VOCATION ACCOMPANIMENT AS A HEALING JOURNEY: THE ROLE OF VOCATION PROMOTERS IN ACCOMPANYING WOUNDED CANDIDATES
Abstract
This study examines vocation accompaniment as a healing journey for emotionally and spiritually wounded candidates discerning religious life and priesthood, with the purpose of clarifying how accompaniment can foster authentic discernment and mature formation. Many contemporary candidates enter formation bearing trauma, family breakdown, and socio-cultural pressures that hinder emotional regulation, relational maturity, trust, autonomy, and spiritual integration, often leading to distorted motivations and fragile vocational decisions. Grounded in attachment theory, Erikson’s psychosocial development theory, and contemporary vocational formation theory, the article adopts a qualitative, conceptual, and interdisciplinary approach that integrates theological reflection, psychological scholarship, and pastoral practice. The study draws on documented pastoral experience, empirical psychological literature, and Church formation texts to analyze patterns of woundedness, including conscious and subconscious dynamics, and their effects on vocational discernment. Findings indicate that unresolved attachment wounds and psychosocial disruptions significantly shape candidates’ relational behavior, God-image, freedom, and capacity for community life, while secure and intentional accompaniment can function as a corrective relational experience that promotes healing, integration, and vocational clarity. The study concludes that vocation accompaniment is not merely evaluative but inherently pastoral and therapeutic, requiring emotionally secure relationships, cultural awareness, psychological sensitivity, and spiritual depth. It recommends that vocation ministry prioritize human formation, integrate psychological support with spiritual direction, apply clear threshold criteria for admission, and employ triangulation in discernment to ensure fair, whole-person decisions. These measures strengthen vocational authenticity, protect candidates and communities, and enhance sustainable formation within African and global Church contexts.
Keywords: Vocation, Accompaniment, Healing Journey, Vocation Promoters, Wounded Candidates
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