priest – Page 8

The priest

Bishop William Lori ordained two men to the diaconate today; they’ll be ordained priests next year. Saturday, May 16, the Bishop ordains six men to the priesthood. These are happy days for the diocese of Bridgeport. So, I was thinking about the priesthood and what it means. While there are vast amounts of literature on nature of the priesthood, I thought Saint John Vianney would be an appropriate sounding board for today.

The
priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he
does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for
you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without
priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go
away, you would say, “What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord
is not longer there: we may as well pray at home.” When people wish to destroy
religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer
any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice
there is no religion.

Saint
John-Mary Vianney, The Little Catechism of the Cure of Ars

Spiritual Maternity for Priests

In early February, I mentioned the notion, the desire, perhaps even the ministry women can do for the spiritual wellbeing of priests. It is an idea that is growing in the Church and yet its importance is not being recognized by many bishops. However, Bishop Edward Slattery, bishop of Tulsa, inaugurated a work of spiritual maternity for priests in the Tulsa diocese on March 24th. The good part of this work is the on-going formation. Father Mark Kirby writes about it on his blog.

Pope announces Year of St John Mary Vianney 2009-2010

On the occasion of the 150^th anniversary of the death of the Saint Curé of Ars, John Mary Vianney, His Holiness announced this morning that from June 19, 2009 to June 19, 2010, there will be a special Year of the Priesthood under the theme of “Fidelity of Christ, fidelity of priests.”

During this Jubilee Year Benedict XVI proclaimed Saint John Mary Vianney “Patron of all priests of the world.” He will publish a Directory for Confessors and Spiritual Directors together with a collection of writings of the Supreme Pontiff concerning the essential themes of the life and mission of the priesthood today.

The Congregation for the Clergy together with the diocesan ordinaries and superiors of religious institutes will collaborate in promoting and coordinating the various spiritual and pastoral initiatives that concern the importance of the life and mission of the spriest in the Church and in contemporary society, the necessity of competent permanent formation of priests and seminarians.

The Pope will opens the special Year on 19 June with Vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica where the relics of the saintly ‘Cure of Ars’ will be brought by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, France. The pope will conclude the year on 19 June 2010, presiding at a “World Meeting of Priests” in St. Peter’s Square.

A video clip of the announcement from H2O News.

Timothy M. Dolan: priesthood could be spiritually demanding, emotionally fulfilling, intellectually rigorous — AND FUN!

‘Larger Than Life’ Figure Dolan Taught What Priesthood Means

by Father Raymond J. de Souza

National Catholic Register

The garrulous Timothy Michael Dolan, preacher and raconteur extraordinaire, chooses his
words carefully. And