from priests, nuns and brothers who show by their way of life that their decision to serve others has made them happier and more fulfilled people.

Four town meetings to promote vocation awareness are scheduled throughout the Albany Diocese (see story on page 1). Attend one of those meetings and become part of the next front-page article that tells of growth and progress, this time in religious vocations.

(09-25-97)