.jpg)
II. The Setting of Priestly Formation
The Major Seminary - A Formation Community
60. The need for the major seminary - and by analogy for the
religious house - for the formation of candidates for priesthood, was affirmed
with authority by the Second Vatican Council (188) and has been reaffirmed by
the synod as follows: "The institution of the major seminary, as the best
place for formation, is to be certainly reaffirmed as the normal place, in the
material sense as well, for a community and hierarchical life, indeed as the
proper home for the formation of candidates for the priesthood, with superiors
who are truly dedicated to this service. This institution has produced many
good results down the ages and continues to do so all over the
world."(189) The seminary can be seen as a place and a period in life. But
it is above all an educational community in progress: It is a community
established by the bishop to offer to those called by the Lord to serve as
apostles the possibility of re - living the experience of formation which our
Lord provided for the Twelve.
In fact, the Gospels present a prolonged and
intimate sharing of life with Jesus as a necessary premise for the apostolic
ministry. Such an experience demands of the Twelve the practice of detachment
in a particularly clear and specific fashion, a detachment that in some way is
demanded of all the disciples, a detachment from their roots, from their usual
work, from their nearest and dearest (cf. Mk. 1:16-20; 10:28; Lk. 9:23, 57-62;
14:25-27). On several occasions we have referred to the Marcan tradition which
stresses the deep link that unites the apostles to Christ and to one another:
Before being sent out to preach and to heal, they are called "to be with
him" (Mk. 3:14 ).
In its deepest identity the seminary is called to be, in its
own way, a continuation in the Church of the apostolic community gathered about
Jesus, listening to his word, proceeding toward the Easter experience, awaiting
the gift of the Spirit for the mission. Such an identity constitutes the
normative ideal which stimulates the seminary in the many diverse forms and
varied aspects which it assumes historically as a human institution, to find a
concrete realization, faithful to the Gospel values from which it takes its
inspiration and able to respond to the situations and needs of the times.
The seminary is, in itself, an original experience of the
Church's life. In it the bishop is present through the ministry of the rector
and the service of co - responsibility and communion fostered by him with the
other teachers, for the sake of the pastoral and apostolic growth of the
students. The various members of the seminary community, gathered by the Spirit
into a single brotherhood, cooperate, each according to his own gift in the
growth of all in faith and charity so that they may prepare suitably for the
priesthood and so prolong in the Church and in history the saving presence of
Jesus Christ, the good shepherd.
The human point of view, the major seminary should strive to
become "a community built on deep friendship and charity so that it can be
considered a true family living in joy."(190) As a Christian institution,
the seminary should become - as the synod fathers continue - an "ecclesial
community," a "community of the disciples of the Lord in which the
one same liturgy (which imbues life with a spirit of prayer) is celebrated; a
community molded daily in the reading and meditation of the word of God and
with the sacrament of the Eucharist, and in the practice of fraternal charity
and justice; a community in which, as its life and the life each of its members
progresses, there shine forth the Spirit of Christ and love for the
Church."(191) This ecclesial aspect of the seminary is confirmed and
concretized by the fathers when they add: "As an ecclesial community, be
it diocesan or interdiocesan, or even religious, the seminary should nourish
the meaning of communion between the candidates and their bishop and
presbyterate, in such a way that they share in their hopes and anxieties and
learn to extend this openness to the needs of the universal Church."(192)
It is essential for the formation of candidates for the
priesthood and the pastoral ministry, which by its very nature is ecclesial,
that the seminary should be experienced not as something external and
superficial, or simply a place in which to live and study, but in an interior
and profound way. It should be experienced as a community, a specifically
ecclesial community, a community that relives the experience of the group of
Twelve who were united to Jesus.(193)
No comments:
Post a Comment