Rumours that Rome wants seminaries with fewer than 20 students to close may not be true.
According to the Catholic journal, La Croix, Auxiliary Bishop Jérôme Beau of Paris says the Vatican wants to set a minimum limit of seventeen to twenty students for seminaries to stay open.
It also says Archbishop Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, who is the official responsible for seminaries at the Congregation for the Clergy, has told France’s bishops the Vatican believes seminaries with tiny numbers of students should be closed or merged.
Wong reportedly made his remarks on Saturday the during plenary assembly of the French Bishops’ conference.
The acting principal of Auckland’s Good Shepherd Theological College, Fr Merv Duffy, said the information was “news” to him and may have been a comment in relation to someone else’s suggestion.
Quoting the Code of Canon Law, Canon 237 §1, Duffy said “Where it is possible and advisable, each diocese is to have a major seminary; otherwise, students preparing for the sacred ministries are to be sent to the seminary of another diocese, or an inter-diocesan seminary is to be established.”
Duffy went on to say to him this means “the six dioceses of New Zealand and the New Zealand and Australian provinces of the Society of Mary co-operate in the education of seminarians.”
He pointed out that Holy Cross Seminary, Auckland, is an inter-diocesan seminary.
“The seminarians, diocesan and Marist, do their academic studies at Good Shepherd College; it is the off-shore campus of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, which is the only Ecclesiastical University faculty in Australia.
“The seminarians in New Zealand study the same theology papers that their counterparts in Sydney do.”
Duffy then noted the concern about “small seminaries” seems to be that academic standards may not be maintained in such institutions.
The New Zealand set-up for seminary education ensures these standards are kept, he added.
Source
- La Croix
- CathNews interview
- Image: Catholic Philly
