Who says there is a vocations crisis in the Church?

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Yesterday, I sat through an hour of graduations of over 200 new Catholic school teachers. šŸ˜ƒ
 
That may be good, so long as those new school teachers are orthodox and faithful, children need teachers. However, a school teacher cannot confect the Eucharist. A school teacher cannot hear a Confession. Only a priest can do that.

A school teacher teaches children, yes, but they do not spend all of their time praying for those same children, like a Carmelite monk or nun.

While it is good that teachers are going into specifically Catholic education, they will only be a force for good if they are solidly orthodox to help properly form the children in their care. But, in the end, they are just laypeople whose profession is to teach at a Catholic school.
 
Well, this is nice, but there is still a huge vocation crisis in the church.
 
ZDHayden said:
That may be good, so long as those new school teachers are orthodox and faithful, children need teachers. However, a school teacher cannot confect the Eucharist. A school teacher cannot hear a Confession. Only a priest can do that.

A school teacher teaches children, yes, but they do not spend all of their time praying for those same children, like a Carmelite monk or nun.

While it is good that teachers are going into specifically Catholic education, they will only be a force for good if they are solidly orthodox to help properly form the children in their care. But, in the end, they are just laypeople whose profession is to teach at a Catholic school.
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I would suggest there is something of a vocation about being a Catholic school teacher. Many of the encyclicals from the Congregation for Catholic Education point to this too. St Augustine and St John Chrysostom both write about the role of the teacher in that vein too. Of course, this is different to the vocation of a religious or a Priest, but a ā€˜callingā€™ nonetheless.
 
DL82 said:
I would suggest there is something of a vocation about being a Catholic school teacher. Many of the encyclicals from the Congregation for Catholic Education point to this too. St Augustine and St John Chrysostom both write about the role of the teacher in that vein too. Of course, this is different to the vocation of a religious or a Priest, but a ā€˜callingā€™ nonetheless.
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I do not deny that, but my point was that we still have a crisis among consecrated and ordained vocations. I myself am going into education, or planning to, at least.
 
There is no vocation crisis!! We deserve the amount of vocations we get! Our sinfulness and lack of prayer is the cause of less vocations in the church. Pray More!
 
My vocations director brought up a good point to me. There is not a vocations crisis in the Catholic Church, but many arenā€™t answering the call of our Lord to serve him. Our society sees marriage as the ā€œnormā€ and our society sees priesthood, religious life, consecrated life, etc. as ā€œweird.ā€ Also, some parents forbid their children to even consider anything but marriage. Any other vocation can be looked down upon by a lot of families since marriage is the ā€œnorm.ā€
 
CatholicZ09 said:
My vocations director brought up a good point to me. There is not a vocations crisis in the Catholic Church, but many arenā€™t answering the call of our Lord to serve him. Our society sees marriage as the ā€œnormā€ and our society sees priesthood, religious life, consecrated life, etc. as ā€œweird.ā€ Also, some parents forbid their children to even consider anything but marriage. Any other vocation can be looked down upon by a lot of families since marriage is the ā€œnorm.ā€
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Very true. The year before I was confirmed, my mother gave me a lecture which can be summed up like this: itā€™s fine if you become a Catholic, but do not become a priest.
 
ZDHayden said:
Very true. The year before I was confirmed, my mother gave me a lecture which can be summed up like this: itā€™s fine if you become a Catholic, but do not become a priest.
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And honestly, thatā€™s incredibly sad. Men and women need to answer the call from our Lord to serve Him.
 
Papist22 said:
There is no vocation crisis!! We deserve the amount of vocations we get! Our sinfulness and lack of prayer is the cause of less vocations in the church. Pray More!
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Is that actually a Catholic teaching - that the number of vocations is related to the piety of the Church members?

I am asking out of honest curiosity, as Iā€™ve never heard that.
 
CatholicZ09 said:
And honestly, thatā€™s incredibly sad. Men and women need to answer the call from our Lord to serve Him.
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What was kind of ironic, was just moments before she gave that lecture, I was seriously contemplating becoming a priest one day.
 
Wonderful.

But those are NOT Priests, they are NOT religious nuns or brothers.

So, what does this graduation have to do with a lack of vocations?

Even for teachers, will 100% of them obtain employment in Catholic schools, and will they all stay there? It is highly doubtful, as there are fewer and fewer Catholic schools in the US, Canada and Western Europe. More of them close each and every year. Many more close down, than new ones are opened.
 
