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:
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.”