 Letter from Bishop Pedro Pablo Elizondo, L.C.
to all priests, religious and faithful laymen and women
of the Prelature of Cancun-Chetumal, April 22, 2007
Pray and Work for Priestly Vocations
Trust in the Power of Prayer
“Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will send out workers to gather in his harvest. ”Dear brothers and sisters, vocations are obtained with prayer, and the force of the prayer is found in repetition. Therefore, I invite you not to tire in asking Our Lord again and again to give us abundant priestly vocations. I invite you to prolong your prayer time, above all before Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. With pleasure I have seen how Eucharistic devotion has been growing in parishes.
Collaborate with the Construction of the Minor Seminary
We have adapted the Centro Cultural Católico “Juan Pablo Segundo” (John Paul II Catholic Cultural Center) for a minor seminary in Chetumal. However, the dormitory installation was insufficient for the number of minor seminarians that entered last year. Therefore, we have undertaken the expansion of the seminary with the building of dormitories for 120 minor seminarians. Thanks be to God, we have found generous people who have quickly and happily offered their economic help and we hope to receive the seminarians entering this school year. Now it is our turn to continue to work together and fill our minor seminary with good vocations.
Cultivate the Families
This pastoral job also includes raising awareness within families, which are often indifferent or even opposed to the idea of a priestly vocation. “Families should generously embrace the gift of life and bring up their children to be open to doing God's will. In a word, they must have the courage to set before young people the radical decision to follow Christ, showing them how deeply rewarding it is.” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 25)
“My heart broke with helplessness”
On Holy Thursday this year it fell to me to celebrate the day of the Priesthood and the Eucharist in the community de Zaragoza in the city of Lázaro Cárdenas. Every one was prepared for a grand celebration of the Lord’s Supper in the town plaza, but due to the intense rain we had to take refuge in the small church. It was a celebration, in every way, very moving and fervent. It gave me joy to bless the children and experience the great fervor of the whole town. However, before leaving a group of people were waiting for me with a letter and five pages of signatures asking for the permanent presence of a priest or an evangelizador de tiempo completo. My heart broke with sadness and helplessness.
The Responsibility is Everyone’s
As you well know, the condition of our particular church is a prelature, not a diocese. We have not yet arrived to the maturity of ecclesial circumscription that would enable us to constitute ourselves as a diocese. We find ourselves in a stage of foundation and gestation. It is our turn to be the first in this particular church. It is our turn to be the pioneers, the founders, those who place the foundation for a future perfectly structured and organized church. This interim period is a grace from God and also a call to responsibility. Our responsibility as members of this Church grows and multiplies, because we are the first, the pioneers and cofounders of this dear church of Cancun Chetumal. And, as I have said, it is a responsibility that each and everyone of us concerns ourselves with. If every priest, if every religious, if every committed layman makes vocational growth his own responsibility and puts in place the concrete methods that will be necessary, soon we will see a beautiful blossoming, a springtime of priestly vocations, in our prelature.
“My first priority as bishop is to promote the vocation search.”
After having prayed before God and having dialogued with all the priests of our prelature, we have arrived at the conclusion that our first priority is priestly vocations. This is why my first priority as bishop is the promotion of all the possible means to the search for good and numerous vocations to the priesthood. Therefore, I want to ask the cooperation and support of all the priests, religious and committed laymen in fulfilling such a transcendent and important task. In this I want to commit myself to not tire in supplicating the Father, Master of the harvest that he sends workers for his harvest. I promise what I consider most valuable to gaining the desired fruit: my constant and intense prayers for vocations. I would like to ask all of the vocational promoters, priests and committed laymen in the pastoral vocation, the names of the teenagers and youth who have contacted you with the view of a possible vocation. This will enable me to have them in some manner present in my prayer and in my Eucharist. Various intercessory prayer groups have asked me for the most urgent intentions of our prelature. We do not have a more urgent need than this.
We are all Responsible for Vocations
As I have said, the responsibility of vocations and the responsibility to our seminary is not only the bishop’s, nor only that of the priests that work in the prelature. Our responsibility is to fill our seminary with good and abundant vocations. It is each and every faithful’s responsibility; it belongs to those that love Christ, those that love the Virgin of Guadalupe, and those that love their Catholic faith. Anyone who truly loves the Church can not be inactive before the imperative necessity of promoting vocations.
Continue Praying
Thousands of faithful laymen pray every Sunday and daily the vocations prayer at the end of each Eucharistic Celebration. However, given that we only have 20 major seminarians and 35 minor ones, we still need to do what we can with more intensity and insistence. We need to pray more. Therefore, I invite all the faithful of the prelature to a prayer campaign beginning this seminary week until the end of the school year. This will be in order to achieve raising the number entering the seminary, both the major seminarians and the minor seminarians.
Catholic World Mission supports the ministry of Bishop Pedro Pablo Elizondo, LC, in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and other missionaries worldwide. Please pray for our success and generously support our life-changing and soul-satisfying work for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Catholic World Mission, 33 Rossotto Drive, Hamden, CT 06514, 800-961-8153.
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