LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – Traditional, optimistic, relationship-oriented and ready to volunteer: Those are the qualities that “Generation Y” will bring to the priesthood, according to a study by Jeffrey Ricchiuti, a senior at Siena College.
A marketing and management major, he surveyed 53 “Gen-Y” seminarians at five seminaries in New York, Washington, D.C., and Maryland (he defined “Generation Y” as people now in college). He then analyzed the data on their interests, values and media consumption in order to provide pointers for possible marketing campaigns by dioceses and religious orders.
Jeffrey has just begun the process of becoming a priest of the Diocese of Albany.