The publication of the sixth edition of the Program for Priestly Formation (PPF) occasioned a tectonic shift for seminaries. We now have four stages: Propaedeutic and Discipleship (college), Configuration (graduate school), and Vocational Synthesis. For us at Conception Seminary College, it meant a lot of work to begin the Propaedeutic Stage. It seems to be bearing fruit in our first Propaedeutic cohort.
However, it is important to look specifically at the Discipleship Stage as well. This stage comprises the next two to three years in seminary. But is anything qualitatively different than a new name?
I would argue the changes are not mere semantics. Unlike the Propaedeutic Stage, which required restructuring things we already did, the spirit of college seminary work shifted with the Discipleship Stage. I summarize these as: formational progress, baptismal call, and the dimensions.
We have all met intelligent people who are socially awkward, impractical, or unsympathetic. Yet for years, men have progressed in seminary primarily by their academic rank. Indeed, it was common to be pressured to make a true freshman with AP credit a sophomore. With the move to formation stages, a seminarian must progress in seminary in proportion to his overall formation in Human, Spiritual, and Pastoral Formation, as much as Intellectual Formation. Therefore, a seminarian may need to slow down his formation regardless of his course credit.
Many PPF 6 changes are responding to priests who left active ministry. Over and again, these men said that when life got fraught, they did not have an authentic prayer life. Our Seminarian Handbook states: “The Discipleship Stage continues from the baptismal call to holiness in relationship with Jesus Christ as the seminarian’s primary task” (p. 95). A necessary priestly call will be discerned in the Discipleship Stage, but developmentally. We could say that a man must first know he is a beloved son of the Father. Then, as he demonstrates charity, he becomes a brother. At the completion of this stage, he shows a capacity for fatherhood in leadership, nurturing, and courage. Last, he will express the desire for commitment. Thus, he will be configured to Christ the priest who is “Head and Shepherd, Servant and Spouse” (PPF 6, §25).
We used to speak of four pillars of formation: Human, Spiritual, Intellectual, and Pastoral. The term is now dimensions. What’s the difference? Pillars are discreet but dimensions can overlap. When I began working in Human Formation, it was thought that I could not begin a meeting with a prayer or I might “spiritualize” my pillar. Yet there is a necessary convergence of the four to find integration. It is also worth mentioning that the Intellectual Formation dimension comes into greater prominence in the Discipleship Stage. Propaedeutic seminarians are not allowed to take philosophy courses, but these 30 credit hours begin now. Moving into this second stage, the rigors of academic life help gauge if a man can balance parochial life. Along with this change from pillars to dimensions of formation, so has the approach to priestly formation adjusted. When I was a college seminarian, the emphasis was discernment. The drawback was a lack of commitment that sometimes stunted growth. By the time I became a formator, the emphasis was doing the program. This was better, but it stressed external functions to the detriment of internal maturation. Thus, we could have men who know how to do priesthood, but struggle with real prayer and appropriate coping. The current PPF places the man at the center of formation, with a greater burden on formators to meet individual needs. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (Gaudium et Spes, 22). Then, with this Christocentric mentality, we make the individual man the center of formation. The changes of PPF 6 are a tall order to seminaries. I haven’t even spoken of benchmarks, “deep interiority,” and other expectations. However, we are not the ones most impacted. During one of our summer visits, a bishop said to the rector and me that the Church is asking much from the men with the new decrees. Indeed, the bar has been raised above anything in the recent past. My experience is that our men are up for the challenge with God’s help. Pray that the Master of the harvest will send out laborers for his harvest as we begin this new chapter, and that the Church may have the saintliest priests in her history.
— Fr. Pachomius Meade, OSB Vice-Rector
Dean of Students
