A rise in the quality of vocational promotion

The final document of the Congress, New Vocations for a New Europe, sets out a situation which I believe is significant: the need for radical change or a "rise in the quality" of the vocational pastoral, which the Pope returned to in his final speech. The document describes the various elements of change which are already taking place or which ought to take place in the vocational pastoral. One of them is described thus: "This is the moment to make a decisive move from suffering the fatigue and resignation we justify by blaming today’s generation of young people as the one and only cause of the vocational crisis, and to summon up the courage to ask ourselves the appropriate questions and to see our possible errors and faults in order to reach a state of renewed and ardent enthusiasm which creates testimony".

If we cannot control all the factors which have an adverse effect on the flourishing of vocations, we can analyze the factors on our side and, in a climate of sincerity, reflect upon and face the consequences. Perhaps, without being fully aware of it, we have avoided this analysis for a while; nevertheless, I think that nowadays, often prompted by the younger religious, we have begun to talk about and reflect upon these themes; perhaps not always as yet with the necessary freedom and calmness, nor, as is essential, without any kind of polemic.