The story of vocation growth & success from Charlotte, North Carolina and Kansas & Virginia too

 

‘It’s always the Holy Spirit’: Meet 3 dioceses seeing large numbers of priestly ordinations

Multiple dioceses throughout the U.S. are bucking national trends and seeing large numbers of men discern into the priesthood.

Seminarians in the Diocese of Charlotte stand together prior to their ordination, March 14, 2025. | Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Charlotte

By Daniel Payne

August 16, 2026

What drives a young man to discern into the priesthood — a supportive family, a vibrant parish, a proactive pastor, an outspoken bishop?

Father John Eckert’s response: “Yes.”

Eckert, the vocations director for the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, chuckled a little when describing the myriad paths that a young man may take when finding his way to holy orders. But, he said, “it’s always the Holy Spirit at work. It’s always cooperating with the grace of God.”

The Charlotte Diocese is among those in the U.S. seeing high numbers of seminarians and priestly ordinations. The diocese in western North Carolina saw a record 10 young men ordained to the priesthood earlier in 2026; that followed six ordinations in 2025 and seven in 2024.

“We’re blessed in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Eckert said. “It’s a beautiful moment.”

The priest just wrapped up his first full year as vocations director there. He said one of the strengths of the diocese is in its vibrant faith life, which he attributed partly to the “evangelical Bible-belt roots” of the region.

“This is Billy Graham territory,” he joked.

The diocese itself bears out that witness, he said. “The Church is growing like crazy down here,” he said. “We have wonderful families. We have faithful, hardworking priests. We’ve had five bishops who keep on striving to bear the Gospel message and bring that to every corner of the diocese.”

The growing ranks of the priesthood is proof of that high spirit, though Eckert said it can be tricky to tease out just what contributes to years of high ordinations. One of the diocese’s strengths, he said, is its own “in-house college seminary.”

“It’s so wonderful that if we have a young man interested in the priesthood, we can actually just bring him to this place and show him where the initial years of formation will take place,” he said.

The school offers prospective seminarians a chance to see “a group of men living this out, being very intentional about their prayer life, striving to grow in love of Our Lord.”

Charlotte Bishop Michael Martin, OFM Conv, told EWTN News that when seeing such high levels of devotion to the priesthood, “we often have to just marvel at God’s work.”

Priests in the diocese, he said, excel at offering candidates to the priesthood “the opportunity to see a healthy, holy, good person that they can see themselves becoming.”

Families, meanwhile, have become “far more open” to communicating to their sons that they would be “honored to see [them] consider the priesthood.”

“That dynamic has come about because the presbyterate gives a good example,” the bishop said. “It makes families, and parents in particular, more willing to be able to create that environment in their own families.”

Both Martin and Eckert said that at a certain point Church leaders simply have to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit. “To fully try to understand it is important,” Martin said, “but in some ways it’s best just to appreciate and enjoy it and be grateful for it.”

Eckert, meanwhile, cited as an example 1 Corinthians 3:6, in which Paul tells the Church at Corinth about its faith: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

The priest spoke joyfully about his work in the diocesan vocations office, though he downplayed his own role in bringing men to holy orders. He recounted with a laugh what a speaker told a group of vocations directors at a recent conference: “Gentlemen, get over yourselves. Nobody ever entered seminary because of their vocations director.”

Priestly vocation ‘seen as a natural, fulfilling life’

Father Garett Burns, the director of vocations promotion in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, admitted that the Midwestern diocese is “blessed with a strong culture of vocations.”

“For example, this past May six men were ordained to the priesthood,” he said. “We’ve been blessed to generally have a steady number of ordinations each year. There have been 22 priestly ordinations since 2020 and 44 priestly ordinations in the last 10 years. We will begin this academic year with 50 seminarians in formation.”

He said that it is “difficult to capture succinctly” why a diocese might have such abundant vocations, describing every Catholic’s vocation as a “mystery of grace.” But he said promoting vocations throughout every aspect of Church life — including in families, schools, and parishes — has borne steady fruit.

The diocese has an abundance of Eucharistic adoration, he said, including perpetual adoration. Such chapels present opportunities for young people to spend time in silence before Christ, he said, and “these moments are where vocations grow and flourish.”

Priests and bishops in the diocese, meanwhile, are “deeply committed to the Lord.”

“When priests love their priesthood and enjoy each other, that is attractive to young men,” he said. A local seminary program has also borne fruit, he said, allowing young men to form a close, core connection with the Church “at home.”

The priest said he hesitates to offer advice to other dioceses, admitting that there is “no universal solution” given the unique histories, gifts, and challenges of each diocese. But expanding opportunities for Eucharistic adoration, he said, offers “one viable option that promises to deepen the culture of vocations.”

