"Normal Guys Following God's Call": Nearly 100 Men Gather to Discern the Priesthood in Denver

Nearly 100 men gathered to discern their vocations — and a potential call to the priesthood — last month, a direct fruit of the Archdiocese's recent Called By Name campaign. (Photo provided)

By Matt Walker

It was a warm August morning, and a group of young men stepped into the sacred, calm stillness of the Christ the King Chapel for Mass at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver. Ranging in age from 15 to 35, they had been invited to a discernment retreat, one of many held there each year. 

However, this retreat was very different in one key way. Attendance usually numbers around twenty, but on this day, nearly one hundred answered the call. 

The enormous increase in attendance can be attributed to the recent Called By Name vocations campaign. Starting the weekend of Sunday, May 18th, Mass-goers across the archdiocese heard the vocation stories of their priests, and were encouraged to nominate young men in whom they saw priestly qualities or those who would consider the call. The outreach generated an astounding nine hundred names. Each person nominated received a letter from Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila and invitations to the retreat and other discernment activities from vocations director Father Jason Wallace. 

“I can't necessarily say I've been seriously discerning the priesthood,” recalled Luke Cecil, a 20-year-old who attended the retreat from Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lakewood. “I was definitely pretty nervous going into it. But I really enjoyed it. It was really interesting.”

The retreat included Eucharistic Adoration and talks by Archbishop Aquila and Father Angel Perez-Lopez, rector of the seminary. Current seminarians were also present, having just arrived for the new academic year. Besides attending the Mass, they assisted with the retreat, especially lunch and the time for recreation and conversation that followed. One might consider those last steps to be less important, but time with the seminarians was frequently noted as the best part of the experience.  

“It kind of crushed the myth for me that seminarians are these kind of weird, castaway people,” Cecil continued. “They were really cool and just normal guys.”

“We played sports and ate pizza, and you could go up and grab a seminarian and ask them questions, and get to know them, which was really great. They're awesome guys who I think most of us on that retreat look up to a lot,” recalled Jeremy Gillette, a 20-year-old senior at Colorado School of Mines in Golden and a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Parish in Longmont.

For young men considering the priesthood, telling themselves they “aren’t seminary material” can be a self-created stumbling block. The same can be said of an inability to imagine themselves in day-to-day life on campus. The retreat experience helps get past both problems by replacing imagined with real examples. 

“I was in charge of sports for the day — setting up volleyball, getting everything ready for all the dudes to show up,” said Cooper Eitel, a third-year seminarian from Our Lady of the Pines Parish in Conifer. “I went on a retreat when I was discerning, and that helped open my eyes. Sometimes, there's a societal projection of the seminary, that it's weird. But it's not. It's just normal guys trying to follow where the Lord is calling them.” 

It almost goes without saying that, with the Called By Name campaign, God has blessed the archdiocese with impressive numbers. 

“We had ten guys come from my parish,” noted 31-year-old Francisco Perez, a third-year seminarian from St. John the Baptist Parish in Longmont, who has assisted at many of these retreats. “This time, I would say there was more joy in these guys. When people say, ‘Hey, I think you would be a good priest,’ they feel like ‘Oh wow, someone sees something in me. And they're inviting me to check this out!’”

So, what’s next for these hundred discerners, not to mention the other 800 men who were nominated? 

“To be honest with you, I'm not super certain,” Cecil admitted. “At the event, they gave us an invitation to small groups with other men discerning the priesthood. So I think [next might be] joining and going to some of those groups.”

The process of discernment takes time and operates without a set schedule. Some of those intending to enroll in the seminary will also need to finish school first. So it’s likely that the next assessments of the program may not be as eye-popping as what has come so far. That is, until several years are assessed together, showing more clearly the trends hoped for from the campaign.

“The number one thing that I've been telling guys is to not be afraid, to just give it a shot,” Eitel emphasized. “Once you apply to seminary, once you're accepted, you're not trapped. You're not a prisoner for seven years and then just the rest of your life as a priest. It's all a free gift to go. And there's no way you can lose. Going to seminary is only a victory for the church, for the Lord and yourself too, just the amount of growth that happens. It's a tremendous opportunity.”

“I think the heart of it is prayer and fostering divine intimacy with Jesus,” said Gillette, who had already been discerning before being nominated. “I'm going to be graduating in the spring, and I think there's a pretty good chance I'll be applying for seminary. I'm super excited for whatever the Lord calls me to. If he calls me to the seminary, I know he'll bless it. If he calls me to marriage, I know he'll bless it. I would say I'm just very open to wherever he calls me.”