Interview with the Secretary for Seminaries, Congregation for Clergy
The Holy See has just updated the guidelines for the formation of priests. Bishop Patrón Wong explains the new document.
How do you assess the numerical evolution of priestly vocations?
-The priesthood has never been a question of numbers. What really matters is the holiness of priests. A priest who gives himself faithfully in the priestly ministry helps so many people, his heart is full of names; he helps even without realizing it, because his priestly life alone is a great good for many.
On the other hand, pastoral needs are not solved by priests alone. For that there is the apostolate of the laity and of religious men and women. However, the number is necessary, because vocations mature in community and for this a sufficient number of seminarians is required to form an environment and create a formative climate.
What is the current profile of candidates for the priesthood?
-Today's society needs evangelizers who perceive the good things in so many people and tune in to them, because we proclaim the Kingdom of God which is the Kingdom of God. "is already among you" (Lk 17:21). Priests are needed who speak a comprehensible language, who "touch" with mercy the reality of all people, who put themselves at the service where they are needed and without ambiguity, who are free before any other interest, who live a profound detachment from material things, who offer an example of human and Christian maturity, who know how to love everyone, especially those who are not loved. These traits, which are those of the priestly life and ministry of always, are current, because today's world needs priests.
When addressing priests, the Pope is also demanding. What does he ask of them?
-It is logical that the Holy Father is concerned about priests and has towards them gestures of closeness and at the same time of demand. But I have noticed that he shares his own experience of priestly ministry.
And as proof is a button, I would like to let him speak on a point that has a lot to do with lifelong learning: "But above all I would like to speak about one thing: the encounter among priests, among you. Priestly friendship: this is a treasure, a treasure to be cultivated among you. Priestly friendship. Not everyone can be a close friend. But how beautiful is a priestly friendship. When priests, like two brothers, three brothers, four brothers know each other, talk about their problems, their joys, their expectations, so many things... Priestly friendship. Look for this, it is important. Be friends. I believe that this helps a lot to live the priestly life, to live the spiritual life, the apostolic life, the community life and also the intellectual life: priestly friendship. If I meet a priest who says to me: 'I have never had a friend', I would think that this priest has not had one of the most beautiful joys of priestly life, priestly friendship. This is what I wish for you. I wish you to be friends with those whom the Lord places before you for friendship. I desire this in life. Priestly friendship is a strength of perseverance, of apostolic joy, of courage, and also of a sense of humor. It is beautiful, very beautiful". (Meeting with priests and seminarians, May 12, 2014).
What exactly is the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis?
-The Ratio Fundamentalis is a document that establishes the general guidelines for the formation of priests. It includes a whole process, which begins with vocational accompaniment, intensifies during the seminary years and continues throughout the priestly life. The most important thing is that the priest is always in formation and that this formation is integral.
These are only general guidelines, which each nation and each Seminary must then adapt to its own reality, always in dialogue with the culture and considering the characteristics of the Church in each place. Fundamental regulations. The publication of the Ratio Fundamentalis is just the starting point of a process of renewal of priestly formation that will continue in every Episcopal Conference and in every Seminary, always with the help of the Congregation for the Clergy.
What is in the new Ratio, and what distinguishes it from the previous one?
-The new Ratio establishes the "map" for the formation of priests from an interdisciplinary perspective. The text is broader than the previous one because it has incorporated the content of many documents that the Church has been publishing on priestly formation during the last forty years, and is in full continuity with it.
At the same time, the formative proposal is renewed by incorporating the positive and encouraging experiences that in the last decades have been carried out in many Seminaries, offering an adequate pedagogical mediation to facilitate its practical application. If we want to point out some insistencies, they would be four: formation is of the interior man, it is always integral, it is done in a gradual way and demands careful accompaniment and discernment.
Therefore, the formation of priests is not only intended to train them intellectually or in practical skills....
-God consecrates the whole person through priestly ordination, so that he becomes a sign in the midst of God's people. This fact demands that the whole person be formed in its many facets.
First of all, it is the formation of the heart of a disciple of Jesus who configures himself to Christ the Servant, Shepherd, Spouse and Head in the concrete form of pastoral charity. Moved by this love for the people of God, the seminary candidate and then the seminarian and the priest remain attentive to various aspects of his life that help them to render a better evangelizing service: the human aspect, the spiritual aspect, the intellectual aspect and the pastoral aspect. Each of these dimensions has its place in formation. We refer to the integration of all of them when we use the expression "integral formation".
Is personal accompaniment before and after ordination important?
-The journey of faith is personal, but it is not done alone. We all need the help of brothers and sisters who listen to us, who sometimes correct us and help us discern the will of God. Personal accompaniment has different characteristics in vocation ministry, in initial formation and in ongoing formation, but it is always necessary.
