Letters

Lack of vocations - or lack of response?

Am I alone in my concern about the oft used phrase "lack of vocations?"

For example, in The Tablet of 7 June the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Leo Cushley, is quoted as saying that his archdiocese faces the amalgamation of parishes, due to falling numbers of vocations.

I wonder, does the Archbishop really believe that God is failing to call men into ministry? If this is really the case then God is indeed saying something very profound to his Church.

Is it not rather that fewer men are answering God's call? The effect is the same perhaps, but the response should be very different.

Canon Andrew Sage, Vicar of S. Stephen on the Cliffs, Blackpool