If you do, maybe you should read the below Zenit article. According to the study it references, 71% found they had no friends with the desire to lead a life consecrated to service, and many of them felt they didn't have sufficient support in their path. The time for supporting vocations "from afar" is over, folks. These folks need active and positive support, and it also needs to come from those they consider their peers.
Praying for "someone else's son" to become a priest just isn't going to cut it, if you catch my meaning. I know that's a hard thing for those who are very concerned about having grand children, but God is less than impressed with people who knowingly convince people to stray from the path He has laid out for them. Just think of the sheer joy of receiving absolution at the hands of your own child, as he becomes a channel for Christ's great mercy. Just...think about it.
Survey Says Budding Vocations Need Support
One in 10 Youths Feel Call; Forget it Within Months
ROME, JULY 20, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Lack of support seems to be one of the main reasons why young people do not answer the call to consecrated life.
On Tuesday, the Italian newspaper Avvenire published an article entitled "Young People and Vocations," based on a survey, conducted by the Italian institute Eurisko, of one thousand young people between 16 to 29 years of age.
The study showed that 10 youths out of 100 feel at some point a call to the priesthood or religious life (male and female), but the majority abandon the idea after a few months.
Among the reasons for so many failed vocations is that 71% of young people said they had no friends who had the desire to consecrate themselves to the Lord.
Twenty-nine percent felt called after a personal experience, such as a visit to a monastery, a pilgrimage or a spiritual retreat.
Avvenire lamented that the data reflected the fact that abandonment of the call was followed above all by "the abandonment suffered by young people."
Another reason for failed vocations is that young people feel they must give up too many things, for example, marriage, to which is added the fear of loneliness.
The Italian newspaper highlighted young people's need for someone to support them, as a recent study of the survey revealed that 70% of the young people interviewed could not mention a man or a woman who represented a point of intellectual reference.
Thus, the newspaper concluded, "There is a crisis of vocations also because there is a crisis of credible guides."
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