The church in Scotland has launched a new magazine aimed at encouraging young men to consider the priesthood.
A print run of 15,000 was distributed to Scotland’s 500 parishes last week.
Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland’s vocations chief, said: “As I go round our parishes, schools and youth events I see, every day, young or single men who’d make ideal priests and I’m sure God is calling many of them to be priests for Scotland. But they won’t come forward unless they hear God’s call.
“Today God calls them through modern media, so I want everyone to take a copy and put it in the hands of a man you think might be being called,” the bishop said.
The magazine, entitled Priests for Scotland, is made up of testimonies from new clergy and seminarians describing how they heard the call to become a priest.
Fr John Morrison, assistant director of Priests for Scotland, said: “We wanted to communicate some of the joy and happiness they have felt in responding positively to that call.”
One account is from Martin Eckersley of St Andrews and Edinburgh. He writes that God has a “wonderful sense of humour when it comes to calling men to His priesthood.
“I had no apparitions, visions or spectacular signs from heaven to flavour my journey. If my own experience is anything to go on, the first reaction is ‘Me? No way. That can’t be right.’” He said the notion was first planted by his “fantastic” parish priests and later, “in the quiet time spent with Jesus in the Mass”, the idea kept coming back. He eventually made the decision after “three years and lots of prayer”. Now at the Scots College, he said, he “couldn’t be happier”.
Peer urges government: stick up for Pakistani Christians
A Catholic peer has called the Government to exert greater pressure on Pakistan to stop the persecution of Christians after it admitted that a controversial scheme to “export the dole” involves larger sums of money than previously revealed.
MPs reacted angrily when the press disclosed that “up to £300 million” of British taxes was to be given away at Pakistani cashpoints over eight years. But Lord Bates, the minister for international development, has revealed the figure to be in fact £420 million.
The scheme allows 235,000 families to pocket payments every three months courtesy of UK taxpayers. Recipients can draw the cash from an ATM and spend it how they wish.
The latest admission came in response to a question submitted by Lord Alton of Liverpool, a crossbench peer. He said that the Government was failing to be rigorous in bringing a halt to the persecution of Christians and Ahmadis.
“I think there is extraordinary indifference to their plight,” he said. “It is about ensuring we get value for money creating the conditions in which minorities are not hunted down like animals.”
‘It’s hard to be a Christian MP’
Being a Christian and an MP is becoming increasingly difficult, a Catholic MP has said.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset, made the comment in a podcast available at catholicherald.co.uk. He said a perception that politicians “don’t do God” made it harder for some, especially on the Left, to “feel comfortable” admitting to a faith. The podcast begins a series asking interviewees what they would take on retreat.
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