Time of trust

The EVS (European Vocations Service) ended its congress in Horn (Austria) on 3 July. Attended by all the national delegates of the European Vocational Centres, the congress had chosen as its theme “Vocation is the very heart of the new evangelization”. Giovanna Pasqualin Traversa, on behalf of SIR Europe, asked Father Ferenc Janka, assistant general secretary of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe), to sum up the aims and results of the congress. Not just in Europe: in almost all countries of the world vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life are declining…“One speaker at the congress put the emphasis on the importance of changing our approach to the way we consider this question. If we continue to speak of the crisis of the Church, the drop in the number of ‘practising Catholics’ and the decline in vocations, sadness and depression will prevail instead of initiative, commitment and witness. We need to free ourselves of sterile nostalgia and foster instead the real strengths of the Church as she is”.What’s the relation between vocation and new evangelization?“The former is the heart of the latter. A great intuition of Vatican Council II is God’s personal call to each and every one of us and the entrusting to each of us of a specific vocation. It is essential that the vocational culture should penetrate the pastoral ministry for youth, for families, and that vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life should be fostered”.What’s the situation that emerged from the national experiences presented? “The Austrian delegation described three initiatives in which it was possible to speak to youth about vocation, involving them in a wider programme within which the vocational question was initially posed in an indirect way. In a second stage, what emerged, instead, is the decisive importance for the life of young people of a response to the question. According to the Polish rapporteur, an authentically Christian life and the personal qualities of the person responsible for vocations are more important than any means or technique of communication. The contribution of the French delegation made us understand, instead, how important it is to clarify first and foremost what we truly wish to achieve, what is our ‘big dream’. We then need to set out our priorities, choose our goal, and work with a method tailored to those we wish to address, what we wish to say to them, and how, when and where we should say it”. More generally, how does secularized Europe, a Europe riven by a humanitarian, cultural and economic crisis, relate to the phenomenon of vocations/evangelization?“Contemporary Europe seems to me similar to an invalid who feels painful symptoms that makes him suffer, but who has no wish to go to the doctor for a diagnosis and even less willingness to subject himself to a therapy. There’s a close link between the disease of concepts and forms of conduct. A freedom without responsibility, the imperative of ‘me’ without ‘us’, science without faith, intellect without heart, and a world without God, are necessarily ‘sick’. The difficulty of vocations and evangelization consists of the fact that, like every true therapy, it requires consciousness of the disease, faith in the doctor and real determination to pursue the therapeutic prescriptions. So the achievement of ‘well being’ requires a serious and constant effort on the part of the patient. Christ and the saints enable us to see this salutary, full and wonderful humanity. It is the infinite beauty of God that attracts us to Him and enables us to pursue the arduous process of conversion and healing”. So what are the main challenges in our continent? It is a question of the languages and methods we use, or is it question, instead, of revitalizing the contents of our faith? “‘Only love is credible’, said Monsignor Fisichella (in the first report), citing von Balthasar. Love is primarily an experience of communion. A communion that has three dimensions: God, others, and me myself. The most mistaken conviction of man today and man of all ages is that only a very few other people are necessary for his self-realization and that he no longer has any need for God. Quite the contrary: if we don’t learn continually what love means from God, we lose our very ability to show genuine love for others and, succumbing to the various forms of egoism, we do harm to ourselves and to others”. In the vocational field, is Internet a risk or an opportunity?“The world wide web is a powerful medium. As such it has an enormous potential for good and for evil. Everything depends on how, and for what purpose, we use this gigantic friend or enemy of our time. So our responsibility, and that of those who must teach the young the conscious and responsible use of the Internet, is great. I hope that, despite all its risks, this new method of communication may promote the integral development of the human family and represent a powerful means of the new evangelization”.What are the prospects and future guidelines of work of the EVS?“This year marks the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Pontifical Mission for Vocations to the Priesthood (POVS). In view of the conference being planned in Rome (3-5 November) to mark the anniversary, the Holy Father recently urged the vocational ministry to insist with more determination on the profile of the ministerial priesthood. That’s why the presidency of the CCEE intends to specify its service for vocations in a special Commission for vocations to the priesthood”.