Blair Holtey, BCC

In our community, we have a day when local adults from various professions go into the schools and talk about their work. I’ve given my talk over the past 10 years and often wondered “Why should I create competition for myself?” Nonetheless, I continue to visit kids every year.

When I became a member of the NACC Marketing/Recruitment task force to encourage our future generation to consider Chaplaincy as a vocation, once again I thought, “Why am I creating competition for myself?” Then again, it occurred to me, if I don’t, in the future will there be quality chaplains to meet my spiritual needs when a priest can’t visit me? It was a metanoia moment! Thus, this reflection on how I went about promoting chaplaincy in my home parish.

My goal was to get permission from my pastor to speak about CPE and “Chaplaincy as a Vocation” at every Mass in my home parish. When I approached my pastor, he must have felt that I was serious because I was willing to attend all those Masses and get up early for the 7:00 a.m. on Sunday. The five W’s of this project went as follows:
Who: I contacted the pastor.
Why: I told him I was on the Marketing/Recruitment task force of NACC, whose standards are approved by a commission of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to recruit chaplains. I also indicated that we had CPE offered at our hospital and that it would be an excellent opportunity to stimulate some potential religious vocations.
How: I would like to speak at every Mass for less than three minutes, and brochures would be available at the back of church before and after every Mass. My wife, who had just completed four units herself, would be around to answer questions.
When: Before the final blessing, the presiding priest addressed the congregation and asked them to remain seated.
What: My message contained the following information:

1. My own personal experience as a patient receiving a visit from a chaplain and the role he played.
2. I informed the congregation about my role at the local hospital and that I was a member of NACC – with a brief explanation about its role as well as its acceptance by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (for credibility)
3. I explained that it is for both genders. Chaplains can get married and choose to raise a family on an average income of 50K (I quoted my findings from the internet).
4. I briefly touched on the level of education required and explained that my wife and I would be glad to answer questions after Mass. We had a large seven foot poster with lots of CPE brochures to hand out.

Here are some of the results:
- I spoke to approximately 4500 parishioners, and 60 brochures were handed out.
- Our CPE office received 12 calls in the first week, one to two calls each week for another month, and five brochures were sent out in the mail.

The word did get out. After Mass, a woman asked if she could send a brochure to her nephew in Milwaukee. He received the brochure and called me at my work office. I told him he lived in the heartland of NACC. I gave him the website and local phone contact.