61. The seminary is, therefore, an educational ecclesial
community, indeed a particular educating community. And it is the specific goal
which determines its physiognomy: the vocational accompanying of future
priests, and therefore discernment of a vocation; the help to respond to it and
the preparation to receive the sacrament of orders with its own graces and
responsibilities, by which the priest is configured to Jesus Christ head and
shepherd and is enabled and committed to share the mission of salvation in the
church and in the world.
Inasmuch as it is an educating community, the seminary and
its entire life - in all its different expressions - is committed to formation,
the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation of future priests.
Although this formation has many aspects in common with the human and Christian
formation of all the members of the Church, it has, nevertheless, contents,
modalities and characteristics which relate specifically to the aim of
preparation for the priesthood.
The content and form of the educational work require that
the seminary should have a precise program, a program of life characterized by
its being organized and unified, by its being in harmony or correspondence with
one aim which justifies the existence of the seminary: preparation of future
priests.
In this regard, the synod fathers write: "As an
educational community, (the seminary) should follow a clearly defined program
which will have, as a characteristic, a unity of leadership expressed in the
figure of the rector and his cooperators, a consistency in the ordering of
life, formational activity and the fundamental demands of community life, which
also involves the essential aspects of the task of formation. This program
should be at the service of the specific finality which alone justify the
existence of the seminary, and it should do so without hesitation or ambiguity.
That aim is the formation of future priests, pastors of the Church."(194)
And in order to ensure that the programming is truly apt and effective, the
fundamental outlines of the program will have to be translated into more
concrete details, with the help of particular norms that are aimed at
regulating community life, establishing certain precise instruments and
timetables.
A further aspect is to be stressed here: The educational
work is by its nature an accompanying of specific individual persons who are
proceeding to a choice of and commitment to precise ideals of life. For this
very reason, the work of education should be able to bring together into a
harmonious whole a clear statement of the goal to be achieved, the requirement
that candidates proceed seriously toward the goal, and third, attention to the
"journeyer," that is, the individual person who is embarked on this
adventure, and therefore attention to a series of situations, problems,
difficulties and different rates of progress and growth. This requires a wise
flexibility. And this does not mean compromising, either as regards values or
as regards the conscious and free commitment of the candidates. What it does
mean is a true love and a sincere respect for the person who, in conditions
which are very personal, is proceeding toward the priesthood. This applies not
only to individual candidates, but also to the diverse social and cultural
contexts in which seminaries exist and to the different life histories which
they have. In this sense the educational work requires continual renewal.
The
synod fathers have brought this out forcefully also when speaking about the
structure of seminaries: "Without questioning the validity of the
classical forms of seminaries, the synod desires that the work of consultation
of the episcopal conferences on the present - day needs of formation should
proceed as is established in the decree Optatam Totius (no. 1), and in the 1967
synod. The rationes of the different nations or rites should be revised where
opportune whether on the occasion of requests made by the episcopal conferences
or in relation to apostolic visitations of the seminaries of different countries,
in order to bring into them diverse forms of formation that have proved
successful, as well as to respond to the needs of people with so - called
indigenous cultures, the needs of the vocations of adult men and the needs of
vocations for the missions, etc."(195)
62. The purpose and specific educational form of the major
seminary demand that candidates for the priesthood have a certain prior
preparation before entering it. Such preparation, at least until a few decades
ago, did not create particular problems. In those days most candidates to the
priesthood came from minor seminaries, and the Christian life of the community
offered all, in general, a suitable Christian instruction and education.
The situation in many places has changed. There is a
considerable discrepancy between - on the one hand - the style of life and
basic preparation of boys, adolescents and young men, even when they are
Christians and at times have been involved in Church life, and - on the other
hand - the style of life of the seminary with its formational demands.
In this context, together with the synod fathers I ask that
there be a sufficient period of preparation prior to seminary formation:
"It is a good thing that there be a period of human, Christian,
intellectual and spiritual preparation for the candidates to the major
seminary. These candidates should, however, have certain qualities: a right
intention, a sufficient degree of human maturity, a sufficiently broad
knowledge of the doctrine of the faith, some introduction into the methods of
prayer and behavior in conformity with Christian tradition. They should also
have attitudes proper to their regions, through which they can express their
effort to find God and the faith (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 48)."(196)
The "sufficiently broad knowledge of the doctrine of
the faith" which the synod fathers mention is a primary condition for
theology. It simply is not possible to develop an "intelligentia
fidei" (an understanding of he faith), if the content of the
"fides" is not known. Such a gap can be filled more easily when the
forthcoming Universal Catechism appears.
While there is increasing consensus regarding the need for
preparation prior to the major seminary, there are different ideas as to what
such preparation should contain and what its characteristics should be: Should
it be directed mainly to spiritual formation to discern the vocation or to
intellectual and cultural formation? On the other hand, we cannot overlook the
many and deep diversities that exist, not only among the individual candidates
but also in the different regions and countries. This implies the need for a
period of study and experimentation in order to define as clearly and suitably
as possible the different elements of this prior preparation or
"propaedeutic period": the duration, place, form, subject matter of
this period, all of which will have to be coordinated with the subsequent years
of formation offered by the seminary.
In this sense I take up and propose to the Congregation for
Catholic Education a request expressed by the synod fathers: "The synod
asks that the Congregation for Catholic Education gather all the information on
experiments of such initial formation that have been done or are being done. At
a suitable time, the congregation is requested to communicate its findings on this
matter to the episcopal conferences."(197)
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