Why We Must Promote All Vocations

Whispers in the Loggia has a great article about certain Bishops and what they do to promote vocations.
It lists a few traits:

"An involved, invested diocesan bishop"
Vocations made a first priority
"pushing towards it from the top and across the board" versus the agenda of one office
"significant personal commitment"
"concerted team effort"
"a creative approach"
"contagious enthusiasm and zeal"

In quoting the CARA report on the ordination Class of 2007, it was noted that few responded to the 'posters and coasters' mentality, but again it was personal invitation, usually (up to 80%) a pastor or priest, who first planted the seed of a vocation.

The post also points out that in the speaking of vocations, we cannot reduce the discussion to just priesthood, but rather all vocations.

He also quotes Pope Benedict in an address to the Parish of St. Felicity and Her Children, where he says:

Every person carries within himself a project of God, a personal vocation, a personal idea of God on what he is required to do in history to build his Church, a living Temple of his presence. And the priest's role is above all to reawaken this awareness, to help the individual discover his personal vocation, God's task for each one of us. I see that many here have discovered the project that concerns them, both with regard to professional life in the formation of today's society -- where the presence of Christian consciences is fundamental -- and also with regard to the call to contribute to the Church's growth and life. Both these things are equally important.


A society where Christian conscience is no longer alive loses its bearings; it no longer knows where to go, what it can do, what it cannot do, and ends up in emptiness, it fails. Only if a living awareness of the faith illumines our hearts can we also build a just society. It is not the Magisterium that imposes doctrine. It is the Magisterium that helps enable the conscience itself to hear God's voice, to know what is good, what is the Lord's will. It is only an aid so that personal responsibility, nourished by a lively conscience, may function well and thus contribute to ensuring that justice is truly present in our society: justice within ourselves and universal justice for all our brothers and sisters in the world today. Today, globalization is not only economic: there is also a globalization of responsibilities, this universality, which is why we are all responsible for everyone.


The Church offers us the encounter with Christ, with the living God, with the "Logos" who is Truth and Light, who does not coerce consciences, does not impose a partial doctrine but helps us ourselves to be men and women who are completely fulfilled and thus to live in personal responsibility and in deeper communion with one another, a communion born from communion with God, with the Lord.