ABOVE: Father Jason Hage speaks with young people gathered at last year’s Vocations Picnic, held in August of 2024.
By Elizabeth Landry, staff writer
For the second time since 2022, the Diocese of Syracuse Office of Vocation Promotion is launching the “Called by Name” initiative. This program provides an opportunity for parishes and schools throughout the diocese to prayerfully consider the young people in their pews and their classrooms who possess the qualities of a future Church leader, and then invite these young men and women to consider a vocation in the Church. In 2022, the program only involved parishes, but this year the program is expanding to include diocesan schools, as well.
“This year, we’re rolling it out to parishes and all of our Catholic schools. ….This is a step forward for this program, which is great. The Catholic Schools office has been so supportive of the work of vocation promotion in our Catholic schools,” said Father Jason Hage, director of the Office of Vocation Promotion.
Parishes are invited to conduct their nomination process the weekend of June 7 and 8, which is also the weekend our diocese will be celebrating ordinations to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse. At all weekend Masses on June 7 and 8, parishes will distribute nomination ballots to the congregation and ask parishioners during Mass to write in the name of a young person from their parish that they think would make a good priest, deacon, and/or consecrated religious.
Schools are invited to conduct their nomination process the week leading up to our priestly ordinations, which is the week of June 2 through June 6. Nomination ballots will be distributed to faculty and staff the week of June 2, and they will be asked to write in the name of a young person (from grades 8 through 12) from their school that they think would make a good candidate for holy orders and/or consecrated life.
After the nominations are submitted, vocation ministry teams in parishes and schools will provide the list of names to the Office of Vocation Promotion, and Father Hage will then send a personal invitation to the parents/guardians of the nominees for them to join Bishop Lucia for his annual Vocations Picnic on Monday, Aug. 4 at Immaculate Conception Parish in Fayetteville. An evening of dinner, conversation, and prayer with the clergy and consecrated religious from the Diocese of Syracuse, this annual picnic is a great way for young people to explore their own vocation more deeply.
Father Hage said that through the Called by Name program, the faithful laity throughout the Diocese can take on a more active role in vocation promotion. “I think [the lay faithful] are essential in the work of vocation promotion. … They can take a proactive role in calling for a future Church leader,” he explained.
Father also emphasized the importance of extending an invitation to young people directly, to consider the call to religious life, an essential aspect of the Called by Name initiative.
“A majority of young people will not respond [to the call] until someone from the parish or faith community they belong to or the school steps forward and says, ‘Hey, I think you’d make a great priest, [or] I think you’d make a great religious sister. Have you ever thought about it?’ … Just showing the power of the ‘ask’.”
