AMERICA/URUGUAY - June is “Vocational Month,” to increase prayer for vocations needed by the Church in Uruguay

Montevideo (Agenzia Fides) – For the first time, the Church in Uruguay will celebrate Vocational Month in June, with the theme: “Baptism, the source of all vocations.” During the General Assembly held last November, in response to a proposal made by the Confederation of Religious in Uruguay (CONFRU) and supported by DEVYM, the Bishops decided to establish a “vocational month” each year in Uruguay, and thus, have chosen June.
It will be a month “to intensify prayer, on both a personal or communal level, for the vocations that are needed for the Church in Uruguay,” said Auxiliary Bishop Heriberto A. Bodeant of Salto, President of the Vocations and Ministry Department of the Bishops’ Conference of Uruguay, in a letter inviting the faithful to live this vocational month. It is also a month “in which every diocese, parish, Catholic educational institution, religious family, secular institute, and association of faithful can create a climate in which young people may open their hearts to Christ, who invites them to follow Him as missionary disciples,” and in which they are offered retreats, activities, and encounters of a vocational nature.
The theme chosen for this year is, “Baptism, source of all vocations,” as the objective is that “the indelible mark that Baptism left on each one of us be always present in our minds and hearts.” “What percentage of people from Uruguay are baptized?,” the Bishop asks. “Perhaps more than the 57% that declared themselves ‘Catholic’ in a recent poll. However, we know full well that of this 57% that say so, only a much smaller percentage actually ‘practice’: 13%, according to this same poll.” Thus, in this sense, the Bishop recalls that “evangelizing the baptized” is one of the most recent proposals from the Latin American Bishops’ Conference in Aparecida. Moreover, “it is in discovering the Baptismal vocation that a person is able to discover the other vocations of the Church. The baptized person that reaches a true Christian initiation, becoming Jesus’ disciple and being united in His saving mission, begins to learn how to give his life in the Church and in society day by day, begins acquiring an awareness of his missionary vocation, and starts growing in charity. It is on this path that vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life arise.”
He concludes his invitation with an invocation to the “Lord of the harvest,” that He may send laborers, as well as an act of confidence in Mary , the “ ‘Virgen de los Treinta y Tres Orientales,’ mother of our people, of our petitions.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 2/6/2008)