The Catholic Church is turning to Hollywood-marketing to recruit priests, and it just may be working. Link. Excerpts:
"If we can get high-school youth to hang a picture of a priest in their room, that's huge in helping young men to answer the call to the priesthood," [poster-creator Fr. Meyer] said. "Anyone who is a 'Matrix' guru looks at the picture and automatically gets it."
Crucifix in hand, Father Meyer posed for [a Matrix-inspired] poster, rated R for "restricted to those radically in love with Jesus Christ." Running time is "all eternity," and its title reads, "The Catholic priesthood: The answer is out there ... and it's calling you."
Dioceses across the country are borrowing from Tinseltown to compare the austerities of the priesthood to the heroes of "Lord of the Rings," "Gladiator," "Men in Black," "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars."
"They are appealing to young men's desire to be a warrior for the good," said the Rev. Bill Parent, executive director for Catholic identity and mission at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Md. "It's a romantic idea of being the one who combats evil." . . .
The Archdiocese of Washington has 53 men in seminary this fall for the priesthood, double the number enrolled in 1998.
"Ironically, the last entering class of 15 men I helped bring in, which started in the fall of 2002, was our largest in 20 years," Father Parent said, "and that was at the height of the scandal."
The men were inspired, he added, by the elevation of celibate heroes and the embrace of sacrifice in "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones," all released in 2001 or 2002.
"The idea that a celibate priesthood could be heroic is alien to our culture, but the Jedi knights were celibate," he said. "Most seminarians loved that first 'Spider-Man' movie; the idea he had to make a sacrifice, could not have a relationship with M.J., his girlfriend, because it would put her in danger. . .".
