The Vocation Crisis and Culture: Part III

There are many ways that everyone in the Church can promote vocations. What we have explored in Parts 1 and 2 of this series has looked at the ideals of a disciple’s calling. Here we explore practical mechanisms that naturally promote vocations in the Church’s living body.

Convocation

When beginning to start a commitment or a long-term relationship, there is a starting phase or first step that begins the commitment. While informal groups have practices to introduce people to one another in the group and to know the group well, the major commitment of discerning a Catholic vocation needs to begin with one important first step. This goes beyond a recruiting process or a meeting with a representative of the Church. This requires a positive meeting with people who represent a vocation. Dioceses have informal dinners that are called Project Andrew Dinners, where young men are invited to have dinner with the local bishop, several priests, and the vocation director. These meetings are not binding for the young men to commit to the seminary and priesthood. They are simply a first step in discerning the vocation to Holy Orders in a local diocese. The principle of committing to small steps to a larger goal is an important aspect of influence in society^[I] and is part of the discernment process in any Christian vocation. Starting vocational discernment with convocation conferences is an essential tool for developing cultures of vocations for the Church.

“With regard to diocesan and parish communities, special attention and appreciation, …moral and material support, should be given to groups that support vocations…These groupings, therefore, are to be utilized well, so that in communion with the whole Church and for the sake of her growth they may make their proper contribution to the development of the pastoral work of promoting vocations.”^[ii]

Convocation is to gather together people who are in the same profession. Meaning “called-together,” hosting convocations for people in all vocations extends the environment for discernment to any person to live out their faith in community and discover where they find their passion and value in the community. The obvious difference is that vocations to marriage and priesthood are different in what they entail, so the discussion of how the faithful live out these vocations will be different. That does not divide vocations from their common calling. All vocations, first and foremost, are part of the call to holiness. So their ultimate beginning is holiness, and their final end is to glorify God. With this understanding, convocations are scheduled that invite people to discern their vocation. Any parish, regardless of its size, can encourage married couples to host events for this end. These do not have to be a week-long or weekend retreat. A convocation can be as simple as a monthly meeting for an hour between couples preparing for marriage and married couples who have been married in the Church for significant periods. This is to allow anyone the option to discern a vocation with openness and trust in the Church without undue pressure to make a hasty commitment. Convocations are based on the desire for spiritual discovery and inquiry, and not on a sense of simply fulfilling an obligation. 

“Indeed, concern for vocations is a connatural and essential dimension of the Church’s pastoral work. The reason for this is that vocation, in a certain sense, defines the very being of the Church, even before her activity. In the Church’s very name, Ecclesia, we find its deep vocational aspect, for the Church is a “convocation,” an assembly of those who have been called.”^[iii]

Vocational Support

Along with the pain and confusion that form in someone who discerns from one major life vocation to another, there needs to be safeguards along these paths to help the persons who are in transition. It is not sufficient to call on people to divorce quietly from marriage, and for those who leave the Seminary to accept it as it is, without further reflection. A major separation occurs when the Church leaves people unguided in times of major life decisions. When someone leaves the Church because of a lack of care, it falls on two responsible parties: the person who leaves and the Church itself. Both are responsible for the separation. Vocational support is indispensable for nurturing vocations in the Church at every stage of vocational discernment and every vocation that is discerned in the Church. The following are five vocational support mechanisms that would offer positive support for people in the process of transitioning vocations:

1. Discernment Groups: These would not be the same as the initial convocations that called the discerning person to first consider their vocations. They are the formation staff in the Seminary, OCIA teams in parishes, and marriage preparation leaders who help those who are actively committed to starting their vocations in the Church. These groups are always in need and should be strengthened as much as possible to shepherd souls throughout the discernment process in the Church.
2. Exit Interviews in Seminary: The time and effort that the Seminary demands are higher than the average job a person will apply for. When a seminarian announces his plans to leave or is ordered to leave the Seminary, it is a good practice to give them an exit interview with an appointed psychologist and chaplain to listen to their concerns and to help them prepare as they depart. This helps them by alleviating the initial shock of the transition out of the seminary.
3. Divorce Counseling: seeking out parish members with counseling experience to listen to and guide people who are divorced or are divorcing from their spouses. The Church continues to uphold an ideal of marriage as a sacred union between two people in the sight of God. This does not exclude the pastoral need to help those who have divorced or annulled their marriages to find solace in their pain. The vast majority of Christian marriages will be lived out in the context of a local parish. The Church ought to find people with counseling training who, along with the pastor, actively listen to people in this phase of their vocation. The Church can hire a paid counselor, and still, it ought to be treated as a ministry to serve the person in need of support. This service, offered by the Church to her flock, is an aid to the ideal of marriage and not a scandal to it.
4. Charism Training: encourage people to grow in their passions and skills. There are training resources available to help people find their vocational skills and personal charism. The Catherine of Siena Institute is one organization that specializes in training Catholics to find their charism in the Church.^[iv]
5. Constant Accompaniment: encourage involvement in support groups after the Initial step is taken to leave one vocation for another. These groups can be specific for each vocation; i.e., support groups for those who are divorced, annulled, and may be remarried, for former religious, and former priests.

