Case XXXIII: Vocation

Case.—Of the many serious duties of the confessor, that of deciding vocations is an extremely grave and important one. A young friend of mine is desirous of entering a religious community. He has consulted his confessor who has endeavored to dissuade him from doing so, persuading him on the other hand to enter the Seminary and there study for the secular priesthood. He has used the usual arguments and gone so far as to urge the aspirant’s parents to use all their influence to this end. My friend is very distressed and feels inclined to yield on this point.

Question.—Does he owe obedience to his confessor in this matter?

Solution.—Neither parents nor confessor have any authority to interfere with the known Will of God, once that Will has been duly manifested. If a confessor endeavors to deter a candidate from following the higher life, merely because of his own peculiar ideas on the subject, or for any other unworthy motive, he is gravely sinning. He is interfering with the work of the Holy Ghost and using unjustly his influence to put the young man in a false and dangerous position in life. By virtue of his office as director in the confessional, he is bound to give unprejudiced advice, and he sins against justice as well as against charity by interjecting himself and his opinions into so sacred a matter at so sacred a time. Parents are likewise sinning when they throw unnecessary obstacles in the way of a vocation, or for worldly reasons turn a child from the path marked out by almighty God through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In this case the child must obey God, not man, even though the man in question be father or mother. But it may be that the confessor is moved by a very worthy motive and not by any unworthy design. Perhaps after due consideration and much prayer for guidance, he has arrived at the conclusion that the young man has no vocation for the religious life but for the secular clergy. In such a case he is fully justified in assuming the position he has taken in urging the young aspirant to give up all idea of a religious vocation. This is no trifling matter. It is as important to put the young man in the Seminary when he is not called to the religious life as it is to put him in the novitiate when he is not called to the ranks of the secular clergy or the world. Where then the motive is proper and the judgment unbiassed, the action of the confessor is indeed praiseworthy. Let the young aspirant be obedient and God will not permit him to go wrong.