This may seem like old news (from back around Easter, specifically) but apparently there’s a relatively new development.

Of the four men featured this spring on A&E’s reality show “God or the Girl,” three of them decided against entering the seminary to pursue a priestly vocation.

The fourth, Steve Horvath of Virginia, who has been on a student missionary assignment in Lincoln, Neb., said he would apply to a seminary. Then he got stuck on the application.

“The last parts that I ended up not completing were … ‘What do you think a Catholic priest should be’ and ‘What is calling me to the Catholic priesthood?’” Horvath told Catholic News Service in a July 27 telephone interview from Fairfax, Va.. “I needed some more subjective and personal reasons (than what he had been writing). In taking that to prayer, I really didn’t feel that calling.”

So apparently the one guy who didn’t back out ended up backing out after the series was over. I don’t say backing out in a detrimental way…if he didn’t feel the calling, he didn’t need to be there. Interesting that the show didn’t capture that though.

Of course, it may be that there’s no need to worry about a vocational crisis. After all, according to the Bishop of LA:

What some refer to as a “vocations crisis” is, rather, one of the many fruits of the Second Vatican Council, a sign of God’s deep love for the Church, and an invitation to a more creative and effective ordering of gifts and energy in the Body of Christ. This is a time of great challenge and opportunity in the Church, not least of all because the gifts of the lay faithful have been flourishing in unprecedented numbers and in unforeseen ways.

Thanks to the Curt Jester for blogging this last month.