At the end of 2024 things may seem like they are about the same as they were at the beginning. We started the year with six seminarians, and we’ll end with the same amount. But all the seminarians will affirm that the Lord’s work is most often done very quietly. When we are faithful to our call, the Lord works. When we show up to pray each morning and pray the Mass with reverence, the Lord works in our heart.

The greatest change this year has been made in the hearts of our seminarians as they continue the work of being formed into priests after the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. That work is quiet, but its results are clear. So many people have reached out to me to tell me that they were blessed by the presence of our seminarians at one event or another. This is my favorite news to receive, and it affirms what I see as well: we have great seminarians who are working very hard and who want to do what the Lord wants them to do.

We have great hope for the future as well. At the end of 2025 Will Foggo is scheduled to be ordained a deacon in preparation for priestly ordination in the spring of 2026. We also have two applicants for the seminary as of now for the next formation year which begins in August 2025. Please keep all of these men in your prayers. We always ask that God’s will be done, and if they are meant to enter into seminary formation, please pray that any barriers come down for them.

We may have more than two applicants as the weeks and months of the winter pass, in fact, I can say today that I expect that we will. This is the mark of a vocation program that is healthier than it was at the start of 2024. We introduced the Vocation Pathway in the summer and thanks to the help of Vianney Vocations we have walked with over 30 young men in discernment groups across the diocese. We have also collected the names of over 50 more young men who you think need this type of fellowship, and so we’ll be reaching out to them in the New Year as well.

The goal that we set at the start of this new chapter was bold, and we continue to ask the Lord to bring it to fruition – 33 seminarians by the year 2030. With that number of seminarians in the pipeline, we can staff our parishes and schools with priests. That’s the goal, that’s the vision, and we have trust that the Lord will bless our efforts.

I am grateful to all those who have supported this mission and vision this year, and in many years prior. We are building on the work of so many people who want to see our parishes thrive. In our little corner of the Chancery, God has called us to promote the diocesan priesthood, and I believe we are doing that very well right now. I am grateful to all of you, and to my part-time staff members, Cecy Arellano and Debbie Padula, who work very hard to promote the priesthood and support our seminarians. I am grateful to our six seminarians. We don’t have a huge number of guys, but they are the type of men we need, and seminary isn’t easy, so I know they appreciate your prayers and support.

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Our first annual Called by Name weekend has wrapped up. Every parish priest was asked to share his vocation story during Mass on the weekend of Nov. 9-10, and then every parishioner was asked if they knew of a man in their parish that they wanted to encourage in his discernment. We will not have final numbers in for a few weeks, as all the cards are being sent to our partners at Vianney Vocations so they can enter the data, but I know that 26 names were submitted via our new jacksonvocations.com website alone. That is 26 names we would not have gotten in prior years, and that is 26 opportunities to reach out and encourage a young man to take his vocation seriously, whether he ends up going to the seminary or not.

All of this is designed to get many more young men thinking about priesthood, and to therefore get many more young men to attend the seminary. As I’ve stated, we want to have 33 seminarians by the year 2030. I believe that many more men are called to the seminary than are currently in the seminary, and we want to change that. The seminary is not the place for fully formed priests, rather, it is the primary place of formation. You don’t have to know you are going to be ordained in order to be a good candidate for the seminary. In fact, most guys don’t know they are going to be ordained. Ordination comes after 7-9 years of prayer, life in community and study. We want more men to enter the seminary so that they can discover whether or not they are called to be priests.

I want to be clear, however, that this does not mean that there is a ‘low bar’ to be accepted to seminary. We have spent the last several years bolstering our application process so that we help a young man discern whether or not seminary is the right fit for him. It is delicate work trying to discern with a man whether the Lord is calling him to the seminary, and I can’t be the only one who discerns with a man. We have a team of experts in Louisville, Kentucky who work with us and our applicants and proctor psychological testing in order to help the applicant, and us, understand whether a man would be a good fit for seminary life.

As I’ve stated before, I loved my time in the seminary, but if a man is not prepared for the academic and social rigor that is present there, then it will not be as positive an experience for him, or for the community. We also have a vocations board in the diocese that meets with an applicant and provides a recommendation to myself and the bishop. The team meets with the applicant after all the other work is done – references are checked, tests are administered, many conversations are had, and I present that work to the board for their review.

