The Catholic Church has a math problem on its hands.
A record number of people are converting to Catholicism, yet the number of priests is declining.
In the Archdiocese of Newark — the state’s largest diocese, which serves 1.3 million — there’s only one priest for every 3,595 Catholics, according to church officials.
To solve the imbalance, the archdiocese recently launched a new vocational campaign, “Called by Name.”
It asks Catholics to identify and nominate upstanding men between the ages of 15 and 35 who they think would make a good priest.
The goal is inspire young men to consider the priesthood.
“For several years, other dioceses have been doing it, and it’s become so fruitful,” said the Rev. Patrick Seo, the archdiocese’s director of priestly vocations. “So the rest of us are kind of catching up to them.”
Seo had considered the initiative, but it wasn’t until he had one of his quarterly meetings with Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the head of the archdiocese, that it came to fruition.
“He himself brought it up, by inspiration of the Lord,” Seo said of Tobin. “So once he said that, we ran with it.”
Nominations may be submitted through an online form or on cards available at parishes across the archdiocese, which serves Bergen, Essex, Union and Hudson counties.
Each nominee will receive a letter from Tobin, acknowledging the nomination and inviting the nominee to a dinner with clergy and seminarians to learn more about the priesthood.
Men interested in further exploration will be invited to participate in a six-week program focused on the realities of priestly life and how to discern their vocation, according to church officials. Other opportunities, like mentorship and spiritual direction, will be offered afterward.
“In no way do we intend to pressure candidates towards the priesthood,” Tobin recently wrote to parishioners. “Rather, we want to invite young men in the Archdiocese to prayerfully consider God’s plan for them.”
The initiative, which was launched the weekend of April 25-26, will run through June 5.
In a news release announcing the campaign, church officials said they hope to receive at least 1,000 submissions. But Seo said he prefers not to think of having a numerical goal.
“It’s meant to be a relationship with the Lord,” he said.
The number of U.S. priests has declined 43% over the past 60 years, according to data from Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
But the Catholic population has increased by 50% over the same time period.
Deacon Konrad Kosiek, 27, had always wanted to enter the priesthood — with one caveat.
“My only two options in life, I told myself back then, were to be a priest or a soccer player,” Kosiek said of his childhood years. “Those were my only two interests.”
He ended up choosing the priesthood and will become one after he’s ordained in late May.
Today, men might reject a call to become a priest out of fear of commitment, he said. Or, they might just not know a whole lot about it.
The new initiative is promising, Kosiek said, “because it not only promotes vocations, but I hope that it makes the priesthood more transparent to what the vocation is.”