Other Strange Vocations: Grace in the Witness of the Saints

Mark Bradford argues that the Church should expand opportunities for men and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities to serve in consecrated life. While he previously used the term "strange vocations" to support the eligibility of men with autism for ordination, he notes that religious sisters and brothers offer another path for service that currently lacks sufficient possibilities for these individuals.

Bradford cites a specific case of a young woman seeking to join a Carmelite community for a life of prayer but failing to find a community willing to consider her. He traces the phrase "strange vocations" to St. Augustine’s treatise, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Infants, where the saint used the term to discuss theological arguments regarding inherited sin and the nature of the soul.