Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has announced that the Diocese of Brooklyn will establish a new residential facility for men who wish to discern seriously whether God may be calling them to the priesthood.

The Pope John Paul II House of Discernment will be situated on the grounds of the Carmelite Monastery on Highland Blvd. in Brooklyn and is expected to open in September. The facility is the former residence and printing operation for the Lithuanian Franciscans.

Bishop DiMarzio has appointed Father Kevin J. Sweeney, director of the diocesan Vocation Office, to direct the program and Msgr. Vincent A. Keane to serve as the spiritual director.

“It is an opportunity to do something new,” said Father Sweeney, who outlined the plans for the house of discernment at a clergy meeting held at the Immaculate Conception Center in Douglaston April 19. It will be able to accommodate up to ten men at a time.

Eligible for the program would be men between the ages of  20 and 40 who are working fulltime, attending college fulltime, or working and studying parttime. They would be permitted to stay for up to one year.

The plan calls for the men to receive spiritual direction and some formation in a “supportive and prayerful community of faith,” said Father Sweeney.

While the men will not be considered seminarians, they will have a relationship with students who have already entered the seminary system and their faculty members and will become involved in parish work.

Father Sweeney said the program is an opportunity for men who are not yet ready to “leave everything behind” to explore the possibility of entering the seminary program.

The Vocation Office will schedule open houses during the summer. Further information is available at (718) 399-5950 or vocations@diobrook.org.

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4/23/07