(Vatican Radio) While any vocation to the priesthood is a gift from God, the future
of the priesthood also depends on the present coherence of Christian life in families,
parishes, communities and priests themselves, who must help create a space that encourages
young men to consider priestly life in an often discouraging world. Vatican Radio’s
Emer McCarthy reports listen:
Four
years in the making, this Monday the Congregation for Catholic Education presented
a guideline to help local churches promote vocations to the priesthood and religious
life. The 27-page document is divided into three main parts that tackle the state
of vocations in today’s world, the vocation and identity of priesthood and suggestions
for the promotion of vocations to priestly life.
The document is the result
of a questionnaire sent out across the universal Church following the 2008 plenary
assembly of the Congregation and was drawn up in collaboration with Congregations
for the Evangelization of Peoples, for the Oriental Churches, for Institutes of Consecrated
Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and for the Clergy.
Describing the current
situation of priestly vocations as “good and bad”, the document begins by focusing
on traditionally Christian countries in the West. In notes how unbridled consumerism,
falling birth-rates and a fall in religious practice have led to a decline in vocations
and an increasingly elderly pool of priests to serve the Church. It puts this
down to a series of reasons that leads to young men ignoring a vocation to priestly
ministry: the spreading of a secularized mentality that discourages the response of
young people to follow the Lord Jesus more radically and more generously; parents,
who “reserve little space to the possibility of a call to a special vocation”; the
gradual marginalization of the priest in social life, with the consequent loss of
his relevance in the public sphere. These elements include "a tendency towards
the progressive transformation of the priesthood into a profession". This can be associated
with "the danger of exaggerated activism, an increasing individualism which not infrequently
closes priests in a perverse and depressing solitude, and the confusion of roles in
the Church which comes about when we lose the sense of distinction between roles and
responsibilities, and not everyone comes together to collaborate in the one mission
entrusted to the People of God". “Furthermore, in many places the choice of celibacy
is questioned. Not only a secularized mentality, but also erroneous opinions within
the Church bring about a lack of appreciation for the charism and the choice of celibacy”.
It
states that “however much the pastoral ministry for vocations in Europe and in the
Americas is organized and creative, the results obtained do not correspond to the
efforts made”. Instead it says that “where clear and challenging proposals of Christian
life are offered”, particularly through new evangelisation initiatives that are carried
out in cooperation with the domestic Church, there are signs of recovery.
Again
and again the document returns to the first form of Christian life and community –
the family, parish and movement or association. It states young people are more open
to God’s call when they are presented with a strong example of Christian life in the
home, or wider community. Moreover, young men often feel encouraged to consider a
vocation as a result of the “joyful witness of the priests” they have encountered
in their lives. The Congregation suggests that pastoral ministry of vocations must
offer boys and young men a Christian experience where they can know first hand the
reality of God Himself. This means making families aware of the important role they
play in forming a vocation. It encourages an experience of community life before entrance
to the seminary and underlines the importance of a clear understanding of the commitments
the priesthood entails, in particular with regard to celibacy. It concludes, “fostering
vocations to the priesthood is a constant challenge for the Church” in particular,
“a welcome for the call of God to ministerial priesthood”.