By Pierre Bélanger, SJ | Special collaboration

In a previous article, the director of the candidacy programme of the Jesuits in Vietnam, Fr Pham Duy Anh, introduced us to this unique project for accompanying young people, usually in their twenties, who are thinking of becoming Jesuits. It’s a process that takes several years. During the final year, the candidates are brought together in a pre-novitiate context in view of a final discernment on their entry into the Society. They live in a residence where the programme encourages this discernment, both for the candidates and for those in charge of Jesuit formation.

Anh gave a good description of the social and religious context that encourages a good number of young people to think about religious life in the Society of Jesus. He acknowledged that with its hundred or so candidates, the Province of Vietnam is blessed by the Lord in terms of vocations, but that it is also the fruit of serious commitment on the part of the Vietnamese Jesuits in terms of the quality of witnessing they offer. However, in Vietnam as elsewhere, nothing can be taken for granted. We asked the director of the candidacy to tell us about the challenges faced by the candidates... and the challenges that he and his assistants must also face to help young people make a good discernment. Here’s what he shared with us.

“The first step, for the candidate as well as for us, the moderators, is to clarify the deep motivations behind the desire to be a Jesuit. When they arrive, candidates express very simple motivations such as wanting to have a happy life, inner peace and the desire to serve God. They see this service from the outside, in works, in ‘doing’. We help them to discover the dimension of ‘being’, the choice to give themselves to follow Jesus through a life shaped by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In fact, to be honest, Jesus himself had to help his apostles to grasp the meaning of the Last Supper and the meaning of the Cross. It took them a long time to understand.

So, if our candidates arrive with enthusiasm and creativity, we have to help them to go deeper, to listen patiently to God’s call. It’s also a challenge to learn the specific language of religious life. Perhaps most of all, it’s a challenge to allow the inner freedom to grow within oneself, a freedom that will enable the religious to be sent, by someone else, on this or that mission in the world. This implies a maturing of poverty and obedience.

One of the challenges we face as formators is cultural. It’s linked to globalisation, which is also affecting Vietnam, and the young people of Vietnam in particular. The Internet, as well as Western music and fads, all colour the lives of the young people who come to us. But, as Asians, we have characteristics that allow us to overcome these temptations. A strong sense of family and community, for example. But it’s true that in a noisy world that promotes entertainment, our candidates can find it hard to experience the solitude necessary for religious life; they’re not particularly composed or inclined to pause! The challenge is to help them realise that in quietness they can touch God, feel God present, unite themselves to God. When they touch God, they see the potential for change in their lives.”

We weren’t going to let Duy Anh avoid a hot topic when it comes to religious vocation, namely sexuality. It’s a dimension of human life that needs to find a particular path for those who want to make the vow of chastity. And the question of homosexuality, which has been much discussed in connection with seminaries and priests, how does the candidacy programme deal with all this? Again, Father Anh.

“The issues of homosexuality and the sexual experiences of young people are sensitive subjects in Vietnam. It seems that many young non-Catholics accept homosexual behaviour and the practice of sexuality before marriage. Among Catholics, we can see that it’s different. But our candidates are certainly confronted with these issues. We follow the teachings of the Church and the standards of the Society. If a candidate has a homosexual orientation without practising homosexuality in his relationships, we can accept him. If this is not the case, we cannot. As for sexual liaisons, some of the candidates have had them before coming to us and these experiences have marked them; this is an opportunity for discernment about their ability to live the vows in the future.

When it comes to questions of poverty, they also need to make progress and to discern. Many of the candidates have had a professional life. We respect their past personal lives, before the novitiate, but when they are at the pre-novitiate stage, they have to live by the same standard of living as the other candidates. For those who have had more experience - or independence - before coming to us, obedience can also be difficult. Our programme is a project that integrates the desire to serve the Lord and the men and women of today, within the specific framework offered by the Society of Jesus.”

What would Father Duy Anh like to add to conclude this interview?

“My experience is that we can promote vocations to the religious life if we show the beauty of this choice in our way of being, even more than through our activities. That’s how we will touch the hearts of young people, young people with whom we become close. We must also support the family, because vocations flourish in good families. And we must continue to pray; Jesus himself taught us to do so.

Personally, I find joy and consolation in the fruits of the mission entrusted to me among the candidates. I humbly contribute, by doing what the Society asks of me, to help the candidates find God’s will for them and the best way to serve him.”

Thanks to Rogelio Nato, SJ, and Minh Khôí, for their contribution to the preparation of these articles.

See the photo gallery illustrating the life of the Vietnamese candidates.