Online campaign helps recruit priests in Virginia

RICHMOND - What's life like as a priest? How did loved ones react to news that a family member wanted to be one? What about celibacy?
Young men curious about the answers can find them on Facebook.
MySpace.
And YouTube.
Unscripted videos with priests and seminarians talking openly about their lives are the heart of an innovative online campaign by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond that is unique in the nation.
The "Behind the Collar" campaign began last fall with its own Web site, http://www.behindthecollar.com, and has attracted thousands of hits.
The Web site offers young men considering the call to priesthood an opportunity to connect with those who have answered it. Podcasts of the discussions are available and visitors can post notes. The site also allows visitors to contact the Rev. Michael A. Renninger, introduced online as "Father Mike," who helped develop the campaign.
"When I was making my life-shaping decision 20 years ago, none of this was available," said Renninger, the diocesan vicar for vocations.
"I had to write for printed brochures and track people down. This is a new way for people to hear this input when they want and how they want," said Renninger, who is featured in a video leading a roundtable of seminarians in discussions of topics such as priestly life, family reactions and celibacy.
The diocese, like others nationwide, is dealing with an acute priest shortage. The diocese, with 220,000 parishioners, had 122 active priests last fall to serve 152 parishes, and 23 campus ministries, hospitals, prisons and other ministries.
Renninger credits Roger Neathawk, head of the Richmond-based national advertising firm of Neathawk Dubuque and Packett, with putting together the campaign.
He said that Neathawk contacted him two years ago and said his company wanted to help with vocations awareness in any way he could.
"I told him one of my challenges is the diocese is so big geographically that I spend a lot of time traveling to many college campuses," he said. "I can't be as present to young adults as I want to be and I wished there was a way to get more information to young adults, especially the kind of information they are looking for."
Renninger also knew from experience that when young adults have time "to talk about their future and listen to others, it's really helpful."
So research was conducted that included identifying the questions young people ask when deciding what to do with their lives.
"We kept hearing they wanted an informal format to hear others talk about how they made their decision and overcame obstacles," Renninger said. "And that's where the idea for the video campaign came up."
Neathawk said, "One of the first steps we did was to look at what people were doing around the country. No one had delved into new media very deeply."
The approach is "reaching our target audience, which is primarily men of college age, where they are," Neathawk said. "They may not be watching TV or reading the paper, but we know they are online. That's the media they're most comfortable with."
More videos are added monthly.
The Rev. Melvin C. Blanchette, rector of the Theological College of The Catholic University of America, praised the campaign, which features some of his students.
Renninger is "a very perceptive and thoughtful individual who has come up with a marvelous way to stimulate an interest in vocations as well as use a modern approach to get information to those who have felt a stirring for God," Blanchette said.
The Rev. Mark Morozowich, associate dean for seminary and ministerial studies at The Catholic University of America's School of Theology and Religious Studies, agreed. "I think Father Renninger's innovative idea of using modern means of communications is just fabulous!"
Gino Rossi, a seminarian and Blanchette's student, likes the campaign so much he plans to participate in a video.
"All we have to do is let young men know how good of a life this is and the vocations crisis will be gone," he said.
No one has yet credited the campaign with persuading them to enter the priesthood. But Renninger said he has heard plenty of positive reaction from parishes.
"I got one e-mail from a 12th-grader who watched a video and he said, 'I could see myself sitting at that table and making the same decision,' which is exactly what we're trying to achieve," he said. "We want them to feel like they are part of the conversation."