New, "Stricter" Priestly Formation Program Issued For U.S. Catholic Seminaries

A new Program of Priestly Formation has been issued for use in all U.S. Catholic seminaries. It is reportedly "stricter" and designed to address issues dealing with the "human" formation of seminarians. There will also be a greater emphasis on philosophy and theology, an emphasis on priestly celibacy, and guidelines that exclude men who have engaged in sexual misconduct with minors (if it was ever otherwise, I am baffled as to why) or who have same-sex attraction or had same-sex experiences.

All of these things are good, but unfortunately, it seems like too little, too late. Having two years of Theology is terrific if you are studying the right kind of Theology and have orthodox teachers. Weeding out candidates with homosexual tendencies is a wonderful idea, but why wasn't this done in the first place, and how can we be sure that these norms will be properly implemented?

Most importantly, what about cases where the fox is guarding the hen house? What if the very people in charge of implementing these guidelines (including bishops) are of dubious orthodoxy, homosexual, or both? Catholic seminaries throughout the country have been documented to have more than their fair share of agenda-driven, dissenting liberals and homosexuals. There are also a lot of well intentioned, well meaning, but poorly formed men in some formation programs; men with lots of degrees, but a poor understanding of sound, orthodox, Catholic Theology. There are also good men, who know the truth, but remain silent. They are afraid to make waves because they know they are outnumbered or that they will pay dearly for not towing the party line.

If you aren't aware of this, check out: Goodbye, Good Men: How Liberals Brought Corruption Into the Catholic Church, Amchurch Comes Out: The U.S. Bishops, Pedophile Scandals and the Homosexual Agenda, and The Rite of Sodomy.

In the past, many priests were poorly schooled in philosophy, theology, Sacred Scripture, traditional spirituality and the like, and instead trained as social workers with little sense of the supernatural. With such poor formation, the liberal ideas of society quickly invade and take root in the mind, which the often well-intentioned priest or seminarian re-interprets as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, rather than discussions of personal sin, eternal salvation or damnation, grace, original sin, etc., the priest is only able to talk about the standard social "sins" of the day: racism, sexism, "homophobia", pollution, etc.

True to the maxim that one cannot give what he does not have, these poorly trained priests may sincerely want to help their parishioners, but are ill equipped to do so. They deliver fluffy homilies devoid of content; offer appallingly bad advice in the confessional, particularly in the area of sexual morality; wonder, sometimes publicly, when the Church is going to give up Her medieval views and become more in touch with the needs of 21st century Catholics; spend countless hours watching television, going to movies and indulging in other entertainments without making an effort to grow in personal holiness, thus being little different than anyone else in society; and are reduced to little more than professional nice guys who have little or no impact on the lives of their parishioners.

Lacking a sense of purpose and mission, and never trained to maintain intense prayer lives, they can fall victim to a variety of personal sins and end up unhappy and disillusioned. While this is certainly not universally true among diocesan priests, for some are self-taught and provide excellent role models despite the corrupted system, it is a widespread problem among the priesthood.

Sadly, many of the people who decide who is admitted to ordination had the type of formation described above, and will therefore not be the best men to implement these guidelines.

Here is an article describing the guidelines: New, stricter Priestly Formation Program issued for U.S. Catholic seminaries

The entire document is available here: USCCB Home Page

Your thoughts?

Comments

[Georgia]

Thomistic, This is a little ray of hope that is way overdue. I think Pope Benedict should appoint the few 7 or 8 real Catholic Bishops that exist and have shown fortitude, to oversee every aspect of these seminaries. Everyone should be strictly screened. No wolves who hate the teachings of the Church should be the head and certainly not the formation teachers. Constant monitoring of strict adherence to doctrine and morals would chase out the weeds and strengthen the wheat. Lets nominate the panel of Bishops who could do this. We could call them the "Magnificent Seven"...Bishops with Backbone!!!!!

