Vocations begin at home, and so does the crisis, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said on Friday.

Speaking on video from Rome for an international gathering of vocation promoters in Thailand, he stressed that “vocation crisis is often rooted in the missionary crisis… beginning in the homes.”

“When the parents do not exercise their mission of transmitting the faith of leading their children to Jesus, we will have a vocational crisis,” Tagle said.

The Filipino cardinal, who is the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, urged parents to lead their children to Jesus and to model a life worth following.

“Please, let us not forget Jesus as the most important destination so that our joy may be complete,” he said.

About 450 participants from across the world are currently gathered in Chiang Mai for the 80th Serra International Convention, which started on Monday and will end on Sunday.

The Vatican official further pointed out that a vocation remains alive “when it goes out and searches other people to be led to Jesus.”

“A vocation that does not seek other people to be led to Jesus is a vocation that will dry up, will wither away,” Tagle said.

“If those people who say they have a vocation (but) do not seek out other people to lead to Jesus, we will have a vocational crisis,” he added. “It is always connected to mission.”

Serra International is the only lay organization aggregated to the Pontifical Work for Vocations to the Priesthood within the Congregation for the Clergy.

Since 1935, when Serra began in the United States, more than 1,100 Serra clubs have been chartered in 46 countries. Today, Serra’s global lay vocation apostolate is strengthened by over 20,000 members.