Family Fosters Vocations!

Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992

A very special responsibility falls upon the Christian family, which by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony shares in its own unique way in the educational mission of the Church – teacher and mother…. The Christian family, which is truly a “domestic Church” (Lumen Gentium, 11), has always offered and continues to offer favorable conditions for the birth of vocations. Since the reality of the Christian family is endangered nowadays, much importance should be given to pastoral work on behalf of the family, in order that the families themselves, generously accepting the gift of human life, may be “as it were, a first seminary” (Optatam Totius, 2) in which children can acquire from the beginning an awareness of piety and prayer and love for the Church. Following upon and in harmony with the work of parents and the family, the school is also called to live its identity as an “educating community” by providing a correct understanding of the dimension of vocation as an innate and fundamental value of the human person. In this sense, if it is endowed with a Christian spirit (either by a significant presence of members of the Church in state schools, following the laws of each country, or above all in the case of the Catholic school), it can infuse in the hearts of boys and young men a desire to do God’s will in that state in life which is most suitable to each person, and never excluding the vocation to the priestly ministry. (#41)