Pastoral promotion of vocations today

Abstract

In the face of anti-vocation culture that dominates in Europe, one of the most important tasks of the Church today is "to mobilize all the resources needed for an adequate pastoral promotion of vocations" (John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 32). Promoting the calls to specific vocations needs to be based on prayer, and should be considered asthe vocation of all the people involved in the Church ministry. Every callcomes from God, but requires the mediation of the Church. The renewed pastoral promotionof vocations is guided by the following principles: the primacy of prayer over action,the primacy of people over structures, the primacy of people over programmes, the primacy of content over methods, the primacy of the formation of catechists over the formation of the catechized, the primacy of general ministry over specific forms of vocational promotion. The primary place of promoting vocations is the parish community, where the richness of callsto marriage, priesthood or the religious lifeis revealed. Inlocal communities there are placeswhich arethe response to the giftsof special vocations(e.g. cloisters, religious orders, seminaries, communities of lay institutes). In each parish community there are groups where those called can become ready to fulfill their vocations, especially groups focused on the formation, prayer or charity. The renewed promotion of vocations focuses not only on the call to priesthood but all kinds of vocations, and involves not only the chosen people or structures but all the baptized in the Church.