By Nancy Frazier O’Brien
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — The best advertisement for vocations to the priesthood, it is often said, is a happy priest.

That’s why Msgr. Robert Panke, newly elected president of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, hopes research showing that priests are happy in their lives gets wide play.

“Vocations directors already know that, but it was great to get some ammunition,” Msgr. Panke said at an Oct. 5 symposium highlighting the conclusions in Msgr. Stephen Rossetti’s new book, “Why Priests Are Happy: A Study of the Psychological and Spiritual Health of Priests.”

“Now we have to get the news out,” he added. “Too many people think the priesthood is a sad, lonely life.”

Director of the Office of Priest Formation and Vocations in the Archdiocese of Washington for the past nine years, Msgr. Panke was named last year as rector of the archdiocese’s new Blessed John Paul College Seminary, which is to be formally dedicated Oct. 22.

He was the closing speaker at the daylong symposium, held on the campus of The Catholic University of America in Washington.

Msgr. Panke said one of the biggest obstacles to his vocation work is the opposition of parents.

“They believe the lie that priests are not happy, and they want their children to be happy,” he said.

Bishops “would be wise to encourage every one of their priests to look at himself as a recruiter,” he said, noting that although 80 percent of seminarians say a priest’s encouragement was a primary factor in their decision to become a priest, only 30 percent of priests say they have given such encouragement.

Msgr. Panke also discussed the state of screening and formation of seminarians, saying that the U.S. Catholic Church is “doing a much better job in a rapidly changing culture.”

When Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, recruited Peter, Andrew, James and John to become “fishers of men,” as recounted in the fourth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, there was “no interview, no battery of testing, no psychological interview,” Msgr. Panke said.

“Jesus can do that; we need to do a little more work,” he added.

But he said vocations directors and bishops also need to know when to turn down a candidate for the priesthood who is not ready.

“There is a lot of brokenness out there, and we have seen the world of harm that a lack of screening can do,” he said.

Msgr. Panke emphasized Msgr. Rossetti’s conclusions about the importance of personal prayer in the life of every priest.

“Prayer is key to happy and healthy priests,” he said. A priest who prays at least 30 minutes a day “is less likely to be emotionally exhausted because Christ is feeding him,” he added.

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