The regularity and depth of accompaniment determine to a great extent the quality of formation. It is a service provided by formators, spiritual directors and confessors. Professionals such as doctors and psychologists also help, but what is really important is that the candidate for the priesthood learns to rely on the help of others in his maturation process in complete freedom and guided by love for the truth. The accompaniment is also group, it helps the relationships between seminarians or priests to constitute a formative climate.
Can anyone who feels called by God to be a priest be a priest? How does one distinguish a true vocation?
-In several paragraphs of the Ratio Fundamentalis insists on the importance of vocational discernment, which should be done during each of the stages of the Seminary and then always in the priestly life. There is an era in which the object of discernment is what vocation, that is, what God is calling me to. There is another time when the emphasis is on the how, that is, how the Lord wants me to exercise the priestly ministry.
It is always important to discern the formative attitudes, so that the person is really involved in his growth process. It is normal that, sooner or later, some seminarians leave the Seminary. What is really important is that they have grown as men and as Christians and find a way of life in which they can fulfill the will of God. Accompanying those who have left is one of the most delicate tasks that formators usually do. It is normal for a young man who has left the Seminary to be grateful for all the good he has received and to have made determinations towards a greater maturity in his life of faith. Thus, his stay in the Seminary has not been a lost time, but a true gift from God.
What help does the priest need in his formation, in his spiritual life, in his apostolic activity?
-Priests have many means at their disposal for their ongoing formation. The first means is each one of them, who is called to live his vocation faithfully and to be primarily responsible for his formation. Then there is the priestly fraternity, because priests are co-responsible for the formation of their brothers. How helpful is a healthy climate of positive relationships marked by Christian and priestly values! Examination of conscience and sacramental confession are wonderful means within everyone's reach. In every diocese there are priests with a certain experience who help their own confreres through spiritual direction.
Great help is offered by the community. We could say that the community is entrusted to the care of the priest and the priest is, in turn, entrusted to the care of the community. It is great to have lay people, religious men and women who pray for the priests, help them in various aspects of their life and ministry and even correct them fraternally when necessary. In every diocese there is a commission for the care of priests that undertakes many actions on their behalf. The bishop has a delicate mission in this regard, which requires him to be close to all priests and to have a great capacity for discernment.
In the document we read that chastity "is not a tribute to be paid to the Lord", but a gift from God. Could you explain this?
-This is a quote from a document on priestly celibacy. Just before that comes the central idea: it is about "a path to the fullness of love". (RFIS, 110). In married life the capacity to love is concentrated in one person who is chosen forever, but in the option for celibacy the capacity to love is broadened and opened to many recipients, especially to those who are not loved. So being celibate does not imply loving less, but loving more. One renounces an exclusive love in order to live an inclusive love capable of embracing everyone. This deep affective experience is expressed in the words of consecration that the priest repeats every day: this is my body that gives itself for everyone.
To live this fullness of love can only be a gift of God, because it is he who mercifully looks upon everyone. We call this disposition to love everyone with a love that comes from God "pastoral charity" and it is the soul and the driving force of the life and activity of priests.
The priest serves a specific group of people, but he must have a missionary spirit How do the two things combine?
-The priest is not only the chaplain of a small group of people. It is true that he is entrusted with a portion of the people of God, but his mission goes beyond the walls of the temple and the group of faithful Catholics, because it is a universal mission.
Jacques Hamel, murdered in France on July 26, 2016. He was certainly entrusted with a parish, but he had established a current of sympathy with the whole society, where most of the people were non-Catholics or non-Christians. His death was mourned by all of them, to the extent that they have recently erected a monument in his honor. Like Fr. Hamel, there are many, many priests who do good to all, participate creatively in social networks and are full citizens in the global village. The profound reason is that in the Church and in every believer and especially in priests there are two balancing forces: communion and mission.
Will these indications be adapted to the widely varying conditions at each site?
-This is the task of the Episcopal Conferences which, with the help of the formators of the Seminaries of each country, will elaborate during the next few years their Ratio national. That is, the norms for priestly formation for that territory. Many aspects will be concretized and nuanced there. On the other hand, the Ratio Fundamentalis aims to offer security to all in what in the experience of the Church and from a general vision is considered to be opportune for formation.
In the elaboration of the national norms, the Congregation for the Clergy will collaborate with each Episcopal Conference, so that each Seminary and each seminarian can be helped in the personal and communitarian vocational response. To this end, the Congregation for the Clergy is organizing a Congress to be held in October 2017, which will be attended by the Bishops and formators who will then elaborate the Ratio national.
Anything else you would like to add?
-The audience of Palabra are believers and not only priests. I would like to emphasize that all Christians are on a journey of ongoing formation, that all must discern their vocation and put it into practice according to God's will, and for this they require adequate accompaniment. With this I wish to underline that what is said about the formation of priests is in some way valid for everyone and invites the whole Christian community to set out on a path of ongoing formation.
