tvc.dsj.org | January 16, 2018
SPIRITUALITY
11
What Our Youth Think of Priesthood Today
By Father Joe Kim,
Director of Vocations and Seminarians
Last September, the Diocese of San Jose Vocations
Office conducted a survey of 1,178 Catholic high
school and Catholic college students in our Diocese.
The results are helping to shape our diocesan plan
for promotion of vocations to the priesthood and re-
ligious life. The main conclusion is that young people
cannot imagine life as a priest or religious. Although
over 95 percent have a desire to do something great
with their life however difficult, only 1.9 percent of
young men say they would seriously consider priest-
hood and 0.9 percent of young women say they would
seriously consider religious life. Although all would
encourage a friend who is seeking a vocation, the
youth respondents struggled to understand why a
young person would consider a vocation at all. When
asked why someone would become a priest the most
common response was “to serve God.”
In hopes of helping young people understand
why priests find so much significance in priesthood,
we asked one of our youth to sit down with some of
our priests and seminarians. Justin Chung, a junior
at Bellarmine College Preparatory, and an active
parishioner at Holy Korean Martyrs Parish, spent
the summer interviewing several of our priests and
seminarians.
In the next several issues of The Valley Catholic, he
will share what he thinks of the life of priesthood.
In our ongoing dialogue with young Catholics in
our families, schools and parishes, it is our hope that
a young perspective on priesthood would open up
further dialogue and reflection on the possibility of
a religious vocation. Given that our diocese needs
to ordain 45 new priests in the next 14 years just to
cover for retirement of our clergy, these conversations
with young men in our local Church are particularly
significant.
This past summer I had the
privileged opportunity to inter-
view priests around the San Jose
Diocese. Each priest was so wel-
coming and talking with each
of them was so interesting and
enjoyable because I got to learn
about their lives in ministry and as people, hearing
a variety of insights on living out the Catholic faith.
Their lives have been enriched with emotion and ex-
periences and listening to their stories truly was an
amazing opportunity. This experience has definitely
helped me to grow in my faith, and these articles I
have written encapsulate my conversations with a
variety of knowledgeable and interesting priests as
well as my reflections after each talk. Please enjoy.
– Justin Chung ‘19
Bellarmine College Preparatory
Monsignor Francisco Rios
By Justin Chung ’19
Bellarmine College Preparatory
As I walked into the parish office of Sacred Heart of
Jesus, I was surprised to be greeted with a large smile,
a warm handshake, and a genuine, “How are you?”
before I could recognize it was Monsignor Francisco
Rios. I immediately felt welcome.
Monsignor Rios’s native roots trace back to a small
town in Argentina called Santa Elena where he was
born and raised, the second youngest son of five
brothers and a sister. Sports played a pivotal role in
his childhood. “Being a small town we did a lot of
sports...I loved basketball. I played basketball, vol-
leyball, [and] loved dancing, there was a river in my
hometown and we went swimming. Lots of sports
and dancing. Those were the things.”
Monsignor Rios’s road to the priesthood can be
defined as unpredictable. Busy with basketball from
a young age, he received Confirmation at age 11 and
didn’t attend church until he was 21. One day, when
he was studying to become a teacher he decided to
see how it was like. “A younger priest was coming.
And that kind of caught my attention.”
This one step was all it took to alter his life.
“[The priest] lent me a book about Saint John
Bosco’s life… I kinda liked it… he lent me a book on
Saint Benedict. And I noticed anytime I read those
books I was like ‘I can do this… I can do that… but I
was not sure.’” Little by little, Monsignor Rios became
increasingly active at church. He began to attend
Masses frequently, started teaching catechism, and
became involved in the youth ministry.
Monsignor Rios spent years serving the church
and reached the age where he had to decide what he
wanted to do with his life. During a test in his last year
of school, a sister asked him about the calling of the
apostles. “She said to me, ‘Don’t you think that God
is calling you?’ I said no immediately.” Nevertheless,
Monsignor Rios became conflicted. Some days he felt
the calling to enter the priesthood and others he felt
Monsignor Francisco Rios
doubtful. “In the end you have to make your deci-
sions. And when I told my mom [I was entering the