I have grown much more comfortable in recent years taking men through this process and also being honest when necessary, when I think the process may have reached its end. I believe that more men are called to seminary than are currently in seminary, but I also take my responsibility to help these men discern seriously. We have these protocols in place so we only accept a man who will be able to enter into seminary life freely and joyfully, so that he can be formed into the Catholic man God has called him to be, whether or not he becomes a priest. And as the net widens and more men (please God) apply for seminary, this process will continue to be vital.

Please pray for me, our vocations board, and all those who work with seminary applicants. We want to invite as many qualified men into the seminary as we can, but we also need to be good stewards of the resources given to us by the people of God, and good leaders for these men who are trusting us with their future.

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Our first annual Called by Name weekend has wrapped up. Every parish priest was asked to share his vocation story during Mass on the weekend of Nov. 9-10, and then every parishioner was asked if they knew of a man in their parish that they wanted to encourage in his discernment. We will not have final numbers in for a few weeks, as all the cards are being sent to our partners at Vianney Vocations so they can enter the data, but I know that 26 names were submitted via our new jacksonvocations.com website alone. That is 26 names we would not have gotten in prior years, and that is 26 opportunities to reach out and encourage a young man to take his vocation seriously, whether he ends up going to the seminary or not.

All of this is designed to get many more young men thinking about priesthood, and to therefore get many more young men to attend the seminary. As I’ve stated, we want to have 33 seminarians by the year 2030. I believe that many more men are called to the seminary than are currently in the seminary, and we want to change that. The seminary is not the place for fully formed priests, rather, it is the primary place of formation. You don’t have to know you are going to be ordained in order to be a good candidate for the seminary. In fact, most guys don’t know they are going to be ordained. Ordination comes after 7-9 years of prayer, life in community and study. We want more men to enter the seminary so that they can discover whether or not they are called to be priests.

I want to be clear, however, that this does not mean that there is a ‘low bar’ to be accepted to seminary. We have spent the last several years bolstering our application process so that we help a young man discern whether or not seminary is the right fit for him. It is delicate work trying to discern with a man whether the Lord is calling him to the seminary, and I can’t be the only one who discerns with a man. We have a team of experts in Louisville, Kentucky who work with us and our applicants and proctor psychological testing in order to help the applicant, and us, understand whether a man would be a good fit for seminary life. As I’ve stated before, I loved my time in the seminary, but if a man is not prepared for the academic and social rigor that is present there, then it will not be as positive an experience for him, or for the community. We also have a vocations board in the diocese that meets with an applicant and provides a recommendation to myself and the Bishop. The team meets with the applicant after all the other work is done – references are checked, tests are administered, many conversations are had, and I present that work to the board for their review.

I have grown much more comfortable in recent years taking men through this process and also being honest when necessary, when I think the process may have reached its end. I believe that more men are called to seminary than are currently in seminary, but I also take my responsibility to help these men discern seriously. We have these protocols in place so we only accept a man who will be able to enter into seminary life freely and joyfully, so that he can be formed into the Catholic man God has called him to be, whether or not he becomes a priest. And as the net widens and more men (please God) apply for seminary, this process will continue to be vital.

Please pray for me, our vocations board, and all those who work with seminary applicants. We want to invite as many qualified men into the seminary as we can, but we also need to be good stewards of the resources given to us by the people of God, and good leaders for these men who are trusting us with their future.

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Our vocation promotion is about to get super-charged!
On the weekend of Nov. 9-10 every priest in the diocese is being encouraged to share his vocation story at Mass, and every parishioner is being encouraged to submit the name of a man, or men, in their parish, age 15-30, who they think should consider the priesthood. We are calling this effort “Called By Name Weekend,” and I ask that you take part in it!

The names that are brought forth from this program will be catalogued and sent to our vocation team. This is a team of eight priests, including myself, who have committed to running discernment groups throughout the diocese every fall and spring. Depending on where the young man resides, a member of the vocation team will reach out and invite him to consider joining a discernment group and also invite him to other in-person events throughout the year. These events include Come and See weekends at the seminary, dinner with Bishop Kopacz, and more.
Each man who’s name is submitted will also receive a letter from Bishop Kopacz congratulating him for being recognized as someone who takes their faith seriously and encouraging him to be open to these other invitations.

As you consider who you might nominate, please remember, submitting someone’s name does not mean that you know that man is going to be a priest. It simply means that you see a light in him and a desire to do the Lord’s will, and you want to help him get support to discern his vocation. The discernment group that I ran in October had a good mixture of guys. Some were just starting to learn about what the priesthood was all about, while others had been considering the priesthood for a while and were very open to it. All of them got a lot out of the six weeks of group meetings and the social and service outings that were a part of the program. My favorite part was our morning of service when we put together care packages for the homeless and walked around downtown Jackson on a Saturday morning encountering those on the streets. It was really inspiring to see the sincerity of the young men and the courage and care it took for them to speak with the folks that they were serving with compassion and friendship.

We had 36 men in discernment groups this fall, and that was without the help of the Called by Name campaign, so I can’t wait to see what the Lord will do with your help! If you are reading this after Nov. 9-10, but you still want to submit a name, please go to www.jacksonvocations.com/called to submit someone’s name!

In the first few months of our new partnership with Vianney Vocations, we can already see some big changes and very encouraging signs. Four discernment groups are up and running with about 30 men who want to learn more about diocesan priesthood taking part. In my five years as vocation director, the largest discernment group I can remember had 8-9 guys, and there was just one of them, and that group was only for men in the Jackson area. Now we have four groups in four different locations (Cleveland, Jackson, Oxford and Starkville). This is tangible evidence that there are many more young men who are open to the call to priesthood and who can benefit from accompaniment. Accompanying more men means that more men will apply for seminary and more seminarians means more future priests.

The next step in our accompaniment is to offer ‘Come and See’ opportunities to our discernment group members and other discerners. In mid-October Father Tristan Stovall is taking about eight men to the seminary in New Orleans and then in early November we will be bringing many more to St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, Louisiana for their bi-annual ‘Come and See’ weekend. That weekend, Nov. 9-10, will also be a big weekend in our diocese. We are going to invite every priest in the diocese to share their vocation story at each Mass that weekend. We will also ask you to consider whether there are young men in your parish who you think would make great priests and could benefit from taking part in these new programs that we are offering. This ‘Called by Name Weekend’ will help us get even more participation in our discernment groups. If we have 30 or so men just from our personal contacts and conversations, think about what the Lord could do with everyone in the diocese calling forth men to seriously discern whether they have a call to be a priest in our diocese. I am very excited about this!

I will be briefing all our clergy and lay ecclesial ministers about this effort at our upcoming Continuing Formation Workshop, so they have all the information they need to help roll this out. Once we get names submitted the staff at Vianney is going to help Bishop Kopacz, myself and the vocations team reach out to all the men who are put forward to invite them to discern a little more formally and take part in these discernment groups and seminary visits. I’m grateful to the vocations team, our staff here at the diocese including our vocations staff, and Father Tristan (who has been an amazing source of new ideas and energy as assistant vocation director). I’d also like to thank all the generous donors from across the diocese who are supporting the Homegrown Harvest Festival Oct. 12. I look forward to discussing these exciting developments with them that evening!

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Last issue I shared a little about our brand-new partnership with Vianney Vocations as we have formed a Vocation Team of priests across the diocese to start running discernment groups for young men. These discernment groups are very well organized and each of the priests running a group has gone through four sessions of training to help them understand how to make the group fun and beneficial for the men. The groups meet once a week for six weeks in the fall and in the spring, and they include one service project and one social outing.

The folks at Vianney have been very insistent that we follow their model for these groups. Speaking for myself, I know it is easy to think “well, I know that they said to do it one way, but I’m going to do it another way.” We have been strongly encouraged to avoid this thinking. These groups have been serving young men well in dioceses across the country, and they help guys build fraternal bonds and grow in their faith, whether they end up in seminary or not.

These groups have already kicked off. I know that Father Kent Bowlds has started one in Cleveland, and mine will start Sept. 29 in Jackson. The goal of these groups is to create sources of accompaniment for young men who often feel very isolated in their discernment. Not that many guys in high school or college or in the workforce are comfortable talking about their faith, and even less are seriously open to discerning a call to the priesthood. With these groups, guys will have the opportunity to walk with each other and find encouragement. It also allows them to have regular conversations with a priest who can share with them about his life.

The overarching concern that I have as vocation director is – how can we best accompany young men who are open to God’s call? This is a concern that is difficult to address in a diocese that is so big, and so when Vianney Vocations approached me with their plan and offered their support, I was incredibly interested. As these groups launch, I ask for particular prayers that the priests responsible for them will be inspired by the Holy Spirit to overcome obstacles, think creatively, and be renewed by their service to the men in their groups. I really believe that this will be the key to achieving a sustainable, Spirit-led increase in vocations, and, if God wills it, even an abundance of them.

Also – we just finalized the design for our new seminarian poster, so be on the lookout for those and be sure to keep our six seminarians in your prayers.

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

I can’t believe it’s already time for Homegrown Harvest 2024! As we get ready for this great annual event where we support our seminarians and work to bring forth more men to be priests from our diocese, I’m proud to announce a new partnership that is designed to bring forth more excellent young men to consider the priesthood. We have partnered with Vianney Vocations for an initiative called Vocation Pathway.

Vianney Vocations has been working with dioceses for more than 15 years to provide excellent resources like books, posters, promotional items and more. After all that time, they’ve seen ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t work’ when it comes to promoting vocations. Vocation Pathway is a systematic approach to vocation promotion that Vianney has developed. We are working with Chris Kreslins from Vianney Vocations to build a plan just for our diocese. That plan is already in motion, and I’m excited to share more details in the coming weeks and months.

The most important part of Vocation Pathway is forming a team of priests who can run discernment groups at least twice a year in various parts of the diocese. I spent the summer putting together a team, and it includes priests from almost every deanery. Our team has undergone four weeks of training to run six-week discernment groups each fall and spring. These groups are not only for men who say, ‘I want to be a priest,’ but they are for any man who is a strong Catholic and wants to grow in his faith.

The Vocation Team is already in place and is starting the invitation process to young men in their area. The team consists of: Fathers Augustine Palimattam, St. Patrick/St. Joseph Meridian, Aaron Williams, St. Mary/Assumption Natchez, Mark Shoffner, St. John Oxford, Jason Johnston and Tristan Stovall, St. Joseph Starkville, Kent Bowlds, Our Lady of Victories Cleveland, Matthew Simmons, St. Joseph Gluckstadt, and me. Please pray for these team members, and if you have suggestions of who should be invited to these discernment groups, let one of the team members know!

Our rep from Vianney Vocations will be in Jackson to speak to the full presbyterate and all our parish leaders next month. We are excited about this new chapter, and I’d like to share a goal with you that I believe we can reach, although it is lofty. Our goal is to have 33 seminarians by the year 2030. Please keep that in your prayers, and ‘ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest!’

                                                Father Nick Adam, vocation director

Back on Memorial Day I took a trip down the Pearl River in a kayak with Will Foggo and Joe Pearson. It was a very memorable trip for several reasons: 1) There was absolutely no current going downriver, so it basically became a 10.4-mile trip across a big lake! 2) We almost had enough equipment. We had three kayaks, but only two kayak paddles, the third paddle we had was really for a canoe; and 3) we got a bit of a late start, and ended up getting to our exit-point well after dark.

Going into the trek we knew that we were in for some unexpected turbulence, that’s just the way it goes when you are in a group, and you are dealing with mother nature. The journey through seminary is comparable in some ways to that trip down the Pearl: both demand that you remain aware of your surroundings, rely on other people for help and support, and have a great attitude so you can truly ‘enjoy the ride,’ even when it’s a little unpleasant for various reasons.

I remember the first time I walked onto the campus of a seminary I was blown away by the number of chapels there were. It seemed that no matter where I might live on campus, a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament reposed in a a tabernacle was just a short walk away. Everything also seemed so ‘ordered.’ The seminarians would walk dutifully in packs from class to class, to the church for Mass, or to the refectory for meals. The structure in seminary helps men to form good habits of prayer, study, fraternity and service, but that structure is not meant to be an end in itself.

I always tell our seminarians that if they are being called to be a priest in the Diocese of Jackson, then they are called to be malleable. They should be willing to step up and make adjustments to their schedule according to the needs of God’s people. When Will and Joe and I started down the river: it seemed like we were just going along with the flow. Everything was in order. But then we realized how slow the current was, and how much trash was in the river (truly, a disturbing amount), and that we might not be getting in until after dark. We had to be willing to re-frame our expectations and make the best of it, to have a great attitude and ‘enjoy the ride.’

I read recently that one should pray about the challenges, doubts and trials that are coming in our life, rather than to only pray about the ones that we currently have or the aftermath of a certain situation. I think that is a very wise posture of prayer for a seminarian. A seminarian studying for the Diocese of Jackson, or for the diocesan priesthood in general, should pray for the grace to remain calm in the midst of great change or challenge. That way, when faced with this during his priesthood, he won’t be dismayed or think something is ‘wrong,’ rather, he’ll expect that the Lord will give him the grace he needs to keep going, and ‘enjoy the ride.’

Father Nick Adam, vocation director

(Father Nick Adam can be contacted at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.)