What is The Problem With Attracting Vocations Today?

[JReducation]

When speaking of entrance requirements to religious orders and seminaries, we have to remember that the Church has reserved for herself the right to determine whom Christ calls and she has defined that Christ calls through her legal representatives. In the case of a diocese that legal representative is the bishop and in the case of a religious community, that representative is either the founder or the successor of the founder.

One may ask, how can the Church restrain Christ’s power to call forth a vocation? The Church does not restrain Christ. But the Church has been given the power to bind and unbind by Christ. In the case of the consecrated life or the clerical state, she has bound that Christ calls through her and only through her. Her voice is the final confirmation that Christ calls. She has also defined that religious life and the clerical state are not rights, but privileges that only she can confirm through her authority to govern and bind.

The Church is not being arbitrary, but very cautious to make sure that she calls forth those whom Christ wants to call to either Holy Orders or to the religious life. The Church must always seek to do Christ’s will.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[Royston]

There are so many problems it’s hard to know where to start.

The first obvious problem I see is there are less parents going to Church, which means that less children are going to Church. No brainer that that will really hurt vocations. These same parents don’t even talk or expose their children to Faith, God or the Bible, so how would a child ever know that he has a calling?

Second is how society looks at success. Many would deem a young man or woman as a failure if they went into religous life. It’s all about college, money, fame and stardom. It’s all about instant gratification. We are a sick society.

Third is the problem of family. Divorce is way to high and the number of children families are having is way to low. The baby boomers were a huge generation, where the parents were proud that one or two of there 5 or 6 sons became priests. That is no longer the case where a family only has 1 or 2 sons.

There are certainly more problems, but IMHO, those are the biggest hurdles…