DL82 said:
I would suggest there is something of a vocation about being a Catholic school teacher. Many of the encyclicals from the Congregation for Catholic Education point to this too. St Augustine and St John Chrysostom both write about the role of the teacher in that vein too. Of course, this is different to the vocation of a religious or a Priest, but a ā€˜callingā€™ nonetheless.
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Yes everything is a vocation being a teacher is one being a vet is another being a lawyer or a muscian horse trainer whatever you do it is a calling. The problem is that we defenetly need more nuns and priests!! when my father went to Catholic school they were all priests and nuns not many lay teachers like today. Hospitals were another great calling for nuns.Can you imagine how much more affordable healthcare would be if all the nurses were nuns and or doctors?? there is no reason on earth I can come up with as to why nuns canā€™t be Doctors. Nuns would make AWESOME Doctors. That would be so awesome. Healthcare would be still high but so much better if it was run by the Church! However, I think that vocations to the priesthood are on the rise. Letā€™s hope. Scoob.
 
I thought that teaching was not a vocation but an occupation, rather. Anywho, I couldnā€™t see myself going to school everyday. I could see myself going to church everyday though!
 
Right. According to my priest friend a vocation could be an occupation. So is married life or single celebate life. I feel that we all have a calling a vocation. My opinion.
 
Scoob,

Do you have some recent stats on vocations to the priesthood? The most recent CARA stats I can fine are from 2008, US, world-wide, religious, diocesan, ordinations.

Just curious.

I hope things are going well for you.
 
Not off hand. But I know St Louis is doing good for vocations. Jefferson City is getting more vocations. I was at Sacred Heart School of Theology where I hope to be going and they have statistics. The failure rate of second career vocations is about 1 % and ordained priests that are second career have about a 1 % rate of leaving the priesthood. I can find out but I know that some diocese around me are doing better. Some are not. I really think that the bishop has a lot to do with vocations. The moer picky they are in regards to age education the less success they have with vocations. In my case as I do not possess a degree I will take 6 years at Sacred Heart instead of 5 whatā€™s the difference? one year?? . I found out that the bishop of Springfield Cape Girardeau used age as the reason but the real reason was I didnā€™t have a degree. So with that said,Jefferson City Mephis Little Rock Gallup Gary Honolulu and many more are much more proactive in vocations and more supportive of second career vocations and are much more willing to give people a chance, Than say Kansas City or Springfield Cape.Girardeau, SO a good way to see where vocations are increasing look at Sacred Heartā€™s website and see what diocese are sending their seminarians there and look at their number of new seminarians versus the diocese that are age or education discriminatory.
But I am postive that vocations are on the rise, just how many not sure, not enough but I think it is on the incline however slight incline. My opinion. Scoob.
 
Actually, the grace that is brought about by the 200 graduating Catholic teachers is the hope that the generations they will teach will produce vocations to the priesthood and the religious. Yes. they may just be teachers, but they will hold the responsibility of molding minds of future priests and religious. We hope and pray that they are faithful and orthodox. šŸ™‚
 
choliks said:
Actually, the grace that is brought about by the 200 graduating Catholic teachers is the hope that the generations they will teach will produce vocations to the priesthood and the religious. Yes. they may just be teachers, but they will hold the responsibility of molding minds of future priests and religious. We hope and pray that they are faithful and orthodox. šŸ™‚
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My Friend who is a priest and I discussed this very thing last night. I was asking why there is such a shortage of vocations. His answer was yous basically. He said if we have more Catholic schools more parents that support vocations we will see more vocations. The current trend right now will be as I have said before, that with this political picture the current economy the job market, You will see a lot of college students that canā€™t find work (almost all) will start to look to the church and try to enter seminary or convents. In itā€™s self may be a bad or selfish reason, BUT but God will use it to have a more bountiful vocation harvest. Also delayed vocations will stay on the rise. In these times it is nice to have priests with a colorful background. Colorful meaning having a career learning what life is all about feeling real dissappointments crushed dreams lifeā€™s lessons experiences. So what I believe is that you will see a joint venture between the young and the experienced being called and discerning the priesthood. I am discerning and I have a job and a business with my Father. I feel that I can serve God much better as a priest and feel him tugging at me. Weā€™ll see. But I hope I am part of the hope and these teachers are CERTAINLY part of the hope and so are the many jobless college grads looking for something in their life, this economy we have and the political picture may in fact be a way that God will steer more folks to religious life priesthood. So the future looks postive to me and that goes for young adults adults. And in the end the sheep that they will serve will see the most benefit. My opinion. Scoob.
 
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