Q. ‘If the lay people have a proper appreciation for the unique role of the priesthood, they will join in the effort to encourage more priestly vocations.’ I like this point very much. What specifically should I do to encourage more priestly vocations? 

The question comes from a report on a talk that Pope Benedict gave on 17 September to a group of bishops from Brazil on the occasion of their ad limina visit. ‘Ad limina’ is the Latin for ‘to the threshold’. ‘Ad limina Apostolorum’ – ‘to the threshold of the Apostles’ - is the name used for the visit that diocesan bishops are required to make every five years to the Pope in which they give a report on what is happening in their dioceses and make a pilgrimage to the tombs of St Peter and St Paul. It is an expression of the unity of the Church.

My parents never suggested in any way that I should be a priest or even think about it. But my father was the one who took me to Mass on Sunday when I was very young while my mother looked after my baby brother and went to a later Mass. When I was older he used to bring me sometimes to Solemn High Masses and here in the churches of the Dominicans, Franciscans and Capuchins, when there would be solemnity, much singing and incense. He went to Mass each day right up to the day he died. I’ve no doubt whatever that this had a major part in the awakening of my vocation to the priesthood, which was God’s call to me.

My mother was sometimes critical of priests. This was probably the result of her being ordered out of the church with me when I was not yet three because I shouted ‘bah’ at the Baby Jesus in the crib during a weekday Mass after Christmas. She was pregnant with my brother at the time.

I admired the priests in our parish and saw the priest as the one who celebrated Mass and heard my confession every week. After 42 years as a priest I still see the Mass and the sacraments as being at the heart of the life of the priest. Pope Benedict said the same to the Brazilian bishops: ‘the role of the priest is essential and irreplaceable for the proclamation of the word and for the celebration of the sacraments, especially of the Eucharist, the memorial of the supreme Sacrifice of Christ who gives his Body and his Blood.’

Having regular prayer at home, such as grace before and after meals, teaching young children their prayers and praying with them, telling them stories from the gospels, praying each day that their children will discover whatever God’s call is and that they will joyfully follow it, are all things that parents can do. Parents cannot give their son or daughter their vocation. Only God can. Families can also invite a priest to their home for a meal, not necessarily on an occasion such as a birthday, when many people may be there, but just himself.

We need to pray each day that the men whom God is calling to be priests will be generous enough to answer his call and to pray for our priests, especially those whom we know and the priest(s) in our parish, that they will be faithful.

These are some random thoughts in response to the question.