Pastor’s Desk

In this column, I will investigate the present situations in the Archdiocese of Vancouver and will demonstrate the ill effect that contributes to the decline in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. Once the cause of the problem is identified, I will internalize the method to find remedies to combat and restore the health of Vocations in the Archdiocese. The final part will be the recommendations to help change the attitude, the values and the culture of the Archdiocese so that the need of more vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life is addressed. I hope that this column may help contribute and add new insights into the solution of “Vocation Crisis” particularly in the Vancouver’s Diocese and raise awareness of the need to promote Vocations.

Methodology

I will adopt the method in terms of Practical Theology to “See,” “Judge,” and “Act”, presenting the three different stages in the process of vocation’s development presented in three different parts.

The first part will consist of the compilation of evidences and facts from surveying the environment and situation of the Archdiocese of Vancouver “Ad intra” and also “Ad extra”. After having a better understanding of the general state of affairs internally and externally, I will advance to the second stage where the analyses and judgments of different issues that cause the decline in vocations have taken place. This will be the second part where many solutions are presented with different perspectives that will help build the vocation culture in the diocese. The third part will consist of the accumulation of recommendations and programs that can be applied to different levels of society: the individual, the family and the community at large. With these proposals, we hope to rebuild the foundation to promote vocations in our particular Church, the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

The tools that I will use to write this column are the two key foundations of Spirituality and Formation. The three parts will also be the integration of the three stages of the spiritual development from the tradition of the Fathers of the Church: purgation, illumination, and union. Adding to this tapestry is also the assimilation of the three levels of human development: egocentric, philanthropic, and selftranscendent.

(…to be continue…)

As we just celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday and looking forward to a few ordinations especially of Juan Lucca, I would like to dedicate this column for Vocations during this Spring time.

“The Harvest Is Plentiful but the Laborers Are Few” Mt 9:23

Taking a pulse, the rate at which the heart beats, is a traditional way to obtain a quick evaluation of a person’s health. If we are to take a pulse on Vocation today, we may find with difficulty a faint beat that leads to the conclusion that Vocation to the diocesan priesthood and consecrated life in the diocese of Vancouver is “under the weather”. An example to support this diagnosis is the number of nine seminarians we have recently in 2007.

Digging through the archive from 1977 to 2010, the most number of seminarians who studied for the Archdiocese of Vancouver in a year was twenty-two, and that was in 1986. The average number of seminarians within the thirty years is fifteen. This figure is not only a concern in the Archdiocese, but it is also a worry for many other dioceses across Canada. At our local Archdiocesan Seminary of Christ the King operated by the Benedictines, just nine years ago, the seminary did not know where to put extra college students. However, in the school year of 2007, its entire first floor and few other rooms were empty.

We can identify many factors that contribute to the lack of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. A major cause is the affluent society we live in – a society that train us and in particular, our young people to strive hard to meet the high standard of living. Thus, a level of comfortableness indulged by many young people makes them accustomed to a self centered lifestyle instead of self giving. Consequently, they do not want to give themselves in the service of the Church; for them, what the Church can offer is not as important as what the world offers. This standard of life also causes the family size to shrink considerably to accommodate the increasing demands. In the early fifties and sixties, the birth rate in Canada was from 35-46 births/1000 population (4 children or more per family). From the nineties up to this year, Statistics of Canada shows the birth rate of 10.75 births/1000 population (just over a child per family). How can parents want to offer their children to God when they have only one or two kids?

Others causes are: the non existence of the practice of the faith in the family, the lack of the priority for religious education, promotions and examples from priests, instability of marriage and commitment, etc. We can go on and on, pointing out the many reasons and grounds for the decline in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. But the most important thing is what are we going to do about it?