2014-05-10 18:32:05

Upturn in Vocations to Priesthood and Religious Life in England and Wales continues


(Vatican Radio) Sunday 11th May is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life which is being marked across the globe. The Catholic Church in England and Wales says the significant upturn in the numbers of vocations over the past decade continues. Figures released for the year 2013 showed that nearly 100 men and women entered convents, seminaries and religious houses across the country.
So what is attracting more men and women to embrace a religious vocation over the past decade after several earlier years of sharp decline? A question Susy Hodges put to Fr Christopher Jamison, Director of the Catholic Church’s National Office for Vocation.
Listen to the full interview with Father Jamison: RealAudioMP3

Father Jamison said it’s difficult to put a finger on the precise reason for this continuing upturn but believes much has to do with a different approach being adopted by Vocations Directors across the country. “We’ve moved from recruitment to discernment as the model of what we’re doing” (to foster vocations). Father Jamison said many groups have been set up nationwide which young people can attend to facilitate the discernment of vocations and provide “help” to them in discussing God’s call to them, saying these groups have proved “very popular.”

Asked if there are other wider factors that help explain this upturn such as societal influences, Father Jamison said he believes Pope Benedict’s successful visit to England in 2010 played a part. This visit, he said, “led to young people in Britain feeling much more confidently Catholic.”

At the same time Father Jamison warns that there is no room for complacency as the total numbers of vocations to the priesthood and religious life are still much lower than they were, for example, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. “We’re still very far away from such significant numbers,” he said, but noted that the continuous decline seen in the 1990’s has been halted. “We’ve stopped an endless downward spiral.”








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