There is an article on how to fix seminaries which you can read in full from The Deacon's Bench:
The system needs reform, according to these authors in Commonweal, and they offer some ideas, beginning with rooting out any vestiges of clericalism: Pope Francis has repeatedly targeted clericalism as the great enemy of ordained ministry today. You can easily see the career-climbers he warns about in seminaries. If you want to learn how to work your way into the clerical caste, watch these men. They are learning Italian, wearing cufflinks and cassocks, and don’t at all mind being called… Read more
My take and most humble opinion:
When I was in the seminary in the 1970's our bishop and vocation director were very concerned about the liberal nature of St. Mary's Seminary. We seminarians did not wear clerical clothes of any kind. In fact there was no dress code. We could come and go as we pleased even staying overnight, coming in late and the like.
We had women in our classes and others of other Christian traditions like Presbyterian and Episcopalian, many were women studying for ministry in their tradition.
We did not even wear liturgical garb to serve the altar or lector. Ordained transitional deacons were the ones who wore the collar. The cassock was forbidden, I mean, forbidden as was Eucharitic Adoration, Benediction, the Holy Rosary, Stations of the Cross and the like. We also did an abbreviated Liturgy of the Hours in our small groups in the morning.
Morally speaking, we were being taught the new moral theology which in effect meant you could justify just about any aberrant behavior out or pastoral concern.
We had some very loony candidates in the seminary, what I would call broken individuals, very immature and conflicted.
When then Bishop Lessard asked me about the problems at St. Mary's I said to him that the major problem were bishops who were sending the seminary these kinds of men, and by extension the vocation directors who screened these candidates.
There was grave laxity in my seminary. What had been a very traditional seminary, very strict seminary, did a complete flip flop over night beginning in 1968.
Just about every novelty that the Commonweal article I link above was the norm in my seminary.
We haven't had a good track record at all. The 1970's and 80's lax formation is the problem and it was a problem based upon the loss of priestly identity and correct behavior for priests which differs from the lay state in life.
I would say to the Commonweal writers to examine St. Mary Seminary from about 1968 to about 1990 and find out how well their model of formation worked. It did not fix the seminary at that time or the candidates who went there.
How Do You Fix the Seminaries?
April 5, 2019 By Deacon Greg Kandra
The system needs reform, according to these authors in Commonweal, and they offer some ideas, beginning with rooting out any vestiges of clericalism: Pope Francis has repeatedly targeted clericalism as the great enemy of ordained ministry today. You can easily see the career-climbers he warns about in seminaries. If you want to learn how to work your way into the clerical caste, watch these men. They are learning Italian, wearing cufflinks and cassocks, and don’t at all mind being called… Read more
My take and most humble opinion:
When I was in the seminary in the 1970's our bishop and vocation director were very concerned about the liberal nature of St. Mary's Seminary. We seminarians did not wear clerical clothes of any kind. In fact there was no dress code. We could come and go as we pleased even staying overnight, coming in late and the like.
We had women in our classes and others of other Christian traditions like Presbyterian and Episcopalian, many were women studying for ministry in their tradition.
We did not even wear liturgical garb to serve the altar or lector. Ordained transitional deacons were the ones who wore the collar. The cassock was forbidden, I mean, forbidden as was Eucharitic Adoration, Benediction, the Holy Rosary, Stations of the Cross and the like. We also did an abbreviated Liturgy of the Hours in our small groups in the morning.
Morally speaking, we were being taught the new moral theology which in effect meant you could justify just about any aberrant behavior out or pastoral concern.
We had some very loony candidates in the seminary, what I would call broken individuals, very immature and conflicted.
When then Bishop Lessard asked me about the problems at St. Mary's I said to him that the major problem were bishops who were sending the seminary these kinds of men, and by extension the vocation directors who screened these candidates.
There was grave laxity in my seminary. What had been a very traditional seminary, very strict seminary, did a complete flip flop over night beginning in 1968.
Just about every novelty that the Commonweal article I link above was the norm in my seminary.
We haven't had a good track record at all. The 1970's and 80's lax formation is the problem and it was a problem based upon the loss of priestly identity and correct behavior for priests which differs from the lay state in life.
I would say to the Commonweal writers to examine St. Mary Seminary from about 1968 to about 1990 and find out how well their model of formation worked. It did not fix the seminary at that time or the candidates who went there.
