A vocation at the heart of the Diocese
The Diocese of Shrewsbury was founded in 1851 with twenty-six diocesan priests serving roughly twenty thousand faithful across a vast territory. Today the diocese is shaped by the same conviction that gathered that founding generation: the Catholic priesthood matters, and the Lord still calls. In his Pastoral Letter for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on Good Shepherd Sunday, 26 April 2026, Bishop Mark Davies set out the place of the priesthood with characteristic directness.
"Today, I want to join Pope Leo in inviting all considering their calling to take these steps to discover their vocation, whether this will be found in Christian Marriage; the Consecrated Life of Sisters or Brothers; the Catholic Priesthood; the service of the Diaconate; or the greatness of the lay vocation lived in the midst of the world. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, I want to focus on the one vocation on which all other vocations in the Church depend: namely, the Ordained Priesthood."
Twelve men of this diocese are now in formation for the priesthood, at various stages of training. Each one began with a question, and many of them began with that question right here in Shrewsbury, in a parish, at adoration, on retreat, in conversation with a priest who took the question seriously.
What the diocesan priest is for
The diocesan priest is ordained for the people of a particular local Church. He stands at the altar and celebrates the Eucharist; he hears confessions and absolves; he baptises, anoints the sick, witnesses marriages, buries the dead. He preaches the Word of God week after week. He visits homes, schools, hospitals, prisons. He is, in the phrase of the Catechism, configured to Christ "so as to act in the person of Christ the Head" (CCC 1548). He belongs to the bishop and to the presbyterate, and through them to a parish family.
Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians that "we are God's fellow workers" (1 Corinthians 3:9). The priest is a fellow worker in the harvest, sent because the Lord of the harvest sends him (Matthew 9:38). He is not a man of his own. He stands in a long line that the diocese can name, from the twenty-six founding priests under Bishop James Brown to the recent ordinations of Fr David Irwin and the two men ordained alongside him by Bishop Davies.
The Discernment Year between Stockport and the Cathedral
The diocese has shaped a clear path for men who suspect that the Lord may be calling them. A house of discernment now sits between Saint Joseph's, Stockport, and Shrewsbury Cathedral. Saint Joseph's was dedicated by Bishop Davies on 22 October 2022 as a Eucharistic Shrine of Perpetual Adoration with a special mission to intercede for new and generous vocations to the priesthood and for the sanctification of priests. Day and night, in that church, someone is praying for the men God is calling now.
The Discernment Year offers a small community of men a structured life of prayer centred on the Eucharist, with spiritual accompaniment and study of Scripture, the Catechism, and the writings of the saints. It is not the seminary. It is the year before the seminary, where a man can test the question with help.
The Vocations Group
For men who are earlier in the question, the Vocations Group meets every two months. The shape is simple: Eucharistic adoration, Holy Mass, a meal, time for reflection. A man does not need to know the answer to come. He needs only to be willing to ask the question in the Lord's company, with brothers who are asking it too.
Bishop Davies on what the diocese owes these men
"Today, in Shrewsbury Diocese, we must give thanks for the 12 men who are at various stages of their training for the Priesthood; for the constant stream of men coming forward to engage in our Discernment Programme in both Stockport and Shrewsbury; and for those regularly attending our Vocations Group to first consider their calling. The flourishing of all these initiatives is supported by your prayer and the dedicated prayer every day at our Diocesan Shrine of Eucharistic Adoration at Saint Joseph's, Stockport."
Two notes from the Bishop's words. First, the men in formation are sustained by the prayer of the whole diocese, not by their own resolve. Second, vocations come from a praying Church. The Chrism Mass each Holy Week, when the priests of the diocese gather around their bishop to renew their priestly commitment and the holy oils are blessed, makes that visible. As Bishop Davies has put it, the priests gather "in the light of that day when the Eucharist and the Priesthood were 'born together.'"
What to do if the question is yours
If the question of the priesthood has surfaced in your prayer, take it seriously. Do not wait for certainty before you act. The first step is small.
Your next step
Email Fr Tony McGrath at vocationsdirector@dioceseofshrewsbury.org. Tell him your name, your parish, and one sentence about what is on your heart. Ask when the next Vocations Group is meeting. Ask whether you might come and see the Discernment Year community at Stockport or the Cathedral. He has been waiting to hear from you.
