Vatican City, Dec 17, 2003 / 22:00 pm
Addressing the issue of the dramatic fall of vocations among traditional religious communities in France, Pope John Paul told a group of French bishops that new vocations can be attracted only by “courageous witnesses.”
Speaking to bishops from the ecclesiastical province of Marseille, a region that has seen one of the most dramatics falls in Catholic devotion, the Pontiff underscored the need for a “renewal of the spiritual life of pastors, the faithful and entire communities.”
In this renewal, the Pope said, “persons committed to the consecrated life have a primordial role to play. Consecrated life in all of its forms, old and new, is a gift from God to the Church.”
John Paul II said he wanted “to repeat with conviction and strength the need for consecrated life in the Church and the world. Indeed, a diocese without communities of consecrated life would be deprived of many spiritual gifts, of places reserved for seeking God, of apostolic activities and specific pastoral methods.”