Training future priests

In his message for Vocations Sunday, Pope John Paul refers to the low rate of vocations in Europe and North America, saying that the shortage represents an opportunity to raise the standards of priests and religious by improved processes of selection and formation. 

In South Africa, we are blessed not to experience a shortage in vocations comparable to that in those regions. Indeed, the national seminaries in Pretoria face the problem of accommodating the large numbers of students, signifying an increase in vocations.

While Catholics rejoice at every new vocation, Bishop Edward Adams in his article in this issue sounds a warning that some of those who have entered training for the priesthood seem to regard their vocation as merely “a job.”

Experts in the field of formation say that vocations tend to leap in environments of economic uncertainty such as South Africa. To some, the priesthood represents one avenue towards a secure future. It may be a poorly paid job, but nevertheless one that offers protected employment.

Such a priest may not embody the ideal, but he will not necessarily be a bad priest. On the other hand, if the vocation is subject to calculation cynical or just misguided rather than a genuine desire to serve God and his people, the product of formation is likely to be of a poor quality.

In the past few years, dioceses worldwide have adapted and fine-tuned the processes by which candidates to the priesthood are selected or rejected.

The criteria usually include the applicant’s physical and mental health, his capacity to live a life of celibacy, and his commitment to the Catholic faith and its teachings.

More complicated than these yardsticks, however, is the function of discerning whether the applicant indeed has a genuine calling to the consecrated life.

Bishop Adams sets a high standard when he distinguishes between priests who say the Mass “purely as a duty,” and those who offer the sacrifice of the Mass on a deeper ethereal level.

Pope John Paul may have in mind churches with low rates of vocation when he says that the “small number of candidates to the priesthood and consecrated must not lead us to expect less and settle for a mediocre formation and spirituality.”

The same principle may be applied, perhaps even more rigorously, to regions where seminary enrolments are high.

It must be hoped that the various vocation directors have succeeded in implementing procedures that will eliminate candidate priests who are unlikely to meet the high expectations set by the Holy Father and Bishop Adams.

If there are students in our Southern African seminaries whose demeanour seems to preclude their meeting such high standards and there are some who suggest so then these should be identified and advised that their vocation lies elsewhere. Greater attention could then be directed at the formation of excellent future priests.