Collaborate in your diocese

My experience of working with religious communities

By Father Memo Hernandez

I AM HONORED TO SHARE my experience of working together in collaboration with religious sisters and brothers as a diocesan priest. But before that, I want to say that the presence of religious men and women in my life journey has been crucial for me to become the Christian man and priest that I am.

The first memory I have of a person dedicated to God, is the memory of religious sisters that ran the Catholic school I attended back in Mexico during my school years. Their joyful presence and homemade sweets remain in my mind as a very positive memory.

Then, in my years of faith formation at my home parish, the constant presence of a group of religious sisters was key in my faith. However, I became more aware of religious life and the work they did for the church when I was in high school.

It so happened that I studied in an institution run by Marist priests and brothers, and at the same time a group of missionary religious priests called Missionaries of the Holy Spirit came to help the pastor at my parish. They worked as youth and young adult ministers. So I had the opportunity to see how these men dedicated to God brought so much energy and joy to the people around them.

I can say that my whole life has been accompanied by the presence of religious men and women. I knew that religious people had something special to offer to the church and to me. I knew that they carried a unique strength and courage that I didn’t see in many diocesan priests.

As a young man, my idea of church and parish life was a community formed of priests, religious men and women, and the people of God—each person in those three groups doing God’s will and answering God’s call to holiness and evangelization.

When the time came for me to discern the call the Lord had for me, the three vocations (priest, religious, and married layman) each held beautiful possibilities for me. I had the chance to explore each one of them. In the end, God put me on the diocesan priest path, even though it was the life-form I thought would be the least likely for me.

This personal experience, plus the knowledge that I acquired through theological studies, convinced me that it is indispensable for the healthy life of the people of God and the parish, to work, pray, and hang out in a fraternal atmosphere with religious communities. And that is what I did when I became a pastor.

At St. Rose parish in South Sacramento, California I had the privilege to work directly with four religious communities. Two of them worked as teachers in the parish school, the Sisters of Our Lady of Notre Dame and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. A sister from the Catechist Sisters of the Crucified Jesus served as the Spanish director of religious education. Lastly, the Missionaries of Charity served as a spiritual presence, organizing summer camps for children and being spiritual guides. In addition to these four religious communities working at the parish, every day I presided at the 6:30 a.m. Mass for a community of Vietnamese sisters, whose prayerful attitude attracted many people.

The Sunday Mass attendance at my parish averaged close to 3,000 people. For this medium-sized parish, the presence of religious organizations was powerful.
I constantly invited religious orders to come and share their talents with us by guiding retreats or giving talks. This was the case, for instance, with the Verbum Dei Community sisters. And in regards to the celebration of the Sacraments, it was great to count on the support of ordained religious priests.

Regarding the latter, I need to say that the male congregations in my diocese have offered me not only a helpful hand in the ministry, but also an honest and sincere friendship. I sometimes go out with some of them  for a meal and a beer.

As a pastor, I wanted my people to have the experience of knowing that the church has different members who are dedicated to serving the whole family of faith; and each one of them is needed for the well-being of everyone. We can function as a real body when all the parts are working together and are united by the link of love for God and commitment to God’s people. This makes us truly the Body of Christ.

Now as a vocation director for the Diocese of Sacramento, I have the joy of working with religious institutes in the diocese in order to promote vocations. For instance, I organize events in which religious sisters and priests are invited to be present and speak about their charism.

Even though my focus is to promote and accompany men who are called to the diocesan priesthood, the Lord gives me the opportunity to meet young people who discover in their discernment process that God is calling them to belong to a religious community. For me it is a great joy whenever I am able to introduce a young man or woman to a religious community. It makes me feel I am fulfilling my job in the charism that I have received as a diocesan priest: to be a shepherd for all and accompany them in their life journey.

How our diocese collaborates to build a vocation culture

By Bishop Gary Janak, Sister Ana Cecilia Montalvo, F.Sp.S., and Ana Bojorquez

The vocation office of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas has a rich history of collaborating with parishioners and the roughly 80 religious communities of men and women that serve here. Like the readers of HORIZON, those of us who staff the vocation office greatly understand the need for such collaboration. The archdiocese is not in competition with religious communities. Rather, we work together with them to assist the people who are being called to serve as ordained and consecrated leaders. In recent months the need for this type of collaboration has been highlighted even more by Pope Francis in his call for us to be a synodal church, seeking to listen more effectively to the Holy Spirit and to one another.

Religious help organize projects

Our vocation office has two auxiliary groups that help to build the culture of vocations: a Vocation Committee and a group called Lay Vocation Promoters. Presently the Vocation Committee consists of 27 different religious congregations and more than 50 vocation directors and vocation promoters. This large representation did not come about overnight. Three religious sisters founded this group in 1978 in an effort to reach out to a broad audience and to have an official recognition by the archdiocese of varied vocation efforts.

These sisters desired a relationship with the archdiocesan vocation office. That fact inspired the vocation director at that time to hire a Catholic sister as an associate vocation director, a practice that has continued until today.