Father Noah Morey, the vocations director in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, echoed the assessment of his fellow vocations directors: “It’s not just one thing, it’s everything,” he told EWTN News.

The Arlington Diocese saw seven new priests ordained in 2026; it recorded 12 ordinations in 2025. Morey noted that when it comes to ordinations, “it’s not about numbers, it’s about quality.” But he said the Arlington Diocese has a “strong culture of vocations” that has helped produce exemplary priests over the years.

The diocese has promoted vocations since its founding in 1974. Its first leader, Bishop Thomas Welsh, “really fostered that culture” in part by bringing a Poor Clares monastery to the diocese.

“Our bishops have all taken a hands-on approach of fostering vocations in young men from a young age,” Morey said. Bishops in Arlington regularly attend seminary events and meet personally with aspiring priests, he said.

Eucharistic adoration is prolific throughout the diocese, meanwhile; several years ago, Morey said, current Bishop Michael Burbidge asked every pastor in the diocese to institute 40 hours of Eucharistic adoration annually.

The diocese also holds St. Andrew dinners several times a year, which allows young men to speak to both the bishop and diocesan priests about their potential discernment.

“I tell the young men, it’s a very low-commitment event — you’re not signing your life away!” he said. “You just show up for a free dinner with the bishop.”

A yearly “Quo Vadis?” summer camp offers another opportunity for young men to have face-to-face discernment with Church leaders.

An active, vibrant priesthood in the diocese also helps foster vocational discernment, he said. “If a young man sees a priest who’s in love with the Lord, that’s really attractive to the priesthood,” he said.

And faith-filled and encouraging families are equally to credit for fostering vocations in young men, Morey continued.

He offered a baseball analogy to describe the process by which young men find their way to the priesthood. “The families are the starting pitchers,” he said. “The priests are the middle relievers. And the vocations director is the closer.”

Globally the Church has continued to see lower vocations; the most recent data shows a continued drop in priests, with significant declines in Europe and the Americas, though Africa and Asia saw notable increases.

In the first 15 months of his pontificate Pope Leo XIV has continued to emphasize the importance of vocations. In June 2025 he told vocations ministers at the Vatican that their job consisted of “forming men capable of loving, listening, praying, and serving as a community.”

The pope said God “continues to call and remains faithful to his promises.” He urged leaders to help bring about the creation of appropriate conditions “to hear [God’s] voice.”

In Charlotte, Bishop Martin said the best response to an increase in vocations is to be both joyful for the gift and determined to help it flourish.

“There’s something in God’s design that’s beyond even what I can say,” he said. “I can provide some insights, but at the end of the day, this is the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Eckert, meanwhile, said an increase in vocations is a blessing no matter where it develops.

“The job that I think we all have is being intentional in our discipleship of Jesus Christ,” he said. “I pray for myself and all my brother vocations directors out there. Whether it happens in Peoria or it happens in Charlotte, it’s good for all of us.”

Finally a funeral for Catholic Priest, POW and future Saint

 

Father Kapaun imitated Christ's love 'throughout his ministry', bishop says at funeral Mass

By CNA Staff

Wichita, Kan., Sep 29, 2021 / 14:54 pm

During Wednesday's funeral Mass for Father Emil Kapaun, the Bishop of Wichita called the U.S. Army chaplain who died in a North Korean prisoner of war camp a “humble, and saintly priest.”

“We come to pray for Father's repose, to pay our respects to this fallen soldier, this Medal of Honor recipient, to this humble, and saintly priest. I consider it a singular, but undeserved honor, as the present Bishop of Wichita, to lead us in the Mass of Christian Burial,” Bishop Carl Kemme said Sept. 29 during his homily at a Mass said at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan., a Wichita suburb.

Fr. Kapaun was a priest of the Diocese of Wichita who served as a military chaplain during both the Second World War and the Korean War. After he was taken prisoner, he served and ministered to other soldiers in a prison camp, where he died May 23, 1951.

His body was identified in March among nearly 900 “unknowns” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. His remains were returned to Kansas this week, and they will be interred at Wichita's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

He was named a Servant of God in 1993, and his cause for canonization was opened in 2008.

Bishop Kemme thanked God for allowing Fr. Kapaun's “earthly temple, his body, to be discovered, and now be back with us in the land of his birth, in the land of Kansas.”

The bishop thanked those present at the funeral Mass, but in particular Fr. Kapaun's surviving fellow POWs: Herbert Miller, Mike Dowe, Paul Roach, Robert McGreevy, and Bailey Gillespie, telling them that “without your testimony none of us would have known of the heroic witness of your chaplain and friend, Fr. Kapaun.”

