‘FISHERS OF MEN’

Father Samuel Bellafiore starts new ministry as diocesan Vocations Director

Father Samuel Bellafiore, shown during a baptism, said, “A lot of dioceses have been finding recently that if you assign a priest fulltime to vocations, you simply end up with more vocations.” (Photo provided) (Courtesy photo of Katrina Rubiatania)

In his wide-ranging interview with The Evangelist before his installation Mass last December, Bishop Mark O’Connell talked about the importance of vocations and how we all need to be “fishers of men.”

And now, Bishop Mark has selected the man who will hopefully lead a resurgence in the Diocese of ­Albany. At the end of May, Father Samuel Bellafiore was named new Vocations Director — taking over for Father Brian Kelly — as well as Director of Campus Ministry, and started full time in his new posts on July 1.

When he picked Father Bellafiore, Bishop Mark noted at the time in an email to The Evangelist that “it is my discernment that the Diocese must sacrifice a priest from parish ministry to fully pursue vocations especially at this time when all across the country vocations are increasing.”

This year, according to a study done by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, 428 men will be ordained to the priesthood, both diocesan and religious, and that is up from 405 men in 2025. 

Father Bellafiore, who was in Boston recently shadowing the Vocations Office there, said he is “excited” to start this new chapter of his ministry.

“I know that Bishop Mark has had plans for the Vocations Office on his mind and that there’s been a lot of success in Boston where he’s from with the Vocations Ministry, so he approached me (in May) and asked me if I would take on this ministry,” Father Bellafiore said. “In the life of a priest, you promise obedience, and it’s a joy to do whatever the Bishop asks. I love being a pastor and also have loved the work that I have gotten to do with our seminarians in the past when I was at the House of Formation.”

Although Father Bellafiore is just starting, using the Boston model likely will be a big part of the plan that he and Bishop Mark will use here.

“There’s a pretty organized and fruitful system that they have used for helping men discern in Boston and it seems like it has had a lot of success,” he said. “A lot of dioceses have been finding recently that if you assign a priest fulltime to vocations, you simply end up with more vocations.”

That same CARA study found that Eucharistic adoration, the rosary and prayer/Bible groups topped the list of prayer practices prior to men entering seminary, and it was usually the parish priest that asked the question, “Have you ever thought about becoming a priest?” For ­Father Bellafiore, who was pastor of St. Mary’s in Clinton Heights and St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph in Rensselaer, there needs to be another component.

“I think from my own perspective, from parish ministry, it seems to me that one thing that is really key is letting our parishes become places that make it easier for middle school, high school, college students to commit their life to Christ in a definitive way,” he said. “I think a lot of times we have this sort of impression that we’re called to something that is not too hard, unless you are a priest, and then it’s going to require a lot of sacrifice.

“But it’s actually just the nature of it. If you’re going to live a Christian life, it’s going to require a total commitment of us. I think we are actually more open to a call to the priesthood or religious life when we start out knowing that I am committing to something wholeheartedly already regardless of whether I am called to be a priest or religious. Christian life is a whole life.”

Father Bellafiore, who has noticed a priestly calling in others while others have approached him about it, said priests need to up their game as well.

“I think we as priests often need to do a better job of giving people formation in how to live a life of prayer and I think a lot of the initial steps for people are just learning that regardless of what I’m being called to right now, to know what I’m being called to, I am going to have to live a deep prayer life, and how do I start to do that. … I think just helping people know that it’s normal to think about becoming a priest or a religious or a deacon.”