[TM Lutas]

Very simply, you fight for better formation just as you should be fighting for better everything else in the Catholic Church. If you're blessed to be near a seminary, try offering a little moral support to the orthodox Catholics working there. They might not feel so alone. If you hear of some sort of retaliation at a seminary, do not hesitate to speak out in defense of what is right.

Let us not be silent and we will soon find that things will improve.

[Some Day]

It truly is sad the situations of seminaries.
Talleran, Catholic bishop and minister to the Monarchy AND Napolean once said...
"I never lost Faith...
not even in the Seminary."

[Teophilus]

Unfortunately the universal crisis in the Church is not going to be sorted out in our lifetime. One just needs to check the history of heresies to know this. It is an authority and faith crisis in the first place. John XXIII and Paul VI commited the grave mistake of believing the Church was ready to open up to the world and strong enough in faith to stand its sinful seductions. That was the most tragic blunder the members of the Church commited in Her long history.

[Tim]

Maximus, you paint a rather bleak picture. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit is up to the task of seeing to the health of his Church. Let's also pray for a renewal in our seminaries.

[Rita]

Thomistic,
You forgot to include in the "isms", the ever-dreaded and all too prevalent egoism. It's the new mantra; SEXism! RACism! EGOism! We're told weekly that this is what is wrong with us. Who knew?

[Salve Stella Maris]

Many years ago, I left the seminary because I just couldn't stand the politics anymore. For the sake of charity, I will not name the seminary nor the diocese I studied for. At that time, homosexual activity was concealed, but happened with frequency, particularly among Hispanic seminarians, and was basically tolerated by the administration so long as it didn't garner any outside attention. Dissent was present in some coursework, albeit subtly inserted. Student liturgies were often subject to the liturgical whims of the celebrant, kneeling wasn't allowed during the consecration, and raucous guitar groups led much of the music.

That seminary is radically different today, according to friends who attend it. Classes are taught from Magisterial sources, the Oath of Fidelity is publically taken each year by the faculty, illicit sexual activity is grounds for immediate dismissal, and the Masses are much more orthodox with kneeling allowed, better music, and no deviations from the rubrics.

This seems to be the case for seminaries across the country in the last few years, and I welcome it. Our prayers are being answered. God bless Pope John Paul II for starting the process of cleaning up the seminaries and Pope Benedict XVI for making this work a priority!

[Kenjiro Shoda]

My cousin was in a religious Order seminary in L.A. in 1978. He left in 1979 after seeing so much dissent from Church teachings, permissive lifestyle, liturgical abuse and homosexual acivity that He could not in conscience stay 5 more years and be ordained. He was loosing His Faith.
This religious Order seminary is still in existance, but has less than 20 seminarians. They are still the same dissidents, and the Order is down to barely 100 old men in the Province. They have been plagued by scandal about homosexuality.
This particular Order, which is about 800 years old world wide, had before Vatican II 27,000 members. Today, they have declined to the point of barely 15,000. They have always ranked No. #2 in the size of male religious Orders in the Church, but are extremely aged in Europe and the USA where they probably will be all but extinct within 20 years.
The new strict instructions for priests for the USA issued by the US Bishops is like a band aid on a gaping wound in need of more radical repair than that.
All this would have not been necessary if we had never had Vatican II.

[trubeleevr]

There is no genuine reform unless there is a complete housecleaning first.
All existing seminary leaders should be fired immediately and replaced with carefully screened, orthodox individuals. It is a waste of time and effort to fill a barrel with fresh healthy apples when a rotten one still remains within.

[Hope]

To the 2 posters who had such demoralizing and testing experiences in the seminary.God bless you both.I can only imagine what a painful part of your faith journey this would have been.I wonder if the pain you felt was akin to Jesus knowing of judas' betrayal.
Thank God our courageous Benedict have begun to turn the situation around but he needs a sunami of prayer to sustain him because I have no doubt the devil is enraged at the dismantling of his kingdom.