The Catholic News Agency/EWTN News is reporting that the document was released on June 25 by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, head of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The 29-page document, entitled “Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to the Priestly Ministry,” was compiled from responses received to a questionnaire which was issued to the universal Church in 2008.
“Even though a sense of respect for the figure of the priest is cultivated in Christian families, it is still noticeable, especially in the West, that they have a certain difficulty in accepting that their child may have a vocation to the priesthood,” the document says.
However, “if families are animated by a spirit of faith, charity and piety they become, as it were, an ‘initial seminary’ and they continue to offer favorable conditions for the birth of vocations.”
The guidelines call upon parishes to help parents become more aware of their role as “educators in the faith so as to develop in the heart of the family the human and supernatural conditions that make possible the discovery of a priestly vocation.”
The document also identifies stumbling blocks to discerning a priestly vocation, such as fallout from Church scandals, the spread of secularism, the bad example of some priests and the marginalization of priests in social life.
As for fostering new vocations, families, schools, parishes and movements that are rooted in prayer are the most fruitful.
“The experience of many local Churches is that young men, in large numbers, sense the call to the ministerial priesthood, especially where prayer is a constant and profound dimension of the community’s life,” the document says.
In addition to the family, Catholic parishes are emphasized as “the place par excellence where the Gospel of the Christian vocation is proclaimed” and “where the ideal of priestly ministry is presented.”
The parish setting is ideal for priests to bring up the subject of the priesthood to boys and young men. Other members of the parish community should also be ready to promote vocations among their youth, especially current seminarians because “no-one is better suited to evangelize young people than young people themselves.”
The document also deals with situations in which a vocation to the priesthood should not be suggested, such as when dealing with those men who "show signs of being profoundly fragile personalities."
Schools are another place where vocations can flourish, particularly in colleges where young people are discerning their choices in life.
Also among its recommendations is to give special attention to altar servers because many of today's priests once "served at the altar” as altar boys before entering to seminary.
Click here to read the document.
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