Videoconference, January 28^th 2004, Congregation for the Clergy

SANCTUARIES AND VOCATIONAL PASTORAL CARE

Professor Paolo Scarafoni, L.C.

Rector of the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum

Vocational pastoral care in sanctuaries is based on four points: prayer, the sacraments, catechesis and preaching, charity and service.

1) Prayer is at the root of all vocations within the Church. The Gospel tells us that the Lord called his apostles after a long prayer. Today too the Church continues to pray intensely asking for vocations, as commanded by the Lord. Sanctuaries are places of prayer and it from there that prayers rise to the Lord, that He may send His Church vocations. Sanctuaries must emphasise days of prayer dedicated to vocations and must constantly promote this intention.

Prayers pronounced in Marian sanctuaries are particularly effective for vocations. The pastors and the faithful entrust their requests to Mary’s interception, and therefore obtain a ready answer from the Lord. "Marian sanctuaries all over the world must become privileged places for vocational activities and centres of fervent prayer for vocations, that our invocations to the Lord of the Masses may find acceptance under the aegis of the Virgin Mary" (John Paul II’s message for the XXV World Day for Vocations, October 16^th 1987).

Furthermore, personal prayer represents the natural environment for discovering and accepting vocations. We have met so many young people who generously answered the Lord’s voice that called upon them to give Him their whole lives, during silent prayer in a sanctuary, at the feet of the tabernacle, below the crucifix or at the feet of an image of the Madonna; in such places they were able to open their eyes to the realty of faith and free themselves from the bonds of the world.

2) The sacraments of repentance and the Eucharist take place in communion with the Lord, and their attendance is indispensable for maturing vocations. They complete the seed sowed by Baptism. Sanctuaries are privileged places for receiving and frequenting these sacraments; celebrations are often accompanied by intense spiritual experiences, during which one receives clearer indications as regards to the path to be followed, and greater strength deriving from divine grace for supporting the decisions of the will.

3) Preaching and catechesis, especially when accompanied by examples of the intense Christian life and sanctity of priests, are important moments for presenting to the young the Lord’s call to following Him closely. Preaching and catechesis play a very important role in sanctuaries. Pilgrimages are always accompanied by intense catechetic and preaching activities. A suitable explanation about God’s gift of priestly and consecrated vocations cannot be lacking.

4) Vocations arise and mature in generosity; practising charity allows the understanding and maturation of vocations. In sanctuaries charity is practiced in the service of evangelisation and catechesis, and in helping those in need, the ill, the elderly, children and the poor. Sanctuaries, especially Marian ones, are place of special and intense charity. Vocations appear more often among those called upon to cooperate more actively in charity to brothers in sanctuaries or during pilgrimages. On other occasions vocations are appreciated and perceived by the conscience when observing examples of charity and service practiced by priests and by those who are consecrated. One very interesting method that is reappearing in diocesan pastoral care for the young is the organisation of popular missions of evangelisation, led by priests and achieved by the young and by catechists; the central moment of these missions is the pilgrimage to a local sanctuary.

The World Days for the Young inaugurated by John Paulo II represent a school for vocational pastoral care for the Church of the Third Millennium. Wherever this has been possible, the Pope has chosen to concentrate celebrations for the World Day near a sanctuary, preferably a Marian one, because these are privileged places for prayer and evangelisation. The Lord’s call echoed loudly and abundantly among the young who had gathered to pray. They fervently received the sacraments of repentance and the Eucharist, they listened to the preaching and the catechesis, and practiced charity in many ways. The Pope has always requested that the program should include a sacrifice, also a material one, in favour of the poor and evangelisation. The Pope’s voice had not ceased to present to the young the beauty of a vocation to priesthood and a consecrated life, as well as the vocation for marriage. He has shown models of priests and consecrated people who have become saints.

We are all witnesses that many consecrated vocations have arisen among the thousands of young people generously providing their service for their brothers as animators, catechists, assistants and helpers during the World Days for the Young.