UPPER WEST SIDE — If it takes a village to raise a child, perhaps it also takes a village to find new priests.
Faced with declining numbers of vocations, the Archdiocese of New York is thinking outside the box. This spring, the archdiocese started a new initiative, Called by Name, in which parishioners were asked to nominate men they think would make good priests.
On Sunday, May 11, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, parishioners in churches all over the archdiocese were asked to fill out index cards or scan QR codes and enter the names of men they knew who they believed should answer God’s call to the priesthood
According to Father George Sears, director of vocations for the archdiocese, the results were outstanding. As of June 17, parishioners had submitted 670 names, he said.
“I had high hopes going into this, but I didn’t expect that we would get nearly 700 names,” added Father Sears, who is also the pastor of Holy Name of Jesus Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The next step will involve Cardinal Timothy Dolan. He will send letters to the men who were nominated, inviting them to brunch to encourage their interest in the priesthood.
Father Sears said part of the reason he thinks Called by Name drew such an enthusiastic response was because it put matters into the hands of parishioners — who know their neighbors and fellow church-goers — and turned them into talent scouts.
“God never calls us in a vacuum. He puts us in the family. He puts us in parishes. He puts us in community,” he explained. “And vocations should come from that.”
While he is pleased with the results of Called by Name, Father Sears said the archdiocese needed to try something new to interest men in the priesthood because vocations have decreased in recent years.
This year, for example, the archdiocese will ordain three men. That’s a far cry from 50 and 60 years ago, when large groups of men entered the priesthood.
“The big classes probably ended in the mid-70s. The numbers are declining. We have more priests dying or retiring than coming in,” he said.
According to the archdiocese’s 2022 financial report, there were 655 priests in the archdiocese, including 320 archdiocese priests, 195 priests from religious orders, and 140 international priests. However, the archdiocese has nearly 300 parishes and spans a vast territory, encompassing Staten Island, Manhattan, the Bronx, and extending north to Ulster County.
There are some signs of hope. The number of men from the archdiocese entering St. Joseph’s Seminary and College in Yonkers jumped significantly in one year. In 2024, two men entered the seminary. This year, it was 14. However, the overall trend is troubling, Father Sears said.
The decline in vocations is evident throughout the country. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), there were 34,344 Catholic priests in the U.S. in 2022. In 1965, there were 59,426.
In an effort to increase the numbers, New York looked around at other archdioceses and dioceses to see what they were doing and saw Called By Name initiatives in places like Atlanta, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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“It sounded like a great idea, so we decided to try it here,” said Father Sears, who wanted to be a priest from childhood and spent a portion of his childhood in Brooklyn, receiving his first Communion at St. Finbar Church in Bath Beach.
Called by Name sounds like a great idea to Luke Niewiadomski, a first-year seminarian at St. Joseph Seminary and College in Yonkers, where the archdiocese trains its priests. He did not enter the seminary because of Called By Name, but he endorsed the program.
“The Lord speaks in a still, small voice, and I think in all of our lives, it requires the help of others to hear that voice oftentimes,” he said. “When people are nominated, they can help each other to discern. I think the nomination makes a lot of sense for helping young men to hear God’s voice.”
Niewiadomski, who spent many years as a non-believer before becoming a Buddhist monk and then converting to Catholicism, added that he hopes Called by Name can show prospective priests that men come to religious life from diverse life experiences.
For Father Sears, the new initiative is part of a larger vocation effort centered around prayer.
“We cannot ignore the importance of prayer here,” he said. “We should all be praying for vocations. God hears our prayers.”