Pope Francis Calls on Religious Not to be Discouraged by "lack of vocations or by aging"

Pope Francis with representatives of the Claretianum Institute of the Theology of the Consecrated Life at the Vatican, Nov. 7, 2022. Vatican Media

Pope Francis addressing members of the Claretianum Institute of the Theology of the Consecrated Life at the Vatican, Nov. 7, 2022. Vatican Media

While knowing the missionaries were “already facing several challenges peculiar to our time,” the pope encouraged the missionaries to embrace the “value of fidelity in following Jesus according to the spirit of the founders, to carefully care for community life, to live interculturality as a path of fraternity and mission, and to promote the encounter between different generations in consecrated life, in the Church and in society.”

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“Do not tire of going to the frontiers, even to the frontiers of thought; of opening paths, of accompanying, rooted in the Lord to be bold in mission,” Pope Francis said.

“The Gospel teaches that there is a poverty that humbles and kills and another poverty, that of Jesus, which liberates and makes happy. As consecrated people, you have received the immense gift of participating in Jesus’ poverty. Do not forget, either in your lives or in your work at the university, those who live the other poverty.”