He continued, “No doubt the Holy See, and particularly the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, would want me to remember and to remind you that we are not here today to beatify this man. For the work of the church's investigation toward canonization continues. No. We are here today to provide for Father what was not provided for him 70 years ago, a Mass of Christian Burial. And though many of us pray for his intercession, today we pray for his repose, as we do for all the deceased. This is our Christian duty, as we bring him to his new place of rest.”

“And we are blessed to be able to offer this work of mercy for him today, for the one who lived the spiritual and corporal works of mercy in such heroic ways. As we perform this service of our faith, we can rightly reflect on how he conformed his life to Christ, both as priest and as victim. In the case of Fr. Kapaun, we have much to consider.”

Fr. Kapaun imitated the love of Christ, laying down his life for his friends, “all throughout his ministry,” Bishop Kemme said.

“But it reached its fulfillment on May 23, 1951, the day of his personal Calvary, in a dark and lonely place far from here, offering all that he had for those he considered his friends. But that imitation, so powerful then, so clear, began long before that appointed day. It began not far from here, almost 36 years before, in Pilsen, on a farm, in the midst of the prairie,” when Fr. Emil began to live in “a quiet, almost hidden way,” but one that attracted the attention of those around him.

It is “little wonder then that God looked deep into the prairie of Kansas, here in the heartland of our nation, to find a young man who would possess the heart of courage,” the bishop preached.

Fr. Kapaun's ministry as a chaplain was characterized, he said, by “a sacrificial and selfless love of others, especially his beloved fellow soldiers … The accounts of his service to his fellow soldiers in those last months, his fellow POWs, reveal so much of the man whose body we honor today with Christian burial. His love was simple, effective, selfless, and deep.”

“In those last months, weeks, and days he would go at night among the huts of the wounded, the sick, and depressed, to do whatever he could to lift their spirits; he would lead them in prayer, sing a song, tell a joke, pick lice off their bodies, boil water in a helmet to give them a drink of clean water to ward off dysentery, give them some meager amounts of food, even, yes, even by stealing, in short, to do whatever he could to bring light to those who entered a darkness few of us can ever imagine. He was a missionary disciple of hope. And that hope indubitably kept many of those men alive. And evidently, he did all of this day after day in an uncomplaining fashion, never begrudgingly, but happily, dare we say, even joyfully … bringing God's love in simple and profound ways to those who were at risk of losing all hope.”

Bishop Kemme reflected with gratitude on being invited by Fr. Kapaun's family to accompany them to Hawaii to receive and to view the priest's remains.

Allowed reverently to touch the skull of the priest, “many thoughts immediately flooded my mind,” the bishop said: “The skull, it is the physical foundation of so much of what makes us human, our face, the eyes, the ears, the lips, and the mouth. As we were permitted to so gently touch this part of Fr. Kapaun, I found myself reflecting on his face, which we see so often in photos. His was a caring face, a face of quiet strength, a face of character and virtue, a face of a friend, a brother, the face of a comrade, that brought calmness and consolation, that instilled upon those who looked on his countenance, uncommon courage and confidence. His was the face those soldiers would never forget.”

“I thought of his eyes, eyes that saw human suffering in front of him, unimaginable suffering, but eyes that were able to see beyond the dirt and the grime, the lice and the disease, eyes that were able to see through all of that to the person who needed him at that very moment. Those who were so blessed to look into his eyes, I am confident, saw a reflection of Jesus, to whom Fr. Emil had dedicated his life and ministry. I thought of his ears, which heard the cries of the poor, the lonely, the afraid, the ears that listened to the fears and concerns of the soldiers, the ears that heard their sins … And I thought of his mouth and lips, that spoke words that lifted spirits and gave strength and courage, absolution and freedom.”

Bishop Kemme noted that “It was in those places that Father was also baptized, on his forehead, becoming a child of God; and was anointed on the crown of his head as priest, prophet and king; and years later was ordained as a priest of Jesus Christ by the imposition of hands. From this center of who Fr. Kapaun was, flowed the life of a baptized disciple. From there flowed the ministry of a priest, and the dedicated and courageous service of a chaplain.”

The bishop concluded by inviting all to come to Fr. Kapaun's tomb at the cathedral to “reflect on the extraordinary man whose mortal remains we will inter there today. To all who have been inspired by the ministry of his priestly life, we now have a place to be in the company of his mortal remains, and to pray for his intercession.”

“Especially when for us life is dark and lonely, and we are hopeless and afraid, come to his tomb, pray there and sit in the stillness of the beauty and peace that surrounds you, and let God speak to you through the example and the witness of this servant of God, Fr. Emil Joseph Kapaun.”

“And let us all continue to pray for his cause, so that one day soon we will be able to call him the saint we are confident he truly is. Give thanks to the lord for he is good, for his love is everlasting. Chaplain, Fr. Emil Kapaun, Servant of God, pray for us.”