Wise Advice From a Vocations Director

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Fr. James E. Mason is a priest in the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is Vice Chancellor of the Diocese and Director of Vocations. In an article in /Homiletic & Pastoral Review/ (May), he says it's a "rare seminary or diocese that will recognize the vice...[of] effeminacy." St. Thomas Aquinas said that effeminacy is the vice of delicacy and is opposed to perseverance.

Says Fr. Mason: "Many bishops, seminary faculty and priests...suffer under this vice and are therefore unwilling or unable to recognize it as a vice and address it.... Does the seminary deal with a seminarian that sways when he walks, who has limp wrists, who acts like a drama queen or who lisps? It must."

Says Fr. Mason: "This is not just distracting to other men but I know my sisters will roll their eyes when a Liberace-like priest celebrates himself while celebrating the Mass.... This may be one of the reasons why the church has a difficult time attracting men to Mass...."

Fr. Mason says, "I remember in my first year of seminary how I was shocked when I came across an ordained cleric in the seminary who was wearing a gold ankle bracelet and matching gold earring." New Oxford Review


Interestingly, the Diocese of Sioux Falls has 12 of their seminarians studying and discerning at the St John Vianney College Seminary in St Paul. I would guess that you could guess what Father Mason thinks about our SJV!