Changes in the pathway to priestly ordination announced in June will significantly impact dioceses and seminaries across the country.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, working with the Dicastery for the Clergy in Rome, promulgated on June 24 an updated Program of Priestly Formation (PPF) in the United States. The sixth edition of the document is designed to guide seminaries as well as diocesan and religious orders on the formation of men for the priesthood.
The program is so new that most U.S. dioceses, including Columbus, are trying to discern how to implement the new structure, which encompasses four stages designated as propaedeutic, discipleship, configuration and vocational synthesis.
“The big shift, I would say, in this is the process of priestly formation,” said Father Brian O’Connor, assistant vocations director for the diocese and pastor at Canal Winchester Saint John XXIII Church.
“Seminary formation naturally has followed an academic kind of structure and calendar. This new PPF allows for seminaries to be truly like houses of formation and not academic institutions with extra opportunities. Seminaries have done a great job over the last several years providing those extra opportunities, but it was always adjacent to the academic system.
“Now, by breaking formation into four clear stages, guys have more time to work on the other dimensions of priestly formation, which was human, intellectual, pastoral and spiritual. All four of those are equally important.”
Under the current design, a man in formation for the priesthood would enter seminary and begin with academic studies focused on philosophy before proceeding to four years of theology studies, with the final year split between classroom and parish work after being ordained a transitional deacon.
Depending on whether a candidate enters out of high school or has college experience, ordination to the priesthood currently is achieved after approximately six to nine years of study.
Under the new format, the length of time to ordination does not appear to drastically change, but how a seminarian reaches the ultimate goal will involve some rather dramatic reconfiguration.
Exactly how this new way of doing things will affect current seminarians is under review, but the seven new seminarians for the diocese starting classes this month will not be impacted, at least in the short term.
Their arrival brings the total of Columbus seminarians to 25, diocesan vocations director Father William Hahn reported, with one ordination to the priesthood scheduled next spring and a yet-to-be-determined number of candidates preparing for ordination to the diaconate in 2023.
The two most noticeable alterations in the PPF will come at the beginning and the end of the process.
For all aspirants, there will now be one to three years of what is called a propaedeutic stage, which will be spent in prayer and doing works of mercy without any college studies other than general courses. There will be no philosophy classwork during this period, which is a radical departure from the current model when men immediately begin to take philosophy courses to provide a foundation for theology studies later.
“The focus is on human and spiritual formation,” Father O’Connor said. “Seminaries have already begun to recognize the need at this time for a guy to take a little bit of a step away from our culture, which has many challenges and difficulties, and form good habits of prayer.”
In this initial stage, Father O’Connor explained, “nowhere is there a benchmark where, like you know for certain that God is calling you to be a priest. That comes during the next stage. This is more of a time for pastoral works.”
Some parallels can be drawn to what religious orders call as part of their process a novitiate, where men often spend a year together praying and doing works before moving on to seminary. Religious orders are subject to the same rules as dioceses under the new guidelines, and it remains to be seen how they will adapt their structures.
From a practical standpoint, the propaedeutic stage allows the candidate to get to know different parts and ministries in the diocese, and, on the other side, the bishop and priests have more time to become acquainted with the aspirant, particularly if someone is relatively new to the diocese or a college student who wants to pursue the priesthood for this diocese.
“Another interesting part of the propaedeutic stage, which in some ways mirrors aspects of a novitiate, is getting to know the diocese, know the history, what pastoral needs exist, what kinds of parishes there are,” Father O’Connor said.
“If you grew up at Westerville St. Paul’s, you don’t know what a parish in, say, Jackson at Holy Trinity (would be like), or if you grew up in Jackson, you may have no idea what a St. Paul’s parish would be like. So, the idea is to allow young men to have another opportunity for discernment.”
At the back end of the new version of priestly formation, one other major adjustment will be incorporated before ordination, and that involves the diaconate.
Currently, after a seminarian is ordained a transitional deacon following three years of studying theology, he remains at the seminary for a final year of theology while working as a deacon in a parish to gain hands-on ministerial experience.
That will now change, and the newly ordained deacon will have completed all seminary studies before spending a minimum of six months working solely at a parish before his ordination to the priesthood.
“That time as a transitional deacon at a parish will be finalizing the preparation for priestly ordination,” Father O’Connor said. “This will also give them a chance to work with men who are already formed as priests and learn from them.”
Between the first and last stages are discipleship and configuration. Each could last about two-four years.
“The discipleship stage is marked by philosophy studies and also more things like teaching or aspects more regularly associated with parish experiences,” Father O’Connor said. “This stage is more about discernment of a vocational calling.
“One of the benchmarks of this stage in the seminary is going from asking the question, ‘Am I called to be a priest?’ to making the statement, ‘I am called to be a priest.’ This time should give you the freedom to make that statement.”
The third level might be the most similar to the current seminary setup, and that is theology studies. None of the content in philosophy and theology classes is expected to drastically change.
“The formation there is really configuring yourself to Jesus Christ as a priest,” Father O’Connor said. “You’re not discerning ‘Am I called to be a priest?’ to now finding out who you will be as a priest.”
Numerous questions about the implementation remain up in the air, including where the propaedeutic time will be spent, how seminaries will be reconfigured and who will serve as formators to assist the men on their vocational journey.
Seminaries already had begun incorporating some of the new aspects into the process even before the new document was approved in June. Two Columbus seminarians will spend the upcoming academic year away from the Pontifical College Josephinum, which diocesan seminarians currently attend, on a pastoral year.
“I think breaking it into stages really gives guys those clear moments of ‘I’m advancing from propaedeutic to discipleship, where do I need to be?’” Father O’Connor said. “And from discipleship to configuration, he can say, ‘Yes, I’m at the point where I should be.’
“Under the previous PPF, there weren’t clear points where we were evaluating where a young man was in his discernment.”
The new PPF reflects the Vatican’s insistence on forming priests with a missionary and evangelization mindset and attempts to address the process of vetting candidates in light of the clergy scandals that have sullied the Church’s reputation in the past few decades.
Since the installation of Bishop Earl Fernandes on May 31, he has preached often about the urgent need for vocations – for men and women to consider giving their lives to Christ in service of His Church. A chief reason cited for the recent restructuring at Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center near Ohio State University was to provide an atmosphere conducive to fostering vocations.
“I’m going to steal a phrase from Sister Maria Ecclesiae (of the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus congregation) who gave a talk to the guys recently at the Quo Vadis vocation retreat at the Josephinum,” Father O’Connor said.
“She broke it down and said, ‘When you’re discerning, it’s not like you’re going to get on the wrong plane when you’re flying. There are too many people checking your ticket.’”