French vocation collaboration

On the rooftop of the offices of the French bishops' conference in Paris are Xavière Sister Nathalie Becquart; Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C.; Patrice Tuohy; and Dom Jean-Pierre Longeat, O.S.B.

NRVC and VISION forged closer ties with French efforts to promote vocations during a meeting in Paris on April 16.

NRVC Executive Director Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C. and VISION Executive Editor Patrice Tuohy met in Paris with Xavière Sister Nathalie Becquart, director of the Office for Youth Evangelization and Vocations for the Conférence des Évêques de France (the French Bishops' Conference), and Dom Jean-Pierre Longeat, O.S.B., president of CORREF, the French Conference for Major Superiors.

"The warm welcome NRVC and VISION received led to a very fruitful discussion on ways our organizations can collaborate," said Patrice Tuohy.  

A main impetus for the meeting is that VISION Vocation Network receives visits from several thousand French speakers each year, at least 1,500 from discerners based in France. Plans that stemmed from the meeting include:

• A news feed from the French conference's vocations website will be added to VISION's French language homepage. Several trial community listings from French communities may also be added to the homepage.
• NRVC will share survey questions from its 2009 Study on Recent Vocations as the French prepare their own vocation study.
• In addition there was a commitment to explore collaborative efforts to promote vocations during the 2015 Year of Consecrated Life.