The Serra Club of the Atchison Region hosted Fr. Dan Morris, vocation director for Archdiocese of Kansas City Kansas, at St. Joseph church last Monday.
Fr. Dan celebrated mass, the Serra Club hosted dinner and then a short film was shown followed by discussion.
The Serra Club is an organization of lay people fostering vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Fr. Dan was invited by the Atchison region of the club along with other homeschool families to come to Atchison.
Fr. Dan’s role as vocation director is to help foster and cultivate vocations in the Kansas City, Kansas Archdiocese, specifically focusing on young men who feel a call to the priesthood.
Wanting Atchison youth to have a positive exposure to priests, Fr. Dan explained that Atchison is lucky to have religious life very prominent.
“From a vocation’s director viewpoint, the Atchison region it is an unmined region right now,” Morris said. “Atchison is kind of its own thing and it’s a really good thing.”
The Kansas diocesan priest told the groups he plans to become more intentionally engaged with the Atchison region to foster vocations.
Anna Rodrigues, sophomore, attended the event at St. Joseph’s church and sees the need.
“I’m actually discerning religious life, so I was super hype to hear about it from a vocations director point of view,” Rodrigues said.
The education major added the talk and the short film helped refresh her memory on the beauty of vocations. It reminded her of the urgency in vocations and the need for more knowledge about vocations.
“I loved how it focused on building a culture that nurtures vocations,” she said.
And the building is just beginning, according to Morris.
”It’s good parts of the vineyard,” Fr. Dan said.
