WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Statistics show a drastic fall in the number of people entering religious life since the 1960s, yet, the Dominican Province of St. Joseph accepted first vows Aug. 7 from 21 novices -- the province's largest novitiate class since 1966. Father Bill Garrot is the province's outgoing vocations director -- and the man who the current vocations director appointed this summer, Father Benedict Croell, said played a key role in the "harvest" that yielded the 21 novices. In response to dismal novitiate numbers, in 2003 the province decided to hire Father Garrot as a full-time vocations director to engage in more rigorous recruitment efforts than a part-time director could. Before Father Garrot was hired, the province had suffered through "chaotic period" from 1993 to 2002, where the province transitioned between three or four different vocations directors and novitiate numbers were about five per year. "This kind of woke everybody up," Father Garrot said in an interview with Catholic News Service in Washington at the New York-based province's House of Studies. Father Garrot said those numbers rose to about eight to 10 a year during his time at the province, from 2003 to 2010. The 2009 novice class had 11 men in it, a total almost doubled in 2010. "Stability in a vocation program does matter. I was appointed as a full-time vocations director, but not many diocese or religious orders seem to have the luxury of appointing a man to do full-time recruitment work," he said.
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