Editorial
Celebrate and pray for vocations during a month of May marked by excitement
It’s that time of year again. We’ve just witnessed an exciting Kentucky Derby race in Louisville—a three-horse photo finish. We’re gearing up for this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26. And we’re offering best wishes to graduates taking part in commencement ceremonies in high schools and colleges across central and southern Indiana and beyond.
It is also a time to offer prayers for those students—and their families—as they move forward into the next chapter of their lives, reminding them to keep faith at the core of all they do.
In last week’s May 3 issue of The Criterion, we shared our coverage of seminarian Liam Hosty’s ordination as a transitional deacon. The liturgy was made even more special by the fact that Deacon Hosty’s father, permanent deacon Tom Hosty, called forth his son to ordination during the April 27 Mass at St. Barnabas Church in Indianapolis. They are the first father and son to both be deacons at the same time in the 190-year history of the archdiocese.
But that unique event was only the beginning of this month’s coverage of vocations in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
During the next three weeks, The Criterion will highlight stories of transitional deacons who are scheduled to be ordained priests by Archbishop Charles C. Thompson at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 1, at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.
This week, we are featuring a story about Deacon Anthony Armbruster. Next week, we will highlight Deacon Samuel Rosko. In our May 24 issue, Deacon Bobby Vogel will be featured. We ask that you pray for these men as they prepare to serve our parishes in central and southern Indiana—and ask that God bless them as they assist Archbishop Thompson in their call to preaching the Gospel and as missionary disciples.
Our prayers for vocations, though, should not end there.
In his prayer intention for the month of May, Pope Francis invites us to pray with him for the formation of religious and seminarians, offering petitions “that religious women and men, and seminarians, grow in their own vocations through their human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation, leading them to be credible witnesses to the Gospel.”
Released last week by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope described each vocation as a “diamond in the rough,” needing careful and continual cultivation.
Each vocation “needs to be polished, worked, shaped on every side,” Pope Francis said in a video accompanying his message.
He highlighted the need for religious men and women to be well-rounded, both spiritually and as people who are members of a community.
“A good priest, sister or nun must above all else be a man or woman who is formed, shaped by the Lord’s grace,” he said, adding that they must be “people who are aware of their own limitations and willing to lead a life of prayer, of dedicated witness to the Gospel.”
The pope stressed that effective formation begins in the seminary or novitiate stages of a vocational journey through direct contact with others in the “enriching” experience of community life, “although sometimes it can be difficult.”
“Living together is not the same as living in community,” he noted.
The Holy Father added that religious formation “does not end at a determined moment but continues throughout life, throughout the years, integrating the person intellectually, humanly, affectively and spiritually.”
Our archdiocese continues to be blessed by the seminarians we have in formation at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati. When the
2024-25 school year begins in August, we again anticipate having about 30 men in formation for the priesthood.
As Father Eric Augenstein, director of seminarians for the archdiocese, said in a video for this month’s Circle of Giving dinner: “Priests are made, not born.” The real work in producing vocations happens in families and at parishes, he added.
As people of faith, we are tasked to continue planting those seeds. As Pope Francis said, we also need to continue to pray that seminarians and men and women religious may “grow in their own vocational journey through human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation that leads them to be credible witnesses of the Gospel.”
—Mike Krokos