What am I called to do inside the Church?

First, a few promises

• We won't turn holy orders, marriage, consecrated life, and the single life into a ranking table for people.
• We won't invoke “the will of God” to force anyone into a career, a marriage, ordination, or religious life.
• We won't reduce the lay faithful to people who pray, pay, and do as they are told.
• We won't let a charism or an office become a license to control another person's conscience, body, or property.
• We won't appeal to the communion of the Church to demand that anyone stay where there is abuse or crime.

Today in one line Everyone who is baptized is called, as one People of God, to holiness and to mission, and with different vocations, charisms, and ministries we build up the one Body of Christ together.

How to ask the questions when you talk about church life and vocation

1. Tell the common vocation and the particular roads apart. Hold together the call of everyone to holiness and mission and the proper call of marriage, holy orders, and consecrated life.
2. Tell dignity and role apart. Don't turn the fact that roles differ into people standing higher or lower.
3. Tell feeling and discernment apart. Look at reality as well as at prayer — gifts and limits, good advice, and the Church's own procedures.
4. Tell charism and office apart. However good the talent, check the community's need, the preparation, the appointment, and the accountability.
5. Keep communion and safety together. Belonging to the Church is never a reason to make anyone put up with abuse or with an unexplained demand for money.

A 30-second answer “Everyone who is baptized is the People of God with the same dignity, sharing in the common priesthood, in holiness, and in mission. Vocation isn't a word only for priests and sisters — it's the call to love God and neighbor in marriage and in consecrated life, in ordinary days and in all kinds of service. Charisms and rights are used responsibly for the common good, and no vocation is ever turned into something forced or ranked.”

A note for parents and catechists

• Don't settle a child's future in God's name by saying “you have to become a priest or a sister” or “you have to marry and give me grandchildren”.
• When you introduce ordained or consecrated life, don't exaggerate the sacrifice or dress it up as a special class; speak about the joy, the responsibility, and the freedom of each road, marriage and the single life included.
• Let them know that discerning a vocation takes enough time, real experience, formal formation, and a responsible look at psychological and physical health.
• Don't read commanding voices, severe anxiety, lost sleep, or the risk of self-harm as a ‘special vocation’ and nothing else; arrange safety and professional help at once.
• When you hand a child a job to do, weigh their consent, age, safety, schooling, and rest, and don't load excessive responsibility or secrets on them in the name of recognizing a charism.
• Handle the collection and parish dues under the responsible judgment of parents; don't compare devotion by amounts or make a family's finances public.
• Read the rights and duties in church law together, and show them the actual channels a question, a suggestion, or a report travels through.

Read more in the official sources

• Lumen Gentium 7–17 — the Body of Christ, the People of God, the common priesthood
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 781–810 — the People of God, the Body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit and the charisms
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 871–945 — the clergy, the lay faithful, the consecrated life
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 1265–1271 — the grace of baptism and the unity of the Church
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 1546–1553 — the common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 1601–1666 — the vocation, consent, grace, and fruits of the sacrament of marriage
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2012–2016 — the call of every Christian to holiness
• Catechism of the Catholic Church 2348–2350 — chastity according to the state of life
• Code of Canon Law 204–207 — the People of God formed by baptism, and the states of life in the Church
• Code of Canon Law 208–231 — the duties and rights of all the faithful and of the lay faithful
• Code of Canon Law 1254–1289 — the purpose, offering, administration, and reporting of church goods
• Pope Francis, Christus Vivit 248–298 — the vocation and the discernment of young people

These pages are a draft catechetical aid for starting a conversation with children and teens. If a career, a marriage, physical contact, secrecy, or money is being forced on you in the name of a vocation or of service, or if you feel unsafe, don't obey on your own — ask for help from a guardian you trust, from those responsible in the Church, and from the proper authorities.