About MPD

By virtue of Baptism, every Christian is called to participate in the saving work of Christ. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches,

"The Christian faithful are those who, inasmuch as they have been incorporated in Christ through Baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ's priestly, prophetic, and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition proper to each one" (no. 871).

And while all called to share in Christ's mission as priest, prophet and king, some are singled out to serve in a deeper way by means of the ordained priesthood or the vowed religious life. Unfortunately in the past forty years or so, thousands of potential vocations to the priesthood and/or religious life are simply not identified and called forth. The MPD Self-Assessment Survey is a comprehensive spiritual evaluation tool that helps to satisfy the first step in the vocation process: identification.

Established in 1974, the Institute on Religious Life (IRL) is a non-profit organization that aims to "promote and support the consecrated life, particularly vowed religious life, as a gift to the entire Church and an evangelical witness to the world." Responding to Pope John Paul II's constant call to promote vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, the IRL makes the MPD Self-Assessment Survey available as a tool to encourage those discerning God's call in their life.

The MPD Self-Assessment Survey is designed to "plant the seeds" of spiritual enlightenment for the future harvest of potential vocations and lay leadership within the Church. It can be used by vocation directors and youth ministers of dioceses and religious communities to help identify candidates who have an interest in and aptitude for the priesthood, sisterhood, brotherhood or lay ministry.