Ever since the Vocation Committee was founded, the collaboration with our local religious communities has played a very important role in fostering priestly and consecrated life vocations here. It is worth noting that collaboration in ministry is emerging as a favored style in religious life. The NRVC 2020 study refers more than once to the fact that newer members of religious orders see collaborative ministry as the path forward in consecrated life.

It is also important to note that our Vocation Committee is multicultural. The fact that it is formed by sisters and brothers of different cultural backgrounds offers the people of God a picture of our Catholic Church that is universal, embracing all cultures.

At a practical level, the committee meets every other month to plan, evaluate, and vision vocation promotion in our archdiocese. These meetings help us cultivate a network among ourselves, share best practices and new ideas, and together create discernment opportunities and resources for our youth.

We work together on projects such as:

•    Parish vocation presentations
•    Catholic schools visits
•    Youth group visits
•    Service and presence at different youth and young adult events
•    Vocation displays at different archdiocesan conferences
•    Vocation radio program in Spanish
•    Life Awareness Discernment Retreat
•    Discernment opportunities for women
•    Discernment opportunities for men

Other supports for a vocation culture

In addition to working with religious communities on the Vocation Committee, we also use our vocation office social media to publicize events, photos, promotional videos, and other information about our different religious communities. Our Facebook page (facebook.com/SAVocations) has more than 3,000 followers, and we’re also present on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and more. In addition, the communications department of the archdiocese supports us by posting, livestreaming, recording and promoting all our initiatives.

Besides a robust presence on social media, another important part of our vocation culture is to ensure that our resources and events are bilingual in English and Spanish. We want to address the people of God in their own language, and we know that the San Antonio Archdiocese has a significant number of Spanish speakers, including some young men and women who prefer Spanish when talking about their vocation.

When it comes to events, one of our largest gatherings each year is the Life Awareness retreat, a three-day weekend retreat for those considering religious life. The  Vocation Committee organizes it. Another important event each year is the Advent Gathering, where religious sisters, brothers, priests, seminarians, and laity come together to pray, share a meal, and have fun. Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller—himself a member of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit—and our two auxiliary bishops usually join us as well.

In recent years, we’ve seen young men and women enter our seminary and some seven different religious communities. Oftentimes these young people first meet their community through one of our discernment events, particularly through the Life Awareness retreats.

In vocation ministry we often hear “everything is about relationships,” and this is true. The relationship of the vocation office with our shepherds, our archbishop and auxiliary bishops, is strong. They support our many efforts to cultivate vocations.

Another relationship that our staff nurtures is with the Office for Consecrated Life, directed by Sister Elizabeth Ann Vasquez, S.S.C.J. Our two offices support each other in the different initiatives that each one sponsors. Sister Vasquez attends some of our vocation events, and we include her in the agenda to give a message to our youth. Additionally, someone from our staff is always present at events organized by the Office for Consecrated Life.

Building a culture of vocations in our archdiocese, has been a process, a process that involves not just the vocation office but all the different departments, parishes, and ministers. This is our dream: that through this collaborative work all the baptized may be aware of their own vocation and their responsibility to foster vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

Lay Vocation Promoters reach parishes

The other major auxiliary group that helps us further our dream of full vocation awareness is our Lay Vocation Promoters (LVPs), made up of lay men and women of all ages who are dedicated to promoting and fostering vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. The LVPs started in 2012, originally as a Serra Club, and we now have more than 50 members representing more than 30 parishes.

Our LVPs promote priestly and consecrated vocations through prayer, service, and support of the archdiocesan vocation office. They work with parishes throughout the archdiocese to establish and support vocation committees.

LVP members understand that ecclesial vocations begin in families and that our San Antonio  parents require bilingual tools and support from the parish and the different religious communities to help them discuss, pray for, and encourage vocation discernment among their children. Our archdiocese has been blessed with about 80 different religious communities. Therefore, it is essential that lay people support the many initiatives and programs sponsored by these communities and our vocation office. In addition, we take time to nurture and grow in our own lay vocations through speakers, programs, and days of reflection. The vocation office also offers monthly formation days to all the LVPs.

True vocations to the priesthood and religious life will occur when all the people of God realize their vital role in modeling their faith and inviting young people to follow. These many forms of collaboration—among religious communities, laity, diocesan departments, and vocation office staff members—are the way we spread a vocation culture, an invitation to all Catholics. How else will our youth be able to hear the call of the Lord or the challenge of our Blessed Mother to, “Do whatever He tells you”? (John 2:5).

Father Memo Hernandez is the director of vocations for the Diocese of Sacramento.

Bishop Gary Janak, Sister Ana Cecilia Montalvo, F.Sp.S., and Ana Bojorquez work together to promote Catholic vocations within the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

This article is based on the webinar  by these individuals, “Creating a collaborative environment.” The webinar was one of a series of six sponsored in 2021-22 by the National Religious Vocation Conference with support from the GHR Foundation. This webinar and the full series, “Religious Life Today: Learn it! Love it! Live it!” are at youtube.com/NatRelVocationConf.