Vocations crisis to marriage

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I’ve recently come across several articles in online Catholic periodicals/websites in which Catholic leaders, some very high up in the hierarchy in the U.S., have been saying that the real vocations crisis in this country is to the vocation of marriage. I even read that if there were more married Catholics we would naturally see more priests and nuns as a result. I happen to agree with these statements and am pleased to see Church leaders recognizing a problem. My question however is if there’s a shortage of people entering the married state, shouldn’t the Church be praying for an increase in these vocations as well as for those to the priesthood and religious life? This seems especially true since there is a connection between the marriage rate among Catholics and the number of priestly/religious vocations.

Forgive me for not posting links to these other Catholic sites. My computer skills are not that advanced. If you’re interested, you can do a search on the Internet just as I did. I typed in some key words, including the name of a particular Catholic religious leader. I didn’t want to list his name here, because I’m not sure what the CAF rules are regarding naming members of the clergy in our posts. Maybe someone can answer that question too, and if it helps, I happen to admire this particular clergyman, so any reference that I might make to him would only be positive.

Thank you for your insights. God bless.
 
Our parish is busy every weekend with weddings. The problem isn’t that too few Catholics are choosing marriage, it’s that too few actually intend to raise Catholic families (they marry in the Church for tradition’s sake, Grandma’s sake, so Mom and Dad will pay…) and too many are marrying non-Catholics. The last three “Catholic” weddings I attended were between a Catholic who never goes to Mass and a non-religious person.
 
I agree.

Still, I hear it from some of the women’s groups I go to that their biggest concern is raising their children Catholic and their children up and leave the faith upon their 18th birthday. 🤷
But that is a whole other issue for a whole other thread…🙂

I think my husband and my wedding was one of the few weddings my guests attended that was between two practicing Catholics (newly converted Catholics but still…Catholic).

It concerns me too. I think it’s the primary reason why there is such an low number of prospective nuns and seminarian candidates. No one actually discerns a vocation anymore.
I don’t think a lot of Catholics consider marriage an actual vocation anyway.

It’s very sad and discouraging.
 
JackieMom said:
Our parish is busy every weekend with weddings. The problem isn’t that too few Catholics are choosing marriage, it’s that too few actually intend to raise Catholic families (they marry in the Church for tradition’s sake, Grandma’s sake, so Mom and Dad will pay…) and too many are marrying non-Catholics. The last three “Catholic” weddings I attended were between a Catholic who never goes to Mass and a non-religious person.
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Actually the stats I’ve seen show that the number of Catholics marrying for the first time is quite low. Perhaps they had in mind Catholics marrying Catholics. I can tell you though from my experience, as a Catholic woman who’d like to marry a good Catholic man, it can take years to find one who is faithful to the Church’s teachings and compatible in all of the other usual areas. The last several weddings I’ve been to (and I know a lot of single Catholics who’d like to get married) have been between a Catholic and a Catholic. The bride and groom, however, were both “older” singles. I know from talking to these friends that they would have liked to have married younger but simply couldn’t find a practicing Catholic who followed all of the Church’s teachings. I think people like this could really use some prayers. These are Catholics, like myself, who understand that marriage is a vocation, and that the Church’s teachings regarding marriage and children need to followed. It’s not about tradition- it’s about doing the Will of God.

Even if you’re correct in saying that there are plenty of Catholics getting married, just not to other Catholics, my question would still be the same: Why doesn’t the Church add this to the prayers of the faithful at Mass along with their prayers for more priests and religious? Either way, it’s a still a problem regarding the Sacrament of Marriage.
 
Kelfa28 said:
I don’t think a lot of Catholics consider marriage an actual vocation anyway.
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You’re quite correct in this statement. I remember seeing a survey showing that only half of all married Catholics actually know that marriage is a vocation. Obviously there’s a problem here with catechesis, but catechesis is also reinforced at Mass, or at least it should be. I know most of the time I hear the word “vocation” at Mass, it’s in reference to the priesthood and religious life. I think some Catholics walk away with the false idea that this is the only type of vocation in the Church.
 
I think it’s more simply a crisis in faith. How many people in parishes actually pursue going to confession? How many married couples use contraception before marriage, during marriage, and get sterilized after 2 kids? Certainly after 3. I know quite a number.

We just buried a friend of mine in his 80’s. He had 8 children (!!!) and was married +60 years. In his retirement he served on the altar every day, prayed the rosary every day. Worked at the soup kitchen for 10 years. What a jewel. Most seniors I know like to pass the day playing cards and going to the casino. There’s just a diminishing of faith, little by little, to a small flame. We hardly notice it until we see someone like my friend, faithfully serving for decades, and ask him what he remembers of church when he was 20 and getting married. What was Catholic life like then for folks in the pew? Very different.
 
This is so true - what the key word here is “authentic.” Authentic Catholic marriages where the couple follows the Church’s teachings on life and love, is open to life, and raises their children to learn to love and follow the Church.

Then, these children in turn have been given the best gift of all -faith - and have been shown by their parents what an authentic practicing Catholic lifestyle looks like. They then aren’t afraid to consider a vocation to religious life, single consecration, or mirror their parents and enter into the vocation of marriage.

We all need to pray for EVERY vocation. Each is so important in the Church for sure.

God bless!

Chloe M.
 
Oh yes I agree, there is a big crisis with regard to the sacrament of marriage and I am glad to hear that the church is finally addressing this problem. We do need to pray for more faithful marriages and for people to start taking marriage seriously because with the way society is going the crisis seems to get from bad to worse.
 
Yes, the vocations crisis can be traced fairly directly to dearth of authentic Catholic marriages, specifically openness to children. When families had 6 or more children, I’m sure it was easier for would-be grandparents to actively encourage one of them to enter the priesthood or nunnery.

Beyond the sheer numbers drop, as others have noted, many marrying Catholics today are Catholics in Name Only.
 
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