Friends, there is no question about it: we need more priests! Bishops and priests indeed have a key role to play in the encouragement of vocations. What draws a young man to the priesthood is, above all, the witness of happy, healthy priests. But I believe that lay people have an even more important role to play in the cultivation of vocations.
Priests, without exception, come from lay people; they come from families. The decency, prayerfulness, kindness, and encouragement of parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and uncles make an enormous difference in the fostering of a vocation to the priesthood. If you have remarked virtues in a young man that would make him an effective priest, assume that the Holy Spirit has given you this insight so that you might share it with that young man.
Believe me, the plainest words you speak could be seeds that will bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
Read Bishop Barron’s article on the subject here.