Vatican City, Jun 25, 2012 / 12:45 pm
Parents should be careful not to block their son's calling to the priesthood, new Vatican guidelines on promoting vocations say.
"Even though a sense of respect for the figure of the priest is cultivated in Christian families, it is still noticeable, especially in the West, that they have a certain difficulty in accepting that their child may have a vocation to the priesthood," said the document launched by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, head of the Congregation for Catholic Education, at the Vatican June 25.
However, "if families are animated by a spirit of faith, charity and piety they become, as it were, an 'initial seminary' and they continue to offer favorable conditions for the birth of vocations."
The 29-page document, entitled "Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to the Priestly Ministry," is the culmination of four years of work by the Congregation for Catholic Education. It draws together the responses received to a questionnaire issued to the universal Church in 2008.