2014-07-02 15:34:00

European Bishops gather in Warsaw to discuss vocations


(Vatican Radio) Bishops from across Europe will be gathering in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday for a four-day meeting to discuss the vocations situation on the continent. The Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) is hosting the gathering, which has the theme “Christ-centered education in the service of vocations today.”

“Whichever vocation you speak about it is always focused on the relationship with Christ,” said Fr. Michel Remery, Secretary for the CCEE Commission for Social Communications.

Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with Fr. Michel Remery

He told Vatican Radio the growing secularization of European society means those following vocations are only doing so to follow Christ.

“Maybe in the past - in certain situations  - people were carried by the ecclesiastical society, by the community, by the status maybe,” said Fr. Remery. “These elements have gone , and I think that is a positive thing in the sense that the only reason for a vocation is always Christ.”

The meeting is taking place in Poland, the birthplace of St. John Paul II, and Fr. Remery said the influence of the new saint is still strong in his homeland, but the personal memory of him is fading in other areas.

“A number of them have still lived through the years of John Paul II, but there is also another generation, which has had other Popes influence them,” he said.

He also pointed to Pope Francis as a new influence on the Church, although it is too early to tell what effect he will have on vocations.

“I think what Pope Francis has been saying and doing has very much contributed to a positive attitude towards that which the Church is saying and that what the Church is teaching,” Fr. Remery explained.

“I think people are more open to listen.  I don’t know yet whether they are more open to respond to what the Pope is asking, because that of course remains something people have to do in their hearts, and that will have to be proven in the coming years,“  he continued. “But it is very true that you see a change in the way in which people are living their faith and making their choices, simply because they feel supported by the Pope and by the entire Church.”








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