International theologians meeting in Maynooth suggest the current model of training for the priesthood needs to be refreshed if future priests are to survive in a rapidly changing world.
It hardly needs reminding that, over the past three decades or so, the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland has experienced a crisis of monumental proportions – a seemingly endless series of abuse claims, a virtual collapse in vocations and many serving clergy still working well beyond retirement age, wondering what the future will hold.
In seeking to answer this question, an international conference on how best to train the priests of the future was held at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. This gathering drew from the experiences and insights of experts – theologians, psychologists and seminary formators – from Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US. Tasked with assessing the past, reflecting on the present and imagining the future, the conference findings have just been published in a book by Liturgical Press, Minnesota.
Seminaries are a creation of the 16th century Council of Trent. Before this, many candidates were simply apprenticed to a local priest whose “education” left him just about able to stumble his way through the words of the Latin Mass. Seminaries professionalised the priesthood, providing training in ministerial practice, some basic theology and a formation in spirituality.
But even this more regularised training wasn’t always universally applied. Seminaries didn’t follow a fixed programme, there was no standard length of study and, incredibly, attendance at a seminary wasn’t actually made a requirement for ordination to the priesthood until as late as 1917. What’s more, complaints about seminarians have remained a constant theme for some 400 years.
In 1950s Ireland, with its seminaries filled to bursting point, it might have seemed the seminary, as an institution, had existed in just this way from time immemorial. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
The challenge for those gathered at the Maynooth conference was to recognise that priestly training has evolved constantly over the centuries and that the world has changed with it.
What, then, should a healthy, well-integrated, professionally trained priesthood look like in the second quarter of the 21st century?
First, there was widespread acknowledgment that those entering priestly training today no longer arrive straight from school. Most have already worked for several years.
This presents new challenges. In the case of converts, for instance, an initial period of zeal may need time to mature and develop before proceeding towards ordination to priesthood. In the case of those who have left working lives behind them, institutionalised living in a seminary can be a huge adjustment and, ultimately, may not be the most suitable kind of formation for their needs.
There was also a robust questioning of the model of seminary formation which traditionally plucked men from their native place and trained them at a remove from their own people – to whom they would eventually return, but as a figure “set apart”.
The transition from communal seminary life to parish ministry, in which priests increasingly live alone, continues to be a challenge for the newly ordained. While seminarians already get periods of exposure to the realities of parish life during their training, this needs to be expanded upon. Seminarians need to become used to a model of collaborative ministry, at ease with working in close partnership with lay women and men in parishes from the outset to avoid what the American writer Donald Cozzens has called “the cancer of clericalism”.
A number of models of seminary training are already in operation internationally, ranging from the traditional live-in seminary to parish-based communities of seminarians who study in university settings, to a blend of both.
Whatever the future model for the training of priests ends up being, contributors emphasised the integration of four key elements – human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral – is key to a healthy priesthood.
For many of the conference contributors, including Dr Aoife McGrath, director of pastoral training at Maynooth, the watchword is “authenticity”. Candidates in formation should be well-integrated, at ease with their own sexuality and equally comfortable interacting with women and men. This should be enhanced by the increasing involvement of professional lay women and men in priestly training.
Most crucially, safeguarding and the legacy of child sexual abuse in the Church are such important issues they should not be relegated to one-off workshops but should permeate every aspect of training from the start and be discussed regularly in lectures, homilies and retreats.
Priestly formation doesn’t end when a candidate is ordained and leaves the seminary. Growth in human maturity and in one’s spiritual life means the whole life of a priest is one of ‘continuous formation’.
Salvador Ryan is professor of ecclesiastical history at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Models of Priestly Formation was launched yesterday by Professor Bradford Hinze of Fordham University, New York.
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Home » Analysis & Comment » Salvador Ryan: 'Monumental crisis has changed the Church – and the modern priest must change with it'
Salvador Ryan: 'Monumental crisis has changed the Church – and the modern priest must change with it'
International theologians meeting in Maynooth suggest the current model of training for the priesthood needs to be refreshed if future priests are to survive in a rapidly changing world.
It hardly needs reminding that, over the past three decades or so, the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland has experienced a crisis of monumental proportions – a seemingly endless series of abuse claims, a virtual collapse in vocations and many serving clergy still working well beyond retirement age, wondering what the future will hold.
In seeking to answer this question, an international conference on how best to train the priests of the future was held at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. This gathering drew from the experiences and insights of experts – theologians, psychologists and seminary formators – from Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US. Tasked with assessing the past, reflecting on the present and imagining the future, the conference findings have just been published in a book by Liturgical Press, Minnesota.
Seminaries are a creation of the 16th century Council of Trent. Before this, many candidates were simply apprenticed to a local priest whose “education” left him just about able to stumble his way through the words of the Latin Mass. Seminaries professionalised the priesthood, providing training in ministerial practice, some basic theology and a formation in spirituality.
But even this more regularised training wasn’t always universally applied. Seminaries didn’t follow a fixed programme, there was no standard length of study and, incredibly, attendance at a seminary wasn’t actually made a requirement for ordination to the priesthood until as late as 1917. What’s more, complaints about seminarians have remained a constant theme for some 400 years.
In 1950s Ireland, with its seminaries filled to bursting point, it might have seemed the seminary, as an institution, had existed in just this way from time immemorial. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
The challenge for those gathered at the Maynooth conference was to recognise that priestly training has evolved constantly over the centuries and that the world has changed with it.
What, then, should a healthy, well-integrated, professionally trained priesthood look like in the second quarter of the 21st century?
First, there was widespread acknowledgment that those entering priestly training today no longer arrive straight from school. Most have already worked for several years.
This presents new challenges. In the case of converts, for instance, an initial period of zeal may need time to mature and develop before proceeding towards ordination to priesthood. In the case of those who have left working lives behind them, institutionalised living in a seminary can be a huge adjustment and, ultimately, may not be the most suitable kind of formation for their needs.
There was also a robust questioning of the model of seminary formation which traditionally plucked men from their native place and trained them at a remove from their own people – to whom they would eventually return, but as a figure “set apart”.
The transition from communal seminary life to parish ministry, in which priests increasingly live alone, continues to be a challenge for the newly ordained. While seminarians already get periods of exposure to the realities of parish life during their training, this needs to be expanded upon. Seminarians need to become used to a model of collaborative ministry, at ease with working in close partnership with lay women and men in parishes from the outset to avoid what the American writer Donald Cozzens has called “the cancer of clericalism”.
A number of models of seminary training are already in operation internationally, ranging from the traditional live-in seminary to parish-based communities of seminarians who study in university settings, to a blend of both.
Whatever the future model for the training of priests ends up being, contributors emphasised the integration of four key elements – human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral – is key to a healthy priesthood.
For many of the conference contributors, including Dr Aoife McGrath, director of pastoral training at Maynooth, the watchword is “authenticity”. Candidates in formation should be well-integrated, at ease with their own sexuality and equally comfortable interacting with women and men. This should be enhanced by the increasing involvement of professional lay women and men in priestly training.
Most crucially, safeguarding and the legacy of child sexual abuse in the Church are such important issues they should not be relegated to one-off workshops but should permeate every aspect of training from the start and be discussed regularly in lectures, homilies and retreats.
Priestly formation doesn’t end when a candidate is ordained and leaves the seminary. Growth in human maturity and in one’s spiritual life means the whole life of a priest is one of ‘continuous formation’.
Salvador Ryan is professor of ecclesiastical history at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Models of Priestly Formation was launched yesterday by Professor Bradford Hinze of Fordham University, New York.
Source: Read Full Article