Spring 2026

As Diocesan Vocations Director, I have focused primarily on promoting what I call the diocesan nuptial vocations: sacramental marriage, diocesan priesthood, and consecrated virginity lived in the world. I have also promoted vocations to the permanent diaconate. However, I don’t include the permanent diaconate among the diocesan nuptial vocations because most permanent deacons are married, and when I talk with them about being a deacon, they will say that marriage is their first vocation and they speak of the diaconate more in terms of mission than vocation per say.

In all three diocesan nuptial vocations -marriage, priesthood, and consecrated virginity- the form of the state of life is the marriage of Christ, the Bridegroom espoused to his Bride, the Church.

In marriage, a man and a woman give the gift of themselves to each other and promise as bridegroom and bride to love each other in good times and in bad. In the priesthood, a man gives the gift of himself as a bridegroom in loving service to his Bride, the Church. In consecrated virginity, the woman gives the gift of herself as a bride to her Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. While we need to encourage more young men to consider a vocation to the priesthood, and more young women to consider a vocation to consecrated virginity, we also need to encourage more young Catholic couples to consider the vocation of marriage.

While many Catholic couples are civilly married, as you well know, many of these same couples are not sacramentally married. We need to pray that our young people may respond to the gift of God’s love for them by giving the nuptial gift of themselves to God in the form of marriage as diocesan priests, consecrated virgins and couples sacramentally married in the Lord.

Insofar as the diocesan priest and the consecrated virgin image Christ, the Bridegroom, and His Bride, the Church, these nuptial vocations spiritually complement each other. Likewise, these two celibate vocations spiritually complement the married vocation, and vice-versa, since in the family the husband images Christ and the wife images the Church. In this way, all three diocesan nuptial vocations mutually enliven and support each other as states of life within God’s family, the Church. It follows that, when we promote any one of these diocesan nuptial vocations, we support them all.