April 25, 2010—the Fourth Sunday of Easter—marks the 47th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Falling in the last months of the Year for Priests and in the midst of unprecedented attacks on the Catholic Church and the priesthood, this World Day of Prayer for Vocations is particularly poignant.
The continuing "revelations" about clerical sexual abuse—most of them decades old and involving priests long dead—take their toll on the many good and faithful men who give their lives to serve Christ's Church and His people. While sexual abuse is a heinous sin, the record shows that even at the height of the scandal—between approximately 1950 and 1975, according to studies released by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice—rates of sexual abuse among Catholic priests were lower than among (to name but a few professions) Protestant clergymen, rabbis, coaches of youth sports, and public-school teachers. (Indeed, they were about half of the rate of the latter.)
Yet the undeniable scandal in the Catholic Church is continually blamed on the all-male priesthood, on celibacy, and on the Church's teaching on sexual morality. Let's assume for a moment that those who claim that there is a connection between sexual abuse and these disciplines and teachings are right. If so, then the lower rate of sexual abuse among Catholic priests compared with other clergymen and members of other professions who don't adhere to such disciplines and teaching would seem to indicate exactly the opposite of what the Church's critics claim.
Now more than ever, the Church needs a few good men. We can do our part, not only by making a Prayer for Vocations to the Priestly and Religious Life part of our daily prayers, but by encouraging faithful and well-adjusted young men to consider a vocation to the priesthood.
Resources for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations: