FREMONT, Ohio — Praying for and encouraging vocations has traditionally been an adult ministry, but high school students in two Ohio communities are taking responsibility for raising awareness about consecrated life among their peers.

“We're just teens who get together and pray about vocations,” said Elizabeth Halm, a junior at St. Joseph Central Catholic High School in Fremont, Ohio, and president-elect of her school's Crespi Society.

The 25-member group, which meets over the lunch hour each Thursday, was started four years ago by Halm's brother, David, who said he knew that high school can be a difficult time for students to be open about investigating a consecrated vocation.

The Crespi Society at St. Joseph has since spawned a second group at St. John's High School in Delphos, Ohio. Both schools are in the Toledo Diocese in northwest Ohio.

Elizabeth Halm said she thinks a youth vocations group is needed because adults in today's society tend to shy away from talking to young people about faith in general and especially consecrated life.

“Your faith is not something everyone talks about,” Halm said. “It's, like, not the cool thing, so nobody ever talks to us about it. They're afraid we're going to get turned off and we're not going to want to do it.”

She said Crespi Society members “just want people to know that there are other options out there besides getting married and having a family.” Even if students do not talk about having a vocation, she said, “The whole purpose is just to get people to think and pray about it.”

The group is named for Father Juan Crespi, a friend and co-worker of Blessed Junipero Serra, the “apostle of California” and namesake of the Serra Clubs, adult groups that seek to foster and affirm vocations.

David Halm, who is now an aspirant in the Congregation of the Holy Cross, said he would like to see Serra take Crespi on as a high school branch and complement to the Young Serrans, college students and young adults who encourage vocations among youths.

Edmund Verbeke, executive director of the USA Council of Serra International, said although his organization has no formal ties to the Crespi Society, he is very much aware of the group.

“What they're talking about is fostering vocations and getting people to know about the need for vocations as early as possible,” Verbeke said. “If that's what they're about, we're for them.”

David Halm, who is studying at John Cabot University in Rome as part of the Holy Cross undergraduate seminary program, said many adult groups, from political parties to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers have spin-off programs for high school students. “It makes sense for a group targeting young adults for vocations to have a satellite group of high school students,” Halm said.

Bearing Fruit

Since the Crespi Society began meeting at St. Joseph, David Halm said, several young men from the school have been talking with the local diocese about beginning seminary studies after college and at least two young women have expressed interest in consecrated life.

“This is due in large part to the effort of priests in our area, but Serra and Crespi no doubt fostered an environment in which students felt more welcomed to think of this possibility for their future,” he said.

Halm got the idea for a teen vocations group after he began attending Serra Club meetings in his community. “As I learned more of the objectives of Serra, I realized what a perfect opportunity was available to reach young Catholics and encourage them to pray to hear God's vocation. The Serra Club was very receptive and helped in so many ways, helping to organize liturgies, dinners and presentations for young people interested in ministerial vocations.”

In both Fremont and Delphos, Crespi is largely student-run, although each has an adult adviser or chaplain.

Mary Lou Pohlman, a parent volunteer who advises the Delphos group, said the 39 students in the St. John's Crespi Society gather on their own at 7:30 every Friday morning for prayer and discussion in the Sisters of Notre Dame chapel, which is attached to the school.

In addition to the weekly meeting, she said, Crespi members also have served an appreciation dinner for priests and religious in their community.

The Delphos group started with four students — two football players, the band president and the student council president — who in turn recruited other students by making presentations in religion classes.

“They all realize they want to have priests around to marry them, baptize their children, and to bury their loved ones,” Pohlman said. “We're just hoping that if anyone is called [to consecrated life], we're creating an environment that says we need you and it's OK to answer that call.”

Plant The Seed

Bud Oxley, president of the Fre-mont Deanery Serra Club, said he thinks it is especially important to lay a foundation about vocations in high school because many students do not start to seriously consider the priesthood or consecrated life until they graduate or spend a few years working.

Oxley, whose son, Tad, is a seminarian, said he knows of one student from Crespi's founding class who went on to attend a state university and now is thinking about a consecrated vocation.

Likewise, he said, some of his son's friends who now are candidates for priesthood spent two or three years in careers before realizing they had a call to be ordained.

The presence of a group like the Crespi Society, Oxley said, “plants a little seed that maybe a vocation could be there.”

Judy Roberts writes from Millbury, Ohio.