Power of Prayer: Washington Archdiocese Celebrates Largest Priestly Ordination Class Since 1960

‘We can’t live without the Eucharist, and there’s no Eucharist without priests, so I want to do my part to make sure there are priests in the future...’

As the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., welcomes its largest class of new priests in more than six decades, vocation formators cite prayers for vocations, the witness of men who love their priesthood, and a willingness to respond to God’s call as factors which inspire men into vocational discernment.

Sixteen men are set to be ordained on June 15 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the highest number of ordinations to the priesthood for the archdiocese since 1960.

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The greatest vocation poster is a happy priest, because you wonder what they have,” said Msgr. Robert Panke, pastor of St. John Neumann Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and former rector of Washington’s St. John Paul II Seminary.

A “joyful priest,” Msgr. Panke told the Register, is “kind of contagious.”

“This year’s large ordination class is a wonderful blessing from God,” said Father Anthony Lickteig, the Archdiocese of Washington’s episcopal vicar for clergy and secretary for ministerial leadership, in an email statement to the Register. “He is the one who puts the call and vocation in the hearts of these men.”

News of the number of this year’s soon-to-be-ordained priests for the archdiocese comes amid ongoing concerns over a national decline of new vocations.

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