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As the number of vocations to religious life is dropping, sometimes sharply, Pope Francis urges communities to be realistic, trust in God and educate laypeople to carry on their work and spirituality.
In a meeting March 17 with members of the Augustinian Recollects, an order founded in 1588, the pope acknowledged that 25 years ago, they had more than 1,200 members belonging to eight provinces.
Today the order has 955 members in only four provinces.
A similar phenomenon is occurring in most Catholic religious orders, the pope said, adding, “This is a reality that we cannot ignore.”
“There are thousands of explanations,” he said, including declining birthrates in some traditionally Catholic countries, confusion on the part of young people or a reluctance to make a lifelong commitment. Hence the need to look further afield to other cultures and countries for vocations.
The Holy Father admitted that this worries him, but he does not want to play the prophet.
What is needed is to prepare for the future where they could be reduced to just 2 provinces. Or even face a situation where “there will be no more Augustinian Recollects”.
“I trust in the Lord,” he said. “But, I also have to say these things: Let us prepare ourselves for what is going to happen. Let us give our charism, our gift, to those who can carry it forward.”
We have to pray for vocations and for ourselves that “the Lord also prepare us to give our gift, when we are fewer, to those who can collaborate with us”.
“The Lord is good; he will give us the necessary consolation to make these decisions.”
He urged the Augustinian Recollects to ask the Lord for the grace of how to make these decisions. But not as sociologists or psychologists, rather as what the Lord would want.
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