EVERYONE'S DUTY IS TO PRAY FOR PRIESTLY VOCATIONS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 14, 2002 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican's Clementine Hall, in a meeting traditionally held at the beginning of Lent, John Paul II received the clergy of the diocese of Rome. After listening to the testimonies of various priests, the Pope offered some reflections on the need "for vocations in the life, testimony and pastoral activities of our ecclesial communities."

The Pope stated that vocations decline when "the intensity of faith and spiritual fervor diminishes. We must not, then, let ourselves be easily satisfied by the explanation that would have the scarcity of priestly vocations compensated by a growth in the apostolic commitment of the laity, or even that it is a design of Providence to favor the development of the laity. Quite the contrary, the greater the number of laity who seek to live their baptismal commitment with generosity, the more necessary the presence and activity of ordained ministers."

Going on to refer to obstacles that hinder a positive response to the call of the Lord, he said: "The Church's commitment to vocations must have at its roots a great common commitment; one that calls upon lay people, priests and religious, and that consists in rediscovering that fundamental aspect of our faith by which life itself - each human life - is the fruit of God's call, and can be positively fulfilled only as a response to that call."

John Paul II stressed that the priestly vocation "is a mystery" in which man gives himself to Christ that "He may use him as an instrument of salvation. ... If the mystery of this 'exchange' is not perceived, it is not possible to understand how it can be that a young man, hearing the words 'follow me!', may come to renounce everything for Christ in the certainty that, along this path, his human personality will be fully realized."

"Thus it becomes clear," he continued, "why the first and principal commitment for vocations can be none other than prayer. ... Prayer for vocations is not and cannot be the fruit of resignation," as if it were the only possible response after having "already done everything possible with meager results."

The Holy Father indicated that prayer for vocations is a task "for the entire Christian community" and must form a part of pastoral care. Consequently, "Christian families have a great and irreplaceable mission and responsibility. ... In the same way, catechesis and all the pastoral care of Christian initiation must comprehend a first vocational element. ... Finally, each parish and Christian community ... must feel a shared responsibility in proposing and accompanying vocations."

He added that vocational pastoral care "is entrusted in the first place to our prayer, our ministry and our personal testimony." For this reason, he explained, for a vocation to be born there must be the personal contact, friendship and spiritual guidance of a priest.

"If boys and young men see priests busy with too many cares, open to discouragement, ready to complain and careless in prayer and the tasks of their ministry, how can they be fascinated by the path of the priestly life? Yet, if they see in us joy at being ministers of Christ, generosity in the service of the Church, and readiness to assume the burden of the human and spiritual growth of the people entrusted to our care, they will be inspired to ask themselves if this is not, for them too, 'the better portion'."

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