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Apr 25, 2022Liked by JD Flynn

So will seminarians who enter straight from high school now have to do the propaeduetic year before going to college?

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Apr 25, 2022·edited Apr 25, 2022

Kind of like student teaching only for a priest. I like the idea of the spiritual initiation. I would have thought that was already a part of good seminaries.

My worry is that liberal priests will blackball conservative Orthodox types.

I daily pray for fearless and holy priests so I hope this helps!

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Here in Cincinnati we already have a year of pastoral internship. Seminarians go through two years of classes then have a year of pastoral internship in a parish. The next year they have another year of classes before being ordained to the diaconate. The fifth year they have another year of classes and formation before ordained to the priesthood.

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As far as liturgical and other formation for transitional deacons during the synthesis stage, I could see it being useful for seminaries to host periodic “reunions” or “training weeks” back on the seminary campuses. Some seminaries are clearly more prepared for some of these things than others. I went to Saint Meinrad for their Associate Pastor Workshop the year after I was ordained a priest and found it very helpful and fruitful: it is intended to help “newly ordained priests make a seamless transition into parish ministry, addressing the practical tasks and challenges, spiritual concerns, identity and accountability issues inherent within this transition” (https://saintmeinrad.edu/priests-ongoing-formation/effective-pastoring-workshops/). Of the 16 or so if us who attended, I was one of two who did not go there for theology. It continues to strike me as very odd that more seminaries don’t have this kind of program on the books, because it would not be terribly resource intensive for seminaries to host this kind of program. Under PPF 6, this sounds like the sort of program that would belong to the Vocational Synthesis stage, though adapted for diaconate.

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Would the prop year have to be connected institutionally to the seminary where they will study as a single program? Eg if five bishops send their seminarians to St. Therese Seminary, could two send their men to St. Jerome Prop House and another to St. Ignatius Prop Center and two more to a different place? Or could one bishop send his domestic seminarians to one place for the prop year and his international seminarians to a prop year with an ESL program, or some such? Or does it all have to be one connected program with the seminary?

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Certainly much for the bishops and seminaries to pray about and decide. It seems there could be some losses for the transitional deacon change. With the deacons still being in seminary under the described current model, they have a year to learn from one another, practice homilies in a place designed to give quality feedback from multiple voices, and serve in a wider variety of liturgies with a wider variety of presiders than the typical parish has. I hope these opportunities for greater experience, learning, and fraternity with other transitional deacons are not lost. For the other seminarians too, there may be a loss from only having upper classmen as mentors instead of ordained men.

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This brings to my mind the following: you live in a very conservative diocese where there is emphasis in formation on Latin ,seminarians being waited on by women religious,seminarians wearing long cassocks and formators who wear garb seen in Rome. I am very much for the last year residing in a rectory where the Pastor acknowledges Pope Francis and his leadership and one who keeps church and local politics out of homilies. I can imagine the consternation of some over these new directives.Since the laity pay for many of these institutions,it might be good for some lay input.

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I think this is an excellent strategy in light of the 'sign of our times'. I can't imagine that giving men an opportunity to 'seek God in wilderness' is anything but a good thing, whether or not the young men continue on to ordination or not.

A year focused on spiritual formation for our potential priests prior to getting stuck into the intellectual formation is (once implemented) going to be very beneficial for them all. Especially for new 'reverts' or converts to the faith, a year focusing on personal and spiritual growth and 'trying on' a celibate spirituality seems to me like a no-brainer, for them and for the Church.

The opportunity to get to know your bishop seems especially important for making sure that a bishop isn't treating his priests like a CEO treats his employees (even if he is a good, humane CEO who appreciates and respects his employees). Done even mediocrely, it should be a huge benefit to both the Church and the men who experience it. Some will work out more 'efficiently' that a celibate vocation is not their calling, before years of 'sunk costs' in intellectual formation, or that they are called to a religious order, or that they are right where they need to be.

A final mildly amusing anecdote about a friend of mine, who spent 7 years in seminary only to realise THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS ORDINATION to the temporary diaconate, that he was making a huge mistake and he was not called to be a priest. Fresh with terror from this new insight he barged into his rector's office at 11 pm at night and blurted out, "I can't do it." The rector finished his night prayer, gave him a look and said "FINALLY! It took you long enough... Pack your things, you're free to go when you're ready. See you tomorrow in the pews." He married a gorgeous woman and had 7 kids (the youngest of whom is one of my good mates).

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I have not yet read the new PPF so perhaps my musings have little value. It seems that many are presuming the propaedeutic year must take place in a seminary environment. Need that be the case? Could the propaedeutic year take place in the parish setting? I am from a rural diocese and on average we get one new seminarian each year (two if we are lucky). With so few seminarians in the propaedeutic phase for smaller dioceses like my own it seems doable to place new seminarians in a parish with a pastor who will be a good spiritual mentor. Detox from the culture could still happen by restricting use of technology. Of course there would have to be some other boundaries and rules in order to keep the men from getting swept up in the busyness of parish, but theoretically it could be done. It would also cut back on the cost of another year in formation and possibly allow the bishop to get to know his new seminarians better. Granted this model might work better for a rural diocese that does not get many applicants for seminary each year. It just seems the prevailing assumption is that this propaedeutic year has to take place at the seminary. Is that truly the case? There might be other creative ways and means of doing a propaedeutic year. Thoughts?

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