Esperanza Vocacional

Father José de Jesús Ortega Montes urged the Church to replace the term vocational crisis with vocational hope during a provincial assembly held in Durango on September 18 and 19. Speaking as the executive secretary for the Commission for Vocations and Ministries of the CEM, Ortega Montes said the Church must develop a vocational culture rather than focusing solely on recruiting young people for houses of formation or prayer groups.

Ortega Montes argued that current vocational efforts often become too clericalized by focusing primarily on the priesthood. He noted that while there are 31 million people in Mexico between the ages of 15 and 29, the Church often fails to meet the needs of this demographic. He suggested that the Church may be failing to address the realities of young people living in environments marked by violence, which he noted is a particular challenge in areas ranging from the coast of Mazatlán to the semidesert of the Comarca Lagunera.