It is, he says, a distraction from the church's primary vocation to live the dynamic joy and freedom of the gospel in a way that makes it attractive to others.
The function of canon law in liturgy, preaching, and social activities involves the development and maintenance of those institutions that are considered to be most serviceable for the personal life and faith of members of the church and for their vocation in the world.
When the church refuses this essential vocation, it is as though the universe conspires against her.
Its use in relation to work began in early Christianity--certain people were called to a life in the church; that was their vocation.
Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil was a labor of love and I hope that it likewise does well, helping to change the Church and the pastoral vocation from the inside-out.
The Catholic church's National Office for Vocations (NOV) says the age range of people showing an interest in entering the priesthood or becoming part of a religious community is getting younger.
His papacy faced several challenges, including a decline in vocations and church attendance, divisive debates concerning the direction of the church, and the effects of the scandal beginning in the late 1990s surrounding the church's handling of numerous cases of sexual abuse by priests.
The reforming zeal of the Second Vatican Council had run into the sand; churches were emptying, vocations falling, and Paul VI's encyclical condemning birth control, "Humanae Vitae", had driven millions of devout western Catholics to furtive disobedience.
"They see this as their vocation in the church," Sister Piil said.
The peculiar vocation of the church in such a time is to create an opportunity for gathering, for rebuilding of the community that's been literally shattered by the bombs.
