"The Lord calls some of his disciples to be priests, that is, he chooses some of the sheep from his flock and invites them to be shepherds of their brothers and sisters," the pope wrote in a speech prepared for a group of rectors and staff members of seminaries in Latin America. Read more

He made the comment in an interview in L'Osservatore Romano about a new version of the Vatican's document on priestly formation, "The Gift of Priestly Vocation / Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis", which was released last Wednesday.

"To be a good priest, in addition to having passed all the exams, a demonstrated human, spiritual and pastoral maturation is necessary," he said.

In the interview Stella identified 3 key words, humanity spirituality and discernment

Humanity
He said he could not sufficiently insist upon the need that seminarians be accompanied through a growth process which will, in the end, help them become "persons who are humanly balanced, serene and stable."

"Only in this way will it be possible to have priests with friendly traits, who are authentic, loyal, interiorly free, affectively stable, capable of weaving together peaceful interpersonal relationships and living the evangelical counsels without rigidity, hypocrisy or loopholes."

Spirituality
Stella insisted that the priest is not "a man of action, a leader, religious organiser, or a functionary of the sacred."

"Instead he is a disciple passionately in love with the Lord, whose life and whose ministry are founded on this intimate relationship with God and upon his configuration to Christ the Good Shepherd."

He said it is only by cultivating his spiritual life with discipline and expressly dedicated time that the "old sacral and bureaucratic views of ministry can be surpassed."

"So that we may have priests passionately motivated by the Gospel, capable of 'feeling with the Church' and being, like Jesus, compassionate and merciful 'Samaritans.'"

Discernment
Stella said he is noticing a lack of discernment in the formation of priests.

"We are risking, in fact, becoming accustomed to 'black and white' and to that which is legal," he said. " We are quite closed, by and large, to discernment"

"One thing is clear, today in a certain quantity of seminaries, a rigidity has been re- established which is not related to situational discernment."

The issue of homosexuality and the priesthood.
The media coverage to what The Gift of Priestly Vocation have generally confined their coverage to what the document says about homosexuality.

In many case they have collapsed a nuanced approach to bald statement that homosexuals cannot become priests.

The Gift of the Priestly Vocation quotes from the Congregation for Catholic Education's 2005 instruction on the matter, in saying that "the Church … cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture.'"

It distinguishes such cases from those in which homosexual tendencies "were only the expression of a transitory problem" and states that "it must be remembered that, in a relationship of sincere dialogue and mutual trust, the seminarian is obliged to reveal to his formators … doubts or difficulties he should have in this regard."

In 2005 Timothy Dolan, former rector of the North American College in Rome and now the Archbishop of New York told Catholic News Service that a gay man who exhibits none of the criteria opposed by the Vatican document and feels he may have a priestly vocation "shouldn't be discouraged" from becoming a seminarian.

Since the 2005 many seminaries and programmes of formation in religious orders have interpreted its language to exclude only candidates incapable of celibacy or deeply committed to gay-rights activism, as opposed to a blanket ban on all gay candidates.

The document appears to provide a sound basis for this interpretation:

"The candidate to the ordained ministry, therefore, must reach affective maturity. Such maturity will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood towards the Church community that will be entrusted to him"

Just as the 2005 document was approved by Benedict XVI, the one released this week was approved by Pope Francis.

However, in neither case were the documents signed by the Pope, but by the heads of the Vatican department behind it.

Source

• clerus.va
• ncregister.com
• cruxnow.com
• Image: media.npr.org

Franciscan Sr Katarina Schuth told the National Catholic Reporter she sees a subtle shift in her classroom in St Paul Seminary in Minnesota.

In recently assigned reflection papers, three of her first-year students wrote about priestly ministry and the poor.

"That's the first in a long time that has been mentioned," she said.

If Francis has a long pontificate, the results will show in seminaries, as more new bishops are appointed, she added.

Seminarians, said Sr Schuth, often model their view of priesthood on their diocesan bishop, a phenomenon she has observed for the past three decades studying seminarians.

Sr Schuth said Francis's influence might diminish the trend towards a "restorationist" view of priesthood among seminarians.

Restorationist outlooks focus on traditional liturgical rubrics and emphasise priests asserting authority.

These have been a feature of seminary life, particularly during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the NCR article stated.

Sr Schuth noted that recent seminarians have embraced a viewpoint focusing on the specific powers of priesthood, with a diminishment of focus on collaborating with lay people.

There has been a strong emphasis on separating men out for priestly ministry, with separate education and religious training.

Due to a shortage of priests, many seminarians with such viewpoints will be parish priests not long after they are ordained.

Sr Schuth said lay ministers in parishes are getting older, and are more likely to be women. It is a mix which will challenge those men who are ordained in the near future.

But she said that the more seminarians are exposed to Francis, they are more likely to admire his approach.

For example, seminarians at the North American College in Rome, who have regular contact with Francis, tend to have highly positive reactions to his style.

"You can't have contact with him and not like him," she said about Francis.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic World Report

The grants were announced by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Funding has come from the John Templeton Foundation, in an effort to bridge gaps between science and faith.

Catholic institutions to receive grants are the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara (Berkeley).

"Many (religious leaders) don't get a lot of science in their training and yet they become the authority figures that many people in society look up to for advice for all kinds of things, including issues related to science and technology," said Jennifer Wiseman, director of the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion.

The grants will cover faculty, events, science resources, guest speakers and other related costs.

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