He made his remarks in Colombia:
On Saturday, Pope Francis told Colombia’s priests and religious that vocations come from a variety of different backgrounds and flourish with joyful service, but die as soon as they become infected by greed or selfish interests.
“We are a people chosen for the truth, and our call has to be in truth,” the Pope said Sept. 9. “There can be no place for deceit, hypocrisy or small-mindedness if we are branches of this vine, if our vocation is grafted onto Jesus.”
Every consecrated person must be careful to ensure that they bear fruit, he said, explaining that from the start, those who accompany the vocational process must “encourage a right intention, a genuine desire to be configured to Jesus.”
“When these processes are not nourished by this true sap that is the Spirit of Jesus, then we experience dryness and God learns with sadness that these branches are already dead,” he said.