7 comments:
I have not read the Commonweal in decades. It is as worthless as the New York Times. Viewspapers for lefties.
Seminaries should train Catholic priests, not glorified social workers or Democratic Party operatives.
How about teaching that the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus Of Nazareth actually got up an walked out of the tomb like you could've gotten it with a camera, that Mary was a Virgin and Christ was born of her in the normal gynecological manner, that Christ died on the Cross for our salvation and there is no other way to Heaven but by Him, and that theologians and people who do not believe all this are going right straight to Hell. That would be a great start.
Gene,
But will that message "attract" the the lefties?
We don't care about the Lefties. They can run on down to the Unitarian Universalist church for a lecture on Teilhard or Alfred North Whitehead.
It is said that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result Deacon Kendra would bring us back to the horrendous days of seminary formation in the 70s and 80s and expect a wonderful outcome. I attended a seminary which maintained the external trappings of traditional seminary life (clerical garb, cossack and surplice for Mass each day, etc.) but the spirit of the ‘60s and ‘70s was alive and well. Athough ordained almost 30 years now, I retain awful memories of my time in formation led by “progressives” who simply did not possess the Catholic faith.
Because of my assignment I am in constant contact with numerous seminarians on a regular basis and almost without exception they are outstanding men who have a deep respect for the tradition of the church. They realize that they are not priests but also respect the traditions of clerical garb in the seminary as part of the training process. I have no doubt that some seminarians are as Kandra describes but they are a rarity. Kandra is like Pope Francis in that he makes sweeping generalizations about fantoms of his own imagination thus demonizing the good men who are in seminary formation.
As I've noted on Father McDonald's blog, "traditionalists" have long claimed that during Pope Venerable Pius XII's reign, seminaries were packed with communists, homosexuals, and modernists.
Only a microscopic amount of priests have ever been accused of sexual abuse. But as dioceses have released names of said priests, one such priest after another had been ordained during Pope Venerable Pius XII's reign.
We know that beginning in the early-to-mid 1960s, thousands of priests, as well as men and women religious, either abandoned the Church or engaged in wild antics that wrecked one Mass/parish after another.
Said priests and religious had been raised and formed in the "pre-Vatican II" Church.
The supposed massive amount of "modernist" Vatican II Fathers — Cardinals and and bishops — had been formed in seminaries during the reigns of Popes Pius XI and Venerable Pius XII.
Even in supposed rigid seminaries run by the SSPX, for example, many poor candidates for the priesthood were ordained as priests...only to be kicked out of the SSPX as time progressed.
What all of the above has demonstrated is that even during (as "traditionalists" pretend) the Church's supposed pre-Vatican II Golden Age of Catholicism, trouble abounded in seminaries.
A certain percentage of men of questionable character will make their ways through seminaries. That has always been the reality of Church life.
The good news is that a great many men — Father McDonald, for example — have emerged from troubled seminaries as holy priests.
Deo gratias for that!
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Men of poor character will always slip through seminaries. That is reality. The Church will always have Her share of bad priests...except for Father McDonald. :-)
But the good news is that a holy bishop can introduce positive measures to "clean up" a seminary.
One such shining example of that concerns the Dallas Diocese's Holy Trinity Seminary.
By all accounts, had been mired for years in sorry spiritual shape.
But Pope Benedict XVI appointed then-Bishop Farrell (Cardinal Farrell) to the Dallas Diocese. I turn, then-Bishop Farrell, a holy man...loyal son of Holy Mother Church...with God's help, transformed Holy Trinity Seminary into a holy place.
One priest after another who emerged from Holy Trinity Seminary during then-Bishop Farrell's reign to date, has, by all accounts, displayed great holiness.
Dallas' seminary produces holy, outstanding priests.
The seminary had just 17 seminarians when then-Bishop Farrell arrived in Dallas.
When summoned to Rome by our great Culture of Life and God-loving Pope Francis, Holy Trinity Seminary had 70 seminarians.
Then-Bishop Farrell was the holy instrument through which our Great, Glorious God transformed in positive, holy fashion Dallas' Holy Trinity Seminary.
With God's help, a holy bishop can transform a seminary in holy, positive fashion.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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