Pbro. José de Jesús Ortega Montes promotes "esperanza vocacional" at assembly

Priest José de Jesús Ortega Montes urged participants at a provincial assembly in Durango to replace the term vocational crisis with vocational hope. Speaking during the first talk of the assembly held on September 18 and 19, Ortega Montes, the executive secretary for the Commission for Vocations and Ministries of the CEM, said that building a culture of vocation is the way to recover this hope.

Ortega Montes cautioned against clericalizing the topic of vocations. He noted a common tendency to view a culture of vocation solely as recruiting young people for houses of formation, promoting prayer for vocations, or forming parish vocational groups with a heavy focus on the priesthood.

The priest highlighted that while Mexico has 31 million people 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 violence affecting Mexican youth, questioning if the Church's lifestyle inspires them or if it has been negligent in responding to their realities. He noted these challenges are particularly severe in areas ranging from the coast of Mazatlán to the Comarca Lagunera semi-desert.