Bishops and Vocations

This past Wednesday morning, SPIRITUS had the great honor of spending some time meeting with the Most Reverend David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay. Bishop Ricken spoke a little bit about how important our ministry is to the diocese and told us that he is praying for us every day. He also asked us a little bit about ourselves and how each member of the team found out about SPIRITUS. At the conclusion of our meeting, Bishop Ricken commissioned us for our ministry and posed for a few photos with the team. What an awesome opportunity to spend some time with a truly great successor to the Apostles!

One of the things Bishop Ricken shared with us was the great need for young people to answer God's call to live out vocations as priests in the Diocese of Green Bay. I don't remember the exact numbers, but there are something like just over half as many active priests as there are parishes in this diocese. Fortunately, we have a great Vocation Director, Fr. Schuster (who also happens to be our chaplain at SPIRITUS), and things are starting to turn around. Incidentally, we ran into Fr. Schuster after our meeting with the bishop...

...and he took some time out of his busy schedule to join us for a delicious lunch!