The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence’s Office of Vocations will begin the broadcast of a television advertisement on Wednesday, December 26 as part of the annual Vocations Awareness campaign.The television ad will be complimented by the recently redesigned Web site and other efforts that are intended to inspire Catholic men to learn more about a potential calling to the priesthood.
The ad may be viewed at www.catholicpriest.com or www.youtube.com/ dioceseofprovidence.
“Through this awareness campaign, it is our hope to plant the thought of the priesthood in the heart of a Catholic man,” said Fr. Michael Najim, vocations director. “This year’s television advertisement has an inspirational feel to it and challenges men to tap into the deeper desires of their hearts. Deep within the heart of every man is the desire to be faithful and courageous, sacrifice for the greater good, live a life of sacrificial love. Hopefully the commercial will reach his heart and then he will be moved to spend time on catholicpriest.com and consider a calling to the priesthood.”
The television spot will appear more than 480 times on selected cable networks beginning the day after Christmas through January 27, 2008. The television spot uses strong imagery of priests in ministry and an inspiring music score to grab the intended audience’s attention.
The ad will also be available on You Tube, an Internet video hosting service.
The 30-second spot, which focuses upon the Holy Eucharist, the center of every priest’s life, opens with ‘fidelity’ on the screen, followed by images of the Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin laying his hands upon an ordinande during an ordination Mass.
It is through this laying of the hands that a bishop or priest invokes The Holy Spirit to come down upon the ordinande. Next, ‘courage’ appears on the screen followed by a priest processing with the Blessed Sacrament, which Catholics believe is the body of Christ.
The procession scene is followed by ‘sacrifice’ and imagery of a priest holding the Holy Eucharist.
Sacrifice is followed by ‘all for love’ and a montage of images and video of priests performing various acts of ministry in the name of Christ. The spot ends with ‘Priesthood. Consider it,’ then the Web site address, www.catholicpriest.com.
Past awareness campaigns have proved successful, according to Fr. Najim.
“During the campaigns, we witness a dramatic increase in traffic to the Web site,” added Fr. Najim. “If a man is actually taking the time to go to catholicpriest.com, he is at the very least curious about the priesthood. This curiosity could lead to a deeper inquiry which could eventually lead to a realization that the priesthood may be his call.”
The television ads will appear on 483 separate occasions from December 25 through January 26, 2007 on cable networks such as Comedy Central, Discovery, ESPN 2, Fox Sports Net New England, FX, MTV, MTV 2, SCI FI, Speed Channel, Spike, TNT, Travel Channel and TV Land.
“If a man is being called to the priesthood, this awareness campaign will simply strengthen that call to serve Christ and His Church,” added Fr. Najim. “Essentially, that is our goal: to reach that man who is open to the priesthood but has not taken the necessary steps to learn more about such a vocation”
There are currently 21 men from the Diocese of Providence studying for the priesthood. The Seminary has several additional men who are seriously considering an application to the seminary.
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