Church must offer more encouragement, support for vocations, pope says

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholics must be more courageous in highlighting and fostering vocations, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“Every Christian community, every member of the church needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations,” especially in an era when God’s voice “seems to be drowned out by ‘other voices’ and his invitation to follow him by the gift of one’s own life may seem too difficult,” he said in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

Those who experience a clear call to priestly or consecrated life need encouragement, support and the possibility of feeling “the warmth of the whole community as they respond ‘yes’ to God and the church,” he said.

The papal message for the day of prayer, which will be observed May 15, was released Feb. 10 at the Vatican. The 2011 theme is “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church.”

In his message, Pope Benedict said proposing vocations on the local level means “having the courage, through an attentive and suitable concern for vocations, to point out this challenging way of following Christ which, because it is so rich in meaning, is capable of engaging the whole of one’s life.”

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