A PASTORAL CONCERN: Trends in Vocation Animation in the Church Today (Part 1)

To heed the call of the "Lord of the Harvest" in bringing about a culture of vocations in our Church through vocation awareness and promotion is not easy.  It entails a lot of openness to various realities and trends.  As the world changes, so do people, especially the young.  One cannot but keep up with what is going on as people journey through life.  It is in the midst of these many changes that every priest and religious, not only those with specified ministries as vocation animators, need to move along with these challenges.

Inviting young people to the priestly and religious life have become a daunting task.  There are those who see the difficulty of "getting vocations" as a problem of values and worldly trends that abound these days.  There can be various elements to these prevailing situations.  But one must be able to see and distinguish where the problem really comes from.

An Example of a Local Church

Let us take the example of the Diocese of Antipolo.  This is one of the largest dioceses in the Philippines in terms of population.  It has a population today of about four million covering the whole province of Rizal and the city of Marikina.  Of this population, around three million five hundred thousand are Catholics!  There are only 80 diocesan priests serving this local Church.  Thanks to the presence of the religious men and women who have established their presence in the diocese, it is able, more or less, to respond (although still with great difficulty) to the spiritual and pastoral needs of the people.  With its proximity to Metro Manila, a "merger and clash" of cultures and traditions ensue at times.  The young people especially have become prone to such developments -- with values becoming disvalues.  Consumerist and individualistic mentalities have come about and the rise of various mentalities has changed the idea of self-giving and communal responsibility.

Some years ago, the 1st Antipolo Diocesan Vocation Convention was convened and it discussed the challenges that confronted vocation promotion and recruitment.  At the end of the convention, there was a fearful consensus among the participants that the Diocese of Antipolo had entered into a "vocation crisis."  Very few young people in that area have entered the seminaries and convents over a period of ten years!  In fact, the numbers were declining.  Although there was not enough scientific basis (no formal instrument was used), but listening to the experiences and testimonies of both religious and lay people were proof enough of the difficulties the diocese was facing.  The young people spoke to the delegates of the said convention and they shared their insights that proved to be important.  Those "informal" findings will perhaps resonate to the bigger part of the youth of the Philippines today.

By some twist of fate, from the vocation crisis the Diocese of Antipolo entered into eight years ago, there has been an upsurge in vocations to the seminary over the past two years.  Perhaps this has to do with new techniques employed by vocation promoters and having a new understanding on how young people think and move that has led to better ways of dealing with them.

The Difficulty Lies In...

When asked why there seems to be a difficulty in inviting the youth today to consider the priestly and religious life, some areas need to be considered: family, economics, personal aspect, views of the youth towards priests and religious, and other areas of importance that are commonly left out.

Parents want their children to support the family, but at the same time when the children would like something for themselves, they do not get enough support from their family.  Also, there is a difficulty of separating from the family, as Filipinos, culturally, have strong and close family ties.  Poverty also has proven to be a stumbling block.  People are bothered by the fact that religious formation can cost so much.  Thus, they would rather send their children elsewhere where they could benefit from whatever resources that is worth their hard-earned money.  Difficulties coming from oneself can also arise.  Many are also not ready or are not willing to change what they have been accustomed to.  There is a prevailing lack of self-awareness among the youth and their feelings towards the opposite sex that has become an important issue that need to be addressed.  In fact, more are attracted to having their own families.  Other reasons are simply because they do not have particular calling to religious life or they are not attracted to a life of "holy commitment."  Varying priorities and the inability to pass difficult entrance examinations to the seminary also figure out.

How priests and nuns live their lives have also become an area of contention.  The youth run into barriers of not being able to respond to this particular vocation when the clergy and religious themselves have many difficulties in adhering to their own calling.  They become discouraged by what they see and hear about religious men and women.  They become affected by controversies and scandals concerning priests!  It thus becomes a problem of integrity.


The youth also find it hard to discern their vocation because of the attraction to and their inability to separate material things and modern technologies.  They have practical considerations, like the need to work so they can earn a living.  They also have concerns with satisfying their needs, to belong to a group of peers and to have a family.

(To be continued...)