As a vocation director for almost one year, I write to tell you what I have seen and heard as to what is happening with vocations. And when I say "vocation," I know, as do we all, the need to see "vocation" as a call by God to all the laity to live out their baptismal role.

Everyone has a vocation; everyone is called by God to serve the church. But for the sake of this letter, I wanted to talk about the specific vocation to the ordained priesthood and our role in fostering it.

Over the last several months, I have been visiting various parishes, deanery meetings, DRE gatherings, high school and grade school principals' reunions, and priest council meetings asking as many people as possible why so few men and women seem interested in becoming a priest or a sister. As you would imagine, the answers have been legion. I have heard reasons such as:

---Families do not encourage vocations.

---The church refuses to allow a married clergy or a woman presbyterate.

---Society values strong sexual expression, independence, and wealth against the church which proclaims a priesthood of celibacy, obedience and poverty.

---Smaller Catholic families provide fewer possible vocations.

---The nuns and brothers did all the real vocation work. With their diminished presence, we have no one to do the task.

---A loss of clear catholic teaching from our pulpits.

---A crisis of leadership in our church due in part to the current scandal.

---Too small a vocation department in so large an archdiocese.

And, interestingly, one priest said: "We insist that God send us candidates for the system that we've created, rather than creating a system for the candidates that God sends."

One thing often mentioned was this: priests do not do vocation work. They do not tap shoulders. They tend not to sit down with people and talk to them about why they became a priest, what the life means to him, or invite others to it. They do not "talk up" vocations, have nights of discernment in churches, sponsor vocation fairs or take young people to the seminary. Priests for the most part just don't do it. Perhaps they never did. Maybe the reliance on nuns or brothers to do a lot of the "recruiting" for the church has left priests not seeing it as part of their responsibility.

Here's what worries me: blame. Priests blaming selfish families, principals blaming lethargic clergy, pastors blaming a too demanding bureaucracy, bishops blaming priests and priests blaming the conservatives, the liberals, the Vatican, the press and their own very selves.

Can we put that aside? Can we simply look at the situation without pointing a finger, as if fixing blame would somehow resolve the dilemma? It is in that spirit that I offer you a few thoughts.

What is the solution? Where will the future religious and ordained clergy come from? The only place that they can come from: the parish. Whatever is going to happen it is going to happen in the local church. Over 78 percent of the candidates say they entered the seminary at the encouragement of a parish priest, yet only 30 percent of the parish priests actively encourage vocations to the priesthood.

In my 12 years as a pastor, rarely did I ever tap a shoulder, did I ever ask a young man --- and never a young woman --- if they had ever considered becoming a priest or a sister. Why? I guess because, well, I was busy. I was busy working with the DRE to reorganize the RE program. I was busy with the youth program in our church. I was busy with the school, the children's confessions, the penance services, the funerals, the quinceaneras, and the ordinary life of the parish: weddings, baptisms, funerals, hospital calls.

And I'm not complaining; I loved it. I absolutely loved it. But I was busy. Because the air conditioning needed repairs, and the school roof had to be replaced, and the kindergarten was being built, and the sacristy toilet overflowed, and the ushers were at the door asking where we kept the liquid plumber.

Is there a single priest who cannot relate? I do not think that I avoided talking to people about vocations, and I was never embarrassed to belong to the priesthood, despite the weaknesses of its members. It just was never a priority; it was not my job. Most times, I just never thought about it. But I must think about it now.

Here's a conversation I wish I had had with myself when I was a pastor. "Jim, are you proud of being a priest? And are you proud of what you and your brother priests have done as priests? Do you still love being a priest? In spite of all the crazy hours and the frustrations of ministry, and all the demands; in spite of the loneliness, and your own limitations and sinfulness, do you still love it, Jim? Even in the face of this present scandal and the pending lawsuits, and all those heartaches, Jim, do you still love being a priest?"

And I would have to say, "Yes. God have mercy, I still do. I love it. I love doing weddings in spite of the photographers. I love the baptisms and the gaggles of babies. I love this life. I don't deserve it, but I thank God for calling me to it. I love visiting the school children, and I love the teen retreats. I still love hearing confessions, and preparing couples for marriage, and celebrating the liturgy, even when the singing goes south. I even love being in the midst of the pain and horror and tragedy of life. At the hospital, in the funeral home, at the graveside, I don't know where else I would rather be. I love it. I thank God for it. I love being a priest."

"Well, Jim, if you love this life and are proud of being a priest, then sit down and tell someone about it. Preach about it. Invite someone to pray about it. Spend a little time tapping shoulders."

And I invite my brother priests, who love this life, to do the same.

Father Jim Forsen is director of the Office of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.