Priestly Formation Research Articles

El respeto de la distinción entre fuero interno y externo en la formación sacerdotal

The distinction between the internal and external jurisdiction is traditional in the life of the Church and constitutes an expression of the protection of the conscience and of the intimacy of the faithful people. In the area of the priestly formation the distinction of jurisdictions favors the possibility of formation and ecclesial discernment from the interiority of the seminarian, in the full respect of her requirements. It could bring some problems concerning the necessary coordination between both jurisdictions, that must be realized in base to the distinction of the same ones, to the sense of the above mentioned distinction and to the values that they guard, so that there happens a process of serious and authentic discernment, which favors the opening conscience of the seminarian, the respect of his intimacy and the exercise of his responsible freedom and that, at the same time, safeguards the responsibility of the Church in the discernment of the suitability for Orders.

"To Work for the Whole People": John Ireland's Seminary in St. Paul (review)

To Work for the Whole People: John Ireland's Seminary in St. Paul. By Mary Christine Athans, B.VM. (New York and Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press. 2002. Pp. xxii, 543. $39.95.) This is a substantial and illuminating history of one of the major theological centers of the upper Midwest. St. Paul Seminary has exercised a powerful influence not only on the dioceses it has served over the years, but on the entire American Catholic Church. From its hallowed halls have come distinguished figures (faculty and alumni), such as historians Humphrey Moynihan, Patrick Ahern, and Marvin O'Connell, liturgists William Busch and Jan Michael Joncas, scripture scholar Jerome D. Quinn, bishops Edwin V. O'Brien and Raymond Lucker, and perhaps the greatest of all, John A. Ryan, the patriarch of American Catholic social thought and action. Something very good happened at St. Paul Seminary. Mary Christine Athans shows us how it happened. The author begins with the initial efforts at seminary education advanced by the first two bishops of St. Paul, Joseph Cretin (1850-1857) and Thomas Langdon Grace, O.P. (1859-1884). These early endeavors soon gave way to the grand building schemes of Archbishop John Ireland (1884-1918), whose good fortune it was to have the devoutly Catholic Mary Theresa Mehegan Hill-wife of railroad tycoon James J. Hill-among his flock.If it hadn't been fora woman . . . , as Athans relates in her careful account of the funding and design of the seminary, the diocese would not have been able to construct and maintain (Hill left an endowment) the seminary. The chapters proceed chronologically, detailing the changing rectors, faculty, curriculum, and patterns of priestly formation throughout the seminary's long and distinguished history. Athans relates the special care that the eloquent and cultured Archbishop Austin Dowling gave to the construction of the seminary chapel. Archbishop John Gregory Murray turned over a great deal of control to his hand-picked rector, William O. Brady, a self-assured man who brought his own brand of decisiveness to the post. Brady must have liked the job immensely, because he eventually returned as archbishop and appointed himself rector again. Archbishops Leo Binz and Leo Byrne navigated the seminary through the shoals of Vatican Council II-inspired change. Byrne in particular faced the collapse of priestly vocations and the increasing financial demands of the St. Paul Seminary. The ultimate solution to a declining seminary enrollment and mounting costs would be a fortuitous affiliation between the seminary and the diocesan-run College (today University) of St. Thomas in 1986. This was brokered by Archbishop John R. Roach. Athans makes good use of available documentary materials in archdiocesan records. She must have waded through hundreds of linear feet of official papers, financial reports, and routine correspondence in order to select truly illuminating passages, phrases, and comments from various archbishops, rectors, faculty, and alumni. …

Los fundamentos de la formación sacerdotal. Una reflexión desde las asambleas del Sínodo de Obispos

The article recovers the most important interventions of the Fathers in three of the Assemblies of the Bishops' Synod (1966-1970-1990) that affect priestly formation, since some of this contributions can be considered still today very interesting in order to design the educational project of the seminar. After an general introduction where these Assemblies are historically placed, so that the reader could understand the ecclesial context in that they were realized, the article systematizes and develops the interventions of the Fathers in the Synod room, grouping them for related topics to have an overall view, standing out those that affirm the importance of the human aspects of the formation as foundation. But this human bases, for very solid that is, though necessary, there are insufficient by themselves and need to be complemented by a suitable spiritual formation, which unifies and gives consistency to other dimensions, for an intellectual formation, that brings over to the candidate a deeper knowledge of the divine mysteries, and for the pastoral formation, that prepares him in a specific way to communicate the charity of Christ, good Shepherd.

Optatam Totius- The Decree on Priestly Formation

<i>Optatam Totius</i>- The Decree on Priestly Formation

Science and Priestly Formation: Historical Roots and Current Necessity

Science and Priestly Formation: Historical Roots and Current Necessity

KITAB SUCI DAN PENDIDIKAN NILAI

The demand of value education is evident today. In Indonesia value formation occupies the certain place in the whole of frame education. Teachers, particularly those of the young people, are so much concerned with problem of value especially that of life, ethical relationship, and politics. This article elaborates the topics from biblical point of view, i.e., from the Old Testament. As the author gets involved in priestly formation in biblical territory with specialization of the Old Testament, the article shall draw closely ideas of ethical formation from the Book of Proverbs and of Ecclesiastes. Both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are dealing with value education

La dimensión humana de la formación sacerdotal en el Decreto conciliar Optatam Totius

Vatican II's Decree Optatam Totius is the most authoritative statement of the Church's Magisterium on priestly formation in the 20 th century, and so is the inescapable reference point for any theme relating to the delicate task of forming future priests. Because of this, when we come to study the human dimension of priestly formation under the present discipline, we have to return to the genesis and development of the Decree in order to understand, at first hand, the fundamental principles on which its doctrine is based and the options adopted by the Council Fathers in the course of their discussions, many of which were highly significant when the promulgated text emerged. The article goes back to the sources, uses them to reconstruct the history of the Decree, selects from among all the possible material those aspects which refer specifically to human formation and only making reference to other dimensions of formation in a tangential way when relevant to the theme of human formation. The study concludes with some observations of a general character and some concrete applications from the point of view of Canon Law.

Vocation and Formation of Priests and Religious in India: An Empirical Study

Vocation and Formation of Priests and Religious in India: An Empirical Study

Rewiring the Circuit: Campi's Reformation

Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular. By Simon Ditchfield. [Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xvi, 397. $79.95.) Here is book which throws singular new light on the Catholic Reformation and the cult of the saints in early modern Italy. Following in the wake of scholars like John d' Amico and Charles Stinger, Ditchfield examines the widespread concern of humanists like Raffaele Maffei, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the many and various details in saints' lives and other commentaries which are to be considered apocryphal. This concern was met in the work of Cardinal Quinones for the reform of the breviary. In the Quinones breviary, Scripture, hymnody, and hagiography were combined in way that was designed to supply minimal basis of priestly formation. The principles underlying its conception were adopted by Cardinal Carafa and the Theatines, and passed in straight line into the reforms of the Council of Trent. Maffei's plea for what Ditchfield calls a textually chaste liturgy thus found fruition in the papal bull Quod Nobis of 1568. Part One of Ditchfield's book explores the reception of this decree in the localities. Between Rome and the Italian dioceses there immediately developed process of feedback and arbitration, as bishops like Paleotti and Valier found themselves under pressure to retain local saints and traditions. How much, if anything, might be conserved of local liturgies which lacked the two-hundredyear test applied by Quod Nobis? First Cardinal Sirleto, then, after 1588 the newly established Congregation of Rites, undertook the reconsideration of local traditions. Thus the creation of the Congregation should be seen, according to Ditchfield, as a papal response to the demands of frequently embattled episcopate rather thanan interfering watchdog intent on imposing . . . standardizing policy that did not take local needs and priorities into Standardization occurred, but Ditchfield prefers the expression `regularization: Just as in the study of secular government simplistic views of absolute monarchy have long since been abandoned, so should they be in matters of ecclesiastical government. Things were no different in the religious sphere.' Ditchfield applies this insight to reconsideration of the theses about Rome and the local churches advanced by scholars like Prodi and Alberigo in the past forty years. The result is compelling new assessment verified by Ditchfield's discovery in the library of the Roman Oratory, of the complete documentation surrounding the revision of the Piacenzan Breviary of 1598. The ensuing story affords striking insight into the workings of local liturgical reform at close quarters. Here we have unique case study of the Catholic Reform in seventeenth-century Barchester. Pietro Maria Campi (1569-1649), canon of Piacenza Cathedral, undertook the revision of the local breviary at the request of his bishop. Campi's text, and the bishop's endorsement of it in 1598, were questioned by the Canon Theologian of the Cathedral, Daniele Garatola. Garatola was the official responsible for priestly spiritual formation in the diocese. His was the task of ensuring that the clergy were suitably equipped for preaching and theological instruction. Garatola's objections to Campi's revised breviary were essentially those of Raffaele Maffei and Carafa at the beginning of the century:many and various details.... to be considered apocryphal Garatola objected to Campi's account of Piacenza's patron saint, S. Antonino. Piacenza's supposed possession of the body of S. Giustina lacked documentary substance. There were other objections. Should such material, he asked,be preached to the People or inserted between the offices of canonical hours by the bishop? The essential issue, for Garatola, was that such material should not be reformed locally,for this is simply prohibited by Pius V's injunction at the front of the Roman Breviary. …

Magisteri Um and Psyche

This exploratory study investigated the relative emphasis on formation directives and developmental psychology of young adulthood, in the thinking of seminary faculty about certain aspects of the education of candidates for the priesthood. The respondents held faculty appointments in Roman Catholic major seminaries in North America. As basis for the survey instrument the following elements were used: 1) a content analysis of Church documents on the formation of priests, and 2) literature of male psychodynamic developmental theory and psychopathology. The study focused on two key male developmental needs which seemed most likely to conflict with seminary formation activities: 1) intimacy/sexuality, and 2) autonomy/mastery. Selected by cluster sampling, 124 respondents (N=124) from 39 theological institutes participated in this study. Analysis of the data, using Factor Analysis and Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), showed a valuing among the respondents of religious sublimations for intimacy/sexuality and autonomy/mastery, as handed down by the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. In addition to this 'traditional-religious' factor, the research showed varying degrees of psychological awareness among the respondents with regard to 'personal and ministerial integration' within the candidate for the priesthood. This awareness was significantly greater in seminary faculty with some training in psychology.

Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Idea of Christianity by Karl Rahner

BOOK REVIEW KARL RAHIDJR: Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduption to .the Idea of Christianity. Translated by WILLIAM V. DYcH. New York: Seabury Press, 1978. $19.50. In a number of ways this book is a summary. In the first place, it is a theological summary-statement of the principal Christian beliefs in their resonance with contemporary human concerns. The distinctive Christian claims about God, human person and history, world, about Christ, Church and sacraments, about hoped-for destiny-each is expounded with a sensitivity to present cultural interests. Moreover, Foundations summarizes, brings to plenary statement, a career of public theologizing in the Roman Catholic tradition that has extended over forty years (beginning with early studies on patristic spirituality); in some way, the home-coming of that odyssey is narrated on the pages of this book. The book might also be taken as a one-volume summary of the fourteen volumes of Rahner's Theological Investigations (hereafter TI), not to mention of the principal motifs that Rahner contributed to the Mysterium Salutis series. The basic themes and fresh insights of TI are granted a more succinct but also more systematic treatment in Foundations. In this respect, if keyed to the corresponding more extended items in Tl, the present book will provide a most serviceable introduction and map of Rahner's theology; indeed, in at least the first two chapters, Rahner has achieved a mode of expression that renders his thought somewhat more accessible than is the case with parallel treatments in Hearers of the Word or in certain items of Tl, for example. Finally and most importantly, this book presents a summary of Rahner's thought: the distinctive style, motivations and deployment of his theological thinking. For encountering that thinking in its utmost conciseness of basic principles and in particular clarity of line and movement, Foundations seems destined to be inscribed on the list of theological classics. For, to a degree that is exceptional in the history of theological thinking, Rahner's enterprise has exhibited a remarkable consistency over the years. Surely the spine of this consistency has been Rahner's possession of his transcendental method of inquiry from the very outset of his theological career (at least from the completion of Spirit in the World); this transcendental perspective has proved to be the Archimedean point of Rahner's project. But the consistency of his thinking has not been simply methodological but also contentual. For with a few axioms in hand (e.g." the 'immanent' Trinity is the 'economic' Trinity") Rabner has generated a theological edifice that has varied little in the course of its 186 BOOK REVIEW 187 accomplishment. With one exception (the emergence of a dominant Christocentrism ), most of the peripeties in Rahner's thought have been the result of external factors: e.g., the perceived shift in magisterial teaching on monogenism; Metz's critique of the " privatization of salvation "; the emergence of future-oriented theologies. Precisely the inner consistency of Rahner 's thought has permitted him to address these developments outside his system and to find a place for them within an already constituted theological universe, a place that does not jar the whole. No other work of Rahner's so strikingly illustrates that inner consistency nor so well reveals his theological universe as does Foundations. In any discussion of this work the issues of the audience of the intended address and of the mode of that address cannot be separated. As the "Preface " remarks (p. xiii) , Foundations grew out of lecture-courses that Rahner offered at Munich and Miinster in response to the requirement of Vatican H's Decree on Priestly Formation (art. 14) that a basic course treating the Christian mystery of salvation in an introductory and overview fashion begin the theological formation of Catholic students for the priesthood. The latter were the original audience of this work. Nevertheless. in its present form, Foundations is addressed to the broader community of believers; on their behalf, it is an attempt to state the grounds upon which the Christian option to believe is both intellectually honest and responsible in the contemporary world. Indeed, as part of his treatment of the "Jesus of history/Christ of faith" problem...

The Role of Philosophy in the Formation of Priests

The Role of Philosophy in the Formation of Priests

Book Review: Priestly and Religious Formation

Book Review: Priestly and Religious Formation