Pope Francis encouraged participants in a meeting of Spanish religious to avoid “electoral campaigning” or “advertising campaigns”, according to Vatican News.
His warning came in a video sent to the event in Madrid, organized by National Theological Institute for Religious Life. The meeting began April 5, 2018, and runs through the 8th, with the focus on youth discerning the religious life.
“God’s call does not work through marketing models,” the Pope said in the video.
The Holy Father noted that the meeting was spurred by a lack of vocations in Spain and that he feared young people “are losing sight of their roots.” But he said the Church must “avoid proselytizing.”
“We cannot limit ourselves to complaining…“ regrets for past glories, when the Lord tells us to look ahead and see what we have to do,” Pope Francis explained.
The Pope stressed in the video the need to “re-establish inter-generational dialogue…listen to the concerns of the young and the old, he says, while praying and witnessing, leaving the number of vocations in the hands of the Lord.”
