"A FEAST OF INFORMATION."

Every diocese should have a precise and clear understanding of the future of their presbyterate. How many priests will your diocese need in ten years? How many priests will you actually have in ten years? How many ordinations per year do you need? How many new seminarians do you need each year, taking into account attrition? And the most important question of all—what exactly should you do to attract the required number of candidates? Vianney Vocations can conduct an in-depth analysis of trends in your diocese, and create a clear roadmap that leads out of vocation crisis.

• Demographic Reports. Analyze the priest population and Catholic population to determine exactly how many priests are needed to maintain or improve the priest-to-laity ratio within the next 10 years.
• Strategic Vocations Plan. Create a formal plan that outlines strategies and deadlines in order to meet the diocese’s personnel needs in the years ahead.

The Church has underutilized the tools at its disposal to identify potential candidates to the priesthood. For instance, nearly all Catholic parishes keep careful records of parishioners, and these databases can be used to identify single Catholic men and provide them with good information about discerning their vocations. Vianney Vocations is adept at gleaning relevant data and generated personalized information to help potential candidates consider the priesthood.

• Data Mining. Use parish databases to target 18-35 year old men who are registered as “single, head of household.”
• Digital Called by Name. Advanced email interface gathers candidate names from priests, deacons, educators, and youth ministers.
• Information Campaigns. Send in-depth information about discerning a priestly vocation to eligible men in the diocese.
• Target Promotions. Send personal invitations for discernment retreats, special dinners, etc.
• New Media Promotion. Campaigns using Facebook, Twitter, automated phone calls, etc.

Only God can call a man to become a priest; marketing does not create vocations. However, consistent, high-quality communication can help shape the perception of priesthood in your diocese. Every vocation director has experienced the frustration of parents or family members who have discouraged their son’s vocation. Part of the solution is the widespread depiction of happy, holy priests. Vianney Vocations provides families with compelling stories from priests’ relatives—mothers, fathers, and siblings—who attest to the honor and joy of having a priest in the family. We use a blend of newsletters, brochures, posters, prayer cards, and other materials.

• Vocation Newsletters. High-quality newsletters feature stories of seminarians, updates on vocation events, photos from ordinations, etc. Distributed to all active Catholics in the diocese as a special insert in the Sunday bulletin.
• Prayer Campaigns. Begin to pray your diocesan Vocation Prayer at every Mass within the diocese.
• Vocation Prayer Apostolate. Harness the power of those who offer their suffering to God. Recruit the sick and homebound to pray for vocations, via Eucharistic ministers who visit them.
• Seminarian Posters. Design and distribute an annual seminarian poster to every church, parish office, Catholic classroom, and Knights of Columbus Hall in the entire diocese.
• Vocations Brochures. Create and distribute brochures about how to discern the Diocesan priesthood, for the narthex of churches and other areas.
• Priest & Seminarian Prayer Cards. Distribute prayer cards with the names of all priests and seminarians, so Catholics can pray for them by name every month.

A vocation to priesthood can be discerned only through prayer. That is why retreats and other discernment events are critical for your diocese’s success. But while holding a retreat is in important, just as critical is the number of men who attend. Vianney Vocations excels at event promotion, and can make disappointing turnouts a thing of the past. Using our strategies, future retreats will have record attendance. And if you’re not currently holding formal discernment retreats, Vianney Vocations can organize a retreat from beginning to end— even to the point of securing the best vocations retreat masters to lead your event.

• Discernment Retreats. Organize, promote, and implement 2-3 day retreats for men to more deeply discern their vocation.
• Vocation Camps. Organize, promote, and implement summer camps for middle-school and high-school aged children to learn about the call to holiness and be introduced to the possibility of a priestly or religious vocation.
• Catholic schools promotions. Special campaigns to promote vocations in schools, via Vocations curriculum, posters, worksheets, etc.