Martinsburg and Wellsville

The next stop on the tour was to Martinsburg and Wellsville. I visited classrooms in their wonderful school. When visiting faculty, we had a long conversation about how the decline of religioius sisters and priests started in their parish when the sisters left teaching. When sisters were teaching, the parish had many in seminary and in religious houses of formation. Realizing that was reality, the question was asked, so what are we going to do given the present situation?How do we get our young people exposed to these ways of life? It was decided that more trips with our young girls to convents and more trips with our boys to seminaries would be some helpful ways as well as bringing sisters and priests in to talk to the children. again, when meeting with parish council and women's group in Wellsville more were surprised to hear that parents do not want their children following the call of being a priest or religious sister. Each year we have Vocation Reflection Days for our Confirmation candidates and for their sponsors and parents. In both Wellsville and Montgomery City, people who went to those days said that research in our diocese would show the same thing since there are many who do not want to see their children become priests or sisters -- or even look into it as a possibility. This year for our Vocation Reflection Days, organizers (who includes me) are going to spend more time helping parents to see why and how this is a wonderful way for their children to live. 19 names were turned in from these two parishes. I was able to visit with the Knights of Columbus and School Board, but was unable as of yet to establish a vocations committee for these two parishes. However, I will continue to work with them to achieve this goal. "Every parish have a vocation committee and every parish have either one seminarian or one in the convent discerning."