Freedom in Choosing

Discernment of a vocation involves the whole support of a community. No one comes to God on their own, the saying goes, and any faithful person does not discern a vocation on their own. The reverse aspect of this reality is the importance of freedom in choosing the vocation itself. When the priesthood is discerned, there is an honor for the family of the discerner. Religious life itself carries a certain prestige for the men and women who discern it. This puts pressure on the person discerning to stay in the vocation and become the role they are discerning. What this means is that a person can choose or settle into a foreclosed identity in the vocation they are discerning before they have engaged the formation process intentionally and deeply. With this identity already decided on without further discernment, it can thus create issues for their lifelong formation. So, it is proper to discernment and formation to respect freedom in the decision that is reached by the person. There is nothing wrong with choosing marriage instead of the priesthood or secular life over religious life, and so forth. The vocational journey of the individual will never follow a perfectly charted plan that leads to an outcome everyone expected. The failure is in the lack of completion in the vocation. To leave abruptly or to be unsettled in a vocation that others chose for oneself is to fail the true nature of Christian vocation.

Freedom needs to be respected and nurtured in groups that discern vocations and in bodies that govern vocational discernment. Those who provide marriage preparation in pre-Cana groups are best to welcome the insights of their discerning couples without suggesting that a couple “stick it out” when serious doubts or problems are not resolved before the marriage. When a married couple is experiencing serious marital problems, the highest goal is the health and well-being of the parties involved, not the preservation of the nuptial union itself. A marriage union cannot be truly valid when one or both people are hurt by the union. Salvaging a marriage ought to be encouraged, and still, it is at the service of the person. Let the Church continually nurture marriage’s beautiful harmony while simultaneously preserving the dignity of the people participating in it. The priests who pastor married couples, coordinators in the parish, formators in the seminary, and superiors in religious life can encourage discerners to know that their choice is free and is to be made in the spirit of the two great commandments, the love of God and love of neighbor. 

Renewing a Culture of Vocations

The role of vocations in the Christian life is essential to the health and witness of the whole Church. There is a specific and strategic focus employed by American dioceses and religious orders that aims to recruit candidates for the priesthood, religious profession, and the consecrated life for lay people in secular institutes and third orders. These efforts are beneficial for the Church in themselves. These vocations have precedent in Scripture and Tradition, for there were vocations that entailed celibacy in the Bible, such as the prophets in the Old Testament and the vocation of Simeon and Anna in the New Testament. 

All of these vocations are meant, by Church teaching and the Gospel, to be seen in light of the whole Church and its mission to sanctify souls. Again, there is the objection that focusing on common vocations devalues the ordained priesthood and the importance of its sacramental ministry. The ordained priesthood, exercised in the presbyterate, episcopal, and pontifical ministry of the Church, is essential to the Catholic Church’s spiritual life, without question. Without ordained priests, the Church would not have sacraments celebrated and teaching given on faith matters. The other end of this reality is that the common calling or vocation of all the faithful is equally important for the life of the Church and is indispensable. Were there no people exercising the faith as the people of God, there would be no Church. When the Church loses contact with its people, the Church loses its vitality and efficacy at evangelizing the World to Christ. The Church is as strong as its most common members. Without the people of God worshipping, practicing, and sharing their faith, the Church could not exist. There are then no Sacraments, no worship, and no priesthood without God’s people living out their vocation. Therefore, the renewal of vocations is nurtured in greater ways by welcoming vocational discernment in the Church. This does not entail adding more bureaucracy or corporate offices to Church institutions. As we have explored, there are mechanisms for discernment on the local level in parishes and in dioceses, and on the levels of Seminaries and in religious orders. 

A culture of vocations emphasizes the unique calling that each Christian has in life and the joy and contentment that flow from the soul united to God’s will in this open culture. As Paul the Apostle wrote, when one member of the body is honored, all are honored. The adversity that comes in life will not be lacking in vocational awareness. No person is ever free from pain in life, and this is especially true in the grief of leaving a vocation. All efforts need to be made to support people in their vocations and accompany them. That is the endeavor of faith. The Church journeys to God together. Each personal vocation lends its support to the ultimate vocation of the Church, to glorify God and to save souls. 

^[i] Dr. Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Chapter 3, Consistency and Commitment, (2007). 43-87.

^[ii] Pastores Dabo Vobis, 89.

^[iii] Ibid. 72.

^[iv] https://siena.org/our-mission