Pray with the Pope: Who Will Form Our Future Priests?

by Chris Chatteris SJ · May 6, 2024

Seminarians at St John Vianney Seminary

Pope’s Prayer Intention for May: Let us pray that men and women religious and seminarians grow in their own vocational journey through human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation, that leads them to be credible witnesses of the Gospel.

The greatest need in formation — after good, well-motivated candidates — is for mature formators. On this everyone is agreed, but the problem is that few older priests and religious are willing to do the job. We all want good formators in the seminary or the novitiate, but we want someone else to step forward.

Why this resistance? For two reasons, I think. The first is that the job of formator ties you down, because the first rule of formation is “be present”. One cannot have that consistent, positive influence on the young person if one is never in the house.

Secondly, there is nowhere to hide. Those in formation inevitably get to know you well, warts and all, and this can be uncomfortable, threatening even.

And yet, unless we do this work of accompaniment, we will not get the well-formed young members we all desire. The young people may well come to the novitiate or orientation seminary with great generosity and enthusiasm, but it is an immense challenge for them “to keep their intention pure”, in the words of St Ignatius. The challenge is to maintain their good motivations over the long course of their training.

There are many temptations on the journey. Among these is allowing one’s identity as a religious or a seminarian to be subtly undermined by too great an identification with other groups, for example NGO workers or university students. Of course, it can be helpful to make professional comparisons, to note the hard work required of a social worker or the dedicated study of a medical student. Indeed, that can inspire a theological student to work harder.

However, even if a seminarian or young religious is studying for a degree, he or she is not just a university student or a member of an NGO, but primarily a member of a religious community or a diocese — and it is these bodies which must take pride of place in the process of human and spiritual formation.

Finding time to pray

Another difficulty is finding the time for prayer and sacrament in the midst of academic studies. When there is a clash between the spiritual life and academic deadlines, in my experience the academic deadlines almost always win. In many cases, prayer goes out of the window completely, and at this point there can be a serious crisis in the young person’s life. So it is indispensable for a wise and understanding formator to be at hand to guide the young person through the crisis. I believe that many a vocation has been lost because of a lack of formators at this crucial juncture in the life of a religious or seminarian.

A further area of challenge is social media. This is a whole world of de facto formation from which the formator is excluded. The glimpses I have had into this world suggest that much of it has a negative effect on religious and seminary formation. A lot of material on social media is “fake news”, what we used to call lies. This is not good for people who are dedicated to following the One who is the “way, the life and the truth”.

Much of social media is superficial. That is not good for people who are seeking depth in their lives. Social media can also be hugely time-consuming, to the extent that a young religious or seminarian might end up spending more time on social media than in prayer.

So we pray not only for those in formation but also that the Lord will give a grace to those already formed in the priesthood and religious life — that of being available to guide our future priests and religious in their formation.

The Catholic Church in a democracy

The Catholic Church teaches that political power should be exercised for the common good, with a particular concern for the poor and marginalised, including the unborn. This teaching is grounded in the belief that all people are made in God’s image and thus have inherent dignity and worth.

In a democracy, the Catholic Church emphasises the importance of every person’s civic responsibility, and emphasises the need to promote the common good through active participation in the political process. This includes the right to vote, the right to seek public office, and the need to hold elected officials accountable for their actions.

The common good consists of three essential elements:

– Respect for the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person.

– The social wellbeing and development of all people. “Development is the epitome of all social duties,” as the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes (No 1908).

– Stability and security of a just order. “It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members,” the Catechism states (1909).

The Church has a longstanding and Gospel-based concern for social justice, which involves working to change unjust structures and systems that perpetuate poverty, inequality, and exclusion. This means that the Church often takes positions on political issues, such as poverty, human rights, and the environment.

The Church also holds that the right to life is non-negotiable, and therefore firmly opposes legislation that permits abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.

At the same time, the Church recognises that politics is a complex and messy business, and that Catholic Social Teaching does not always align precisely with any one political party or ideology.

The Church is committed to fostering dialogue and collaboration among all people of goodwill, including those with differing political views.