continue at MJS FaithWatchHe’s no Mickey Mantle, but Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki is among a handful of local Catholic religious leaders featured on a new deck of trading cards circulating in the North Shore. The initiative, launched last week by two Catholic parishes — St. Monica’s in Whitefish Bay and St. Eugene’s in Fox Point — is meant to drum up interest in religious vocations.
“The biggest challenge today is indifferent families,” parish pastoral associate Monica Cardenas told the Catholic Herald. “We need families to embrace the idea for their children.”
Card at Mil Herald
I'll have to be honest here, I would not become a priest because of a trading card. ... what about holy cards?
8 comments:
OK, but here's where I see this going: traddies using the cards in a Magic-like game. "You're playing a Fr. Joe? Well, Fr. Doe will top that with his +5 on incense use."
ROFL!
What a bird-brain idea! Just require a prayer for "vocations to the holy priesthood" to be said at all Masses. And no, not a prayer for "church ministries," but a prayer for MEN to answer the call to the holy priesthood.
Ahem, follow the photo link to see one for women religious........
I don't have time to read the links, but I don't think you should diss the idea so quickly.
National Catholic Register carried a story about some homeschooling families that were probably among the first to offer such cards. http://www.ncregister.com/blog/trading-cards-promote-the-priesthood/
Kids love collecting holy cards - why not cards with diocesan priests on them? Heck, we have cards hanging on our home bulletin board that were handed out at the various ordinations we have attended. These are great reminders to us to pray often for these priests.
Along those same lines, we have hanging in our home a poster of our current diocesan seminarians AND a poster of our diocesan priests...the kids and their friends enjoy looking at these posters and sharing stories about those they know; the younger set plays a game of identifying as many priests as they can.
Every time I go to an ordination I always make sure to get one of the newly ordained's cards! (aka rookie cards...to be paired with their holy cards one day ;)
As a convert, I first found out about this tradition at my first ordination Mass, which was a stunner at St. Mary Major in Rome in 2006.
The images that my friends have all chosen are really beautiful and include scripture and sometimes a quote from a favorite saint. I keep them propped up here and there and it's 1) a great reminder to pray for them/priests/vocations/etc 2) a small dose of beauty that elevates my mind and heart to the reality of the mysteries that image references.
Fr. John Putzer of Madison, a young priest ordained in December 2010 has some sweet ones - two different cards that include 2 different icons that he wrote! Really, truly beautiful. I have a stack of them and gave some out to a confirmation class we led last year as just another way to offer them exposure to beautiful Christian art, Scripture, and vocational discernment.
The cards noted in the article are...less than graphically appealing but the idea is not totally off base. All depends on the execution!
For the record, I'm not "opposed" to ordination cards(I still have Listecki and Callahan cards from their installation I think). I just don't think the tradition is a vocation builder, like say, kids playing Mass when they are young.
Oh definitely - I didn't think you were opposed to ordination cards. I was just swapping stories.
I definitely think there are better ways of promoting vocations. I was advocating needlessly for more good ordination cards! Especially ones with designs don't look like they're straight out of the 80s. (Heh, seriously, I can't get over that design above! Oh dusty rose...)
Post a Comment