By John Stegeman
The Catholic Telegraph 

In the time of the New Evangelization, many are turning to so-called new media to help promote the Gospel. The Vocations Office of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and a group of seminarians from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West at the Athenaeum of Ohio each released new video projects in June designed to help foster vocations.

Last July, the Vocations Office released a video called “The Gift of the Priesthood.” The nearly 10-minute video, featuring stunning shots of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, was an instant hit and has nearly 9,000 views on Youtube.

On June 3, the Vocations Office released a new video in the “Gift of the Priesthood” series entitled, “Parents of the Called,” that hears from the parents of priests and seminarians. The video accumulated more than 600 views in its first week online.

“Before any man is a priest, he is first a son, a son in a family, a family into which God places him for a distinct reason,” narrates Father Kyle Schnippel as the video opens.

The video interviews the parents of two priests and one seminarian, and features more of the moving imagery seen in the first video. The “in church” scenes of “Parents of the Called” were filmed at St. William in Price Hill.

Posted to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati Youtube account, the video can be found by searching “Parents of the Called” in the Youtube search box. The video is also available here.

The seminarians of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West have launched a video series as well. As of June 9, the seminarians had posted 13 videos to their “Men of the Mount” Youtube channel. Only a week after launching, the channel had nearly 2,000 views.

After a playful introductory video with seminarians Chris Geiger and Deacon Ethan Moore, the first videos chronicle the seminarians’ trip to the Holy Land.

In an email sent by from the Holy Land, seminarian Sean Wilson told The Catholic Telegraph about the project’s goals.

“In talking to various people throughout the church and the  archdiocese, most people haven’t ever met a seminarian and don’t really know what life for a seminarian is like,” Wilson said. “So we would like to  show people what it is like to be in formation for the priesthood. Also we can’t help but tell people about Jesus Christ. So many people have never encountered the Lord and known the joy and grace  that he can bring to all of our lives, so we would like to share what  it is like to follow Jesus Christ in the church.

The project is being jointly run by Deacon Moore, Geiger, Alex McCullough and Wilson.

Each video so far includes a seminarian, or seminarians, talking about the location they’re visiting in the Holy Land. Most videos also include pictures and descriptions of the historical places.

In a recent video, for example, seminarian Jason Williams gives some catechesis from inside the tomb of Lazarus in Bethany.

The channel can be found by clicking HERE. The following video is the introduction by Deacon Moore and Geiger.

This story originally appeared in the July 2014 print edition of The Catholic Telegraph.