CATHOLIC VOICES

The Evangelist continues its interview series with Father Anthony Ligato, the Vicar for Vocations of the Diocese of Albany. Father Ligato talks with Mike Matvey about his journey to the priesthood, the St. Isaac Jogues House of Formation and Vocations Committees in the parishes. Catholic Voices features a wide range of men and women in the Capital Region and will appear periodically in the paper and online.

TE: Talk about your journey
to the priesthood?
FL: For me, I started to discern for the priesthood probably around the age of 21. I had become involved in parish ministry in my early 20s serving as a lector, Eucharistic minister (and) teaching faith formation and got more and more involved over that period of time. I did not necessarily know at that point what I wanted to do with my life. I originally wanted to be an actor. I had gone to school in New York, left school in New York, came home, started college, didn’t want to be in college, quit college twice and at the same time (I was) just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. (I) went back to college ultimately for marketing and management and got my degree from Siena in 1990 and right out of Siena — at that point I was 26 — I go into seminary in the fall of 1990 for the Diocese. But there was a whole period of five years that I was discerning and the more I got involved in ministry, the more I loved it.

TE: How did you become the 
vocations director?
FL: I became director in 2013 right as Bishop (Howard J.) Hubbard was retiring and before the new bishop was named. I was only supposed to be in this position as the interim, transitional vocations director. When Bishop (Edward B.) Scharfenberger came on, I was certainly willing to step away. And I had said to him, “I don’t even know what I am doing.” His famous line to me was, “You think I do?” He was new himself; with that I lose that argument and here I am.

TE: Why do you think the Diocese has so many men (36 in total) 
 in formation?
FL: Marketing. I mean that in the best sense. You cannot expect to sit in an office and think that vocations are going to come to you. You’ve got to go out there, out to the parishes, out to the people, have events where you are inviting people to gather together; you have to get your message out there. What we do is we get our message out there through the seminarian poster (on page 24 of this week’s Evangelist), with prayer cards, with events such as an open house at the House of Formation in December. The type of program that we run encourages men to enter into the discernment process as well, but it is mainly vocations awareness. That is essential to any successful formation program.

TE: With all the abuse scandals swirling around the Church, why are men drawn to this priestly vocation?
FL: Their faith compels them. And they understand very well what the challenges are for the Church today with the scandal. And they understand that they will share in that suffering with all of us who are currently ordained. And they are willing to accept that suffering and that responsibility because they know that the Church needs ministers to serve, in particular priests. They come with a faith that calls them to action and that action is to serve the people of God, to provide the Eucharist.

TE: Talk about the responsibility these young priests will have in guiding Catholics in the future?
FL: It is a tremendous responsibility that they have. Our theme this year is “Keeping Faith with the Future” and they are the future of the Church. They are the ones that are going to help people to heal from this great scandal.

TE: How has the House of Formation changed the preparation?
FL: We had a House of Discernment for a good many years, going back to 2003. ... The program initially was once a man had made the decision to become a seminarian and he was accepted as a seminarian, he would move into the house and they would take philosophy courses at Siena and then they would go right off to seminary within that first year of being accepted. The program has developed where we have a curriculum within the house of studying the documents of the Church that deal specifically with priestly formation: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ program for priestly formation (and) Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Pastores Dabo Vobis, which came out in 1992, and is the basis of the program for priestly formation. And also along with that, the Vatican II documents, Presbyterorum ordinis on the life and ministry of priests, and Optatam totius, which is on the formation for priestly ministry. Those, for the first-year men, encompass what we do in the house, in our community-night sessions and program; along with that needing to have pre-theology courses available to us within the Diocese. Ultimately, we endeavored with St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry on creating the pre-seminary program. The pre-seminary program is based on all the requirements of the program for priestly formation that the USCCB lays out. … Now we are able to offer through St. Bernard’s a master’s degree in Catholic philosophy, which means we can do a good bit of our own formation within the Diocese now before we send the men on to major seminary for theological studies.

TE: How does the process of discernment work?
FL: We are all testing the waters. Just as they are discerning, so are we as a Diocese; whether or not this man has the calling to a priestly vocation. The discernment process is the mechanism or vehicle in which a man is able to answer that question. And the important thing is whether a man chooses not to go forward or us with him, the discernment process has been successful because the question has been answered.

TE: Talk about the role that families have in vocations?
FL: All vocations begin with the family. So the family is what we would call the first seminary. Because it’s in the home that we learn about our faith and we see that faith lived out. The parents are the first teachers of their children and we even say that in the baptismal rite as the first teachers of their children, they have that responsibility in raising them in the faith. It is in how the faith is lived out in the home that a vocation is supported. So if a young man or woman has a calling to the priesthood or religious life, it is in the home where they are first coming to know Jesus Christ. And it is in the home, where discernment is given support. The family is the foundation for all vocations.

TE: How about the role of vocations committees in the parishes?
FL: We have a total of 36 men in formation including all the men who are off at major seminary. The parish vocations committees give great support to those men in formation; encouraging them, writing letters, gifts, other support that they send to the men. But the men also come to visit those parishes. All the men go out each year to three different parishes to give vocations talks. The vocations committees help us in our vocations awareness programs in supporting vocations in their own parish community; encouraging men and women and families to involve themselves in vocations ministry. The vocations committees allow us to have a grassroots ability to reach out to those parishes. It’s at the grassroots level that we have the most success. So the more vocations committees we have in parishes, the more successful we are in vocations awareness through­out the Diocese itself.