MANCHESTER (NH)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
MANCHESTER, N.H.— Recruiting men to embrace a way of life foreign to modern society isn’t a job for a smooth-talking salesman.
There’s no persuading someone to shun even the possibility of fancy cars, big houses, marriage, sex, children — and similar secular notions of happiness — if he doesn’t already have a calling.
But like a business when profits are down, the Catholic Church can’t help but rethink its strategy for recruiting future priests when there simply aren’t enough to go around.
Rather than resigning itself to the idea of a permanently smaller priesthood, the Diocese of Manchester has developed new strategies for recruiting men who have a calling to serve God. ...
The sexual abuse crisis also contributed to the decline in the priesthood, Frontiero said. Getting beyond it is difficult for many Catholics. To a lesser degree, modern trends toward materialism have likely been a factor in the decline, he said.