Father Michael Sis, director of campus ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center at Texas A&M University, believes college is an ideal time to encourage young adults to think about whether they might have a religious vocation.

The 43-year-old priest has become known for a creative and successful approach that invites students to consider the priesthood or consecrated life through such opportunities as the Busy Students' Retreat, a twice-monthly discernment group, and “Seminary Sprints” and “Nun Runs,” in which students get a firsthand look at the lives of priests, brothers and sisters.

Although only about 11,000 of the 45,000 students at the College Station, university are Catholic, 56 have entered programs of formation as priests or religious in the last seven years. Father Sis' goal is to have one “Aggie,” as A&M students are known, in every religious order and every diocese in the world.

Register correspondent Judy Roberts talked with Father Sis about his efforts to foster vocations in the Church.

Tell me about your vocation and who encouraged you to consider the priesthood.

The beginning of my own discernment for the priesthood was when I was an altar boy. I was 13 years old in a parish in Bryan, Texas, when a priest recommended that I consider entering the seminary. Then when I was a freshman at the University of Notre Dame — I was not a seminarian; I was a regular student — I had some very helpful spiritual direction from the campus ministry staff at Notre Dame. … It's not like they were recruiting me.

The interest had been planted in me as a teen-ager, but I saw good examples there at Notre Dame and I was just inspired to pursue the priesthood by their availability.

Were you raised in a setting where vocations were encouraged?

I'm one of five kids — the fourth of five — raised in a Catholic family. My mother and father were very active in parish life as I grew up. They were supportive of my ideas about entering the seminary, but they never pushed it.

My other four siblings are all married and have children. When I was in high school, there was a priest who was working with our parish youth group. He personally invested his time and energy in helping us teen-agers, and because of his personal investment in our lives, he was a tremendous influence in inspiring me to consider the priesthood.

Did you want to go into campus ministry after you were ordained?

No. My thought up until 1989 was that I simply would be working in Hispanic ministry, because that is what I was doing for my first two and a half years as a priest — working in a poor Hispanic parish in Austin.

But there was a hole to fill in campus ministry and my bishop asked me to take the position. I went into it out of obedience.

Have you found that there was wisdom in your bishop's request?

Yes, it's a very appropriate place for me to work. I can't imagine enjoying any other work more than this.

How did you first get the idea to make vocations a priority in your campus ministry?

First of all, because of my own love for the Church and the great need for ministers in the Church, and then secondly, getting to know these young students here who are so vividly living their Catholic faith.

To see these students so alive with their faith and to know the great need that the Church has for ministers just seemed like an obvious connection.

Why is it important to get young people thinking about vocations while they are still in college?

Because in college, they're constantly discerning the course of their life, and so it's the appropriate moment for them to consider full-time service in the Church as one of their options.

Have other schools tried your approach to encouraging vocations?

I've been talking about these all over the country for several years now. Several campus ministries and dioceses have said they were going to try them. We don't say, “Do these 10 things.” We just say these are the things we do. And we encourage them to look at ideas and hold vocation ministry as a priority.

We don't recommend that somebody just take these 10 points and try to mimic them. Every campus will have its own particular needs.

Can you tell me about some of your students and how they happened to consider the priesthood or religious life?

One would be a young man named Brian McMaster — Father Brian McMaster — who was ordained two years ago for our diocese. He was a very active leader in our campus ministry and works at a church in Georgetown, Texas. When he arrived at A&M he was already interested in the priesthood, and then we just tried to encourage him and to give him opportunities to pursue that and continue discerning.

Another is a guy from Puerto Rico, Winston Mendez Silvagnoli. He was ordained this summer for the Ponce Diocese. He had come to A&M for a master's degree in chemistry so he obviously was not pursuing the priesthood. While here, he became very involved in student organizations, participated in discernment opportunities and started openly considering the priesthood. He went back to Puerto Rico and worked as a chemist, then entered the seminary in Puerto Rico and was just ordained this summer.

Is your goal of having one “Aggie” in every religious order and every diocese in the world unrealistic, given the times in which we live and the crisis in the Church?

The reason I have that goal is to communicate two very important points. First of all, my attitude to vocations ministry is not about turf battles. I'm not simply trying to recruit people for our diocese. In my opinion, if they serve the Catholic Church in whatever order or diocese, that's good.

The other point I want to get across is that I'm truly convinced that what these Aggies have to offer the Church is beneficial to the Church because I've worked with these students 11 and a half years and I see their qualities of intelligence, sincerity, generous service, love for the Church and their enthusiasm for the faith. And I think that's what every religious order or diocese needs. Of course it's a lofty dream, but I'm not concerned with that.

Where do most of your students who end up in formation go?

Of the 47 currently in formation, 12 are female religious, 13 are with male orders and 22 are in diocesan seminaries, seven for the Austin Diocese. So it's a pretty good spread. Among the young men, the Jesuits have had a regular steady flow to them, particularly the New Orleans Province. And among the young women, the group that's drawn the largest numbers is the Dominicans of Nashville, Tenn.

In both your own life experience and in your work with students, you seem to be saying that good role models are key to encouraging religious vocations.

Teen-agers and young adults need positive role models in the Church. They need adults in the Church who exemplify the Christian life and who live it joyfully. Those adults who work with youth do not even necessarily have to be recruiting for vocations explicitly because their love for the Church and their vibrant humanity will attract people to vocations in the Church.

I think explicit recruitment is important, but it's not the only thing they need. They need constant, healthy, joyful examples in regular everyday ministry.

Judy Roberts is based inMillbury, Ohio.