Here are answers to some commonly held myths about vocations to the Priesthood:

By Father Joseph S. Corel

"Priests do not get paid a salary." According to the government, diocesan priests are both self-employed and employees, so we get to pay more into Social Security than any other group of people. We get to declare ourselves as single with no dependents and are in a low-wage income, so we definitely get to pay more taxes than most. Since we pay Social Security and taxes, it is safe to say we make an income. While our money is ours to do with as we wish, we promise to live a life of simplicity. And since most of our bills are paid, we are supposed to give a lot of our money to charities and to helping others. That said, our automobiles are ours. We can also purchase whatever we want. Our money is ours, and we can spend it as we see fit.

"If I were to become a priest, I would have to give up all my hobbies." Priests are expected - notice the word expected - to take a day off each week. Priests are expected to take four weeks of vacation (three weekends and four weeks.) Unless a funeral or an emergency comes up in the parish, the priest, in order to keep a healthy balance to his day, should not work straight through from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. There should be a built-in break in the day. The purpose of these days off, vacations and built-in down time is so that the priest can get away, rejuvenate and be ready to minister again. What would you do to rejuvenate, to get your mind off of things? You would do your hobbies. Priests have hobbies and are expected to do them to keep healthy. No one wants a boring priest or a priest who is on the verge of burnout. Priests hunt, fish, hang out with God in nature, play sports, go to sporting events, watch movies and plays, and do everything other people do. The rule is: If it is not morally offensive, do it as a priest. If it is morally offensive, no one who is baptized and growing in relationship to Christ should be doing those activities. There is not a double standard for priests. We are all trying to grow deeper in our relationship to Christ.

"I want to do something else with my life." It would be a very unusual profession where the gifts and talents needed to do that profession would not also fit into being a diocesan priest. An incredible number of skills and talents are needed to be an effective priest. No priest has all of them, but that means that no matter what skills and talents you do have, they can be used as a diocesan priest. Further, as one bishop stated, "If you think you'll make a good husband and a good dad, you'll make a fine priest. If you don't think you'll make a good husband and good dad, you won't make a good priest either." How true! They are the same skill sets. The question, then is, "What is God calling me to be?"

"I could not be happy without being married." This is a culture that is sexually saturated. Any electronic device that is turned on - television, music, Internet, radio, videogames - is going to be selling and talking about sex. There is no escape. Then, add to the fact that people are dating and a person sees lots of married couples in their everyday life. Of course, it would seem one could not be happy unless one were married. But, the person who uses this excuse or exercises this myth is about 100 steps further along the journey than the Lord has taken him.
Just take one step at a time, and the Lord will guide you onto the next step. If God is calling you to be celibate, He would give you the gifts to not only be happy but to make you happiest by living a celibate lifestyle. What is needed is the ability to trust the Lord enough to take the first step and enter seminary formation in order to find out if God is calling you to become a priest - or if He is calling you to seminary to simply build a relationship with you.

"If I go to seminary, I have to be a priest or else I am a failure." This is a myth on two counts. First, one does not go to seminary once he realizes he is supposed to be a priest. He goes to seminary to find out whether God is calling him to Priesthood. All a person has to do to apply to seminary is be open to God's plan for him and the possibility that the plan may be to the Priesthood. Second, if the person finds out (discerns) that God is not calling him to the Priesthood, he has done the necessary discernment to know he is to leave seminary. The person is not a failure but has discerned in a safe place set up for the discernment to take place that he is not called to the Priesthood.

"I don't have time to go to seminary and find out I am not called. I've wasted a lot of time and money." Most people will switch their major multiple times before graduating college and then will switch their field of employment many more times before settling into a long-term career. Making money, though it is the American culture's top priority, is not God's No. 1 priority for you. Finding and deepening that relationship with God is His No. 1 priority for you. If He can take care of the flowers in the meadow and takes care of the birds in the sky, how much more is He going to take care of you who has been generous enough to discern what God is asking of you? Money is never a reason to not enter seminary. Though it would be inappropriate to go into detail here, let it be known that there are ways to help men discern without it costing the individual a lot of money to enter or to leave seminary. To find out more, a person would have to talk to the diocesesan vocation director. Neither time nor money has been wasted when your top priority in life (the First Commandment) is to build and deepen your relationship with Christ.

"I feel pressured. I am not being called, but people are talking to me about being a priest just because they're supposed to." If people are telling you, then that should be a sign that you should be discerning seminary. You cannot hear people say, "you should consider seminary," reply with, "I am discerning" or "I am open to God's plan," and then not look at seminary. What you are actually doing is being tricked by the great trickster, Satan himself. You are saying you are discerning, but "discerning" in your own mind without talking to others about it. Discernment does not happen alone and it does not happen by thinking about it. Discernment happens by talking to someone else (a spiritual director), praying about it and acting on it. When you think about the Priesthood, Satan can easily come up with hundreds of reasons the answer is "no," especially when you are thinking on your own. God will never pressure. However, He will be consistent in His invitation.

"My parents would never accept this." First of all, do you know this to be true? Unfortunately, many may be able to answer "yes" to that question. However, unless your parents have explicitly said they do not want you looking into seminary or "becoming a priest," you don't really know that. Have the conversation and check it out and see where it goes. Regardless of how the conversation goes, find a spiritual director and talk to the spiritual director about your concerns and your parents' reactions. Next, if they are against it and that gives you bad feelings, ask yourself why these feelings "feel" bad. Maybe it is because God really is calling you. Keep talking to your spiritual director about the feelings and your parents' reactions. There comes a time when a man can no longer cling to his family but leaves his family to begin his own life. Once a person knows he is called to seminary, the parents have time to see and learn if their child is happy. What parent doesn't want his or her child to be happy? The parent has time to grow into an acceptance of the child's decision.

"I am not good enough, smart enough, holy enough, etc. enough ... OR ... I am too impatient, unworthy, etc." Fill in the blanks using whatever words or phrases fit you. If God is calling, He is only going to ask you to take the next step; He did not give the entire plan to Abraham, Moses, Mary or the Apostles, and He won't give the entire plan to you, either. He simply asked them to take the next step. They did. All He asks of you is that you take the next step. Will you? Let Him worry about your weaknesses and incompleteness. When you give God permission to take the next step with you, He will be more than powerful enough to do what He needs to do through you. Just let Him. Trust Him!

"I've watched 'Fishers of Men' and I don't think I could walk up to a teenager who is dying on the road." Neither could the young boy in the crowd who is watching the priest pray over the dying teenager. Again, to think this way is to take about 1,000 steps down the path when the Lord is simply asking you to take the next step - apply to the seminary. Once a person has been in seminary for many years, he begins to take the classes that will help him "let go and let God" in those unusual but powerful experiences. You do not have to know how to give a homily, anoint someone, or celebrate Mass the day you enter seminary. You can even enter seminary with stage fright, not knowing how to speak clearly, and knowing you still sin. What God asks is for you to be honest about yourself and trust that God has put people in the seminary to help you become the best YOU that you can become - so God can use you as He sees fit, when He sees fit.