Vocation promoters and formators were brought face-to-face with progress this week after they underwent instruction that aimed to help them deal with modern day religious vocation candidates more effectively.

Around 35 priests, brothers and nuns attended the four-day program run by two senior Jesuit priests and organized by the Bangladesh Conference of the Religious in Savar sub-district, 24 kilometers northwest of Dhaka.

The instructors said the seminar, which ended today, aimed at bringing vocation promoters and formators up-to-date and in tune with the times in order to work out strategies in dealing with people coming from a “different world,” a digital world.

“Ultra-modernism and globalization are two of the main factors behind a worldwide religious vocation decline,” said one of the trainers, Father Aelred Gomes.

“This country is no exception and the participants here were able to discuss this challenge.”

One major issue shaping people today is society’s views on sexuality, he said.

Here, formators need to be less strict and see friendships between boys and girls before and after entering religious formation life as a natural thing, he added.

For example, “we Jesuits accept candidates after the 12th grade because we want them to know more about sexuality before joining a religious formation life,” Fr Gomes said.

“I think the time has come to let all candidates experience real life so they will hopefully make fewer mistakes after becoming clergymen or religious.”

Society of Jesus superior in Bangladesh, Fr Charles Pollet, agreed.

“In our day friendships between boys and girls didn’t develop as easily as they do today, while technology and modern communication is making a difference. Vocation promoters and formators need to look upon all this more positively,” said the priest.

A culture of openness is a must among formators and must be transmitted to candidates to help them successfully attain their aims and objectives in religious life, he added.

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