The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is accompanied, this year, in the Spanish Church, by the celebration of Seminary Day.
The day, which is usually celebrated around the feast of St. Joseph, had been postponed to this date because of the COVID pandemic. Under the slogan "Missionary pastors". the identity of the ministerial priesthood is highlighted as highlighted in the explanation of the Spanish Episcopal Conference for this day: "Priests, insofar as they share in the priesthood of Christ, Head, Shepherd, Spouse and Servant (PDV, n. 15), are truly called "pastors of the Church"; and insofar as they are sent by Christ, with the Apostles (Mt 28:19ff), they are essentially missionaries within a Church that is all missionary".
As the bishops of the Commission for Clergy and Seminaries of the EEC point out in the pastoral theological reflection they have published for the day "The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is for the Church in Spain the appropriate occasion to help all the People of God to become aware of the importance of the Diocesan Seminary, home and heart of the Diocese, where the seeds of vocations to the ministerial priesthood germinate.".
They also wanted to emphasize the publication of the new Ratio Fundamentalis Institutions Sacerdotalis The new training plans of the seminaries, which focuses on the training of the students in the "participation in the one mission entrusted by Christ to his Church: evangelization in all its forms".
The Seminary Day has been celebrated since 1935 with the aim of raising priestly vocations through awareness, addressed to the whole society, and in particular to the Christian communities. A day in which the collection is destined to the diocesan seminaries, for their maintenance, continuity, scholarships for seminarians... etc.
