Father Rocco Puopolo, S.X.

What roles do you play?

I'm the vocation director for the Xavierian Missionaries as well as our local community coordinator. Within NRVC, I'm the co-coordinator for the New England member area. 

How long have you been in vocation ministry? 

Seven years.

Are you part of a team?

Yes, we have two full-time vocation ministers together with two confreres who had once been involved in vocation ministry as well as a member of our sister community, the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary. We meet two or three times each year to review and plan our vocation service.

Has being a member of NRVC been helpful to you?

Besides finding quality material and workshops to enhance my ministry, I have met wonderful colleagues from other communities who bring zeal, hope, and joy to this service to our communities.  

What approach have you used lately that you found exciting?

Recently the New England member area sponsored a presentation and panel discussion on themes for the upcoming synod on youth and discernment. We promoted it throughout all the New England colleges. Although only 45 people attended in person, over 700 followed the program on Facebook Live! And by the next weekend another 300 had viewed the program on Facebook.

What's a fun fact about you that you'd like to share?

I joined the Xaverian Missionaries in the hope of going to Asia where St. Francis Xavier served and where we were in our beginnings. I did not want to be a classroom teacher. That said, I ended up being missioned to Africa, and after three years of part-time teaching, I became the superintendent of schools for our diocese. But it all worked out in the end!

What do you find most challenging, and what is most rewarding?

The challenge for me is to trust the spirit of the Lord who works in so many young men and women. The One who is doing the calling is not me! The reward in vocation work is to be with so many spirit-filled persons, attentive to that call and that spirit. It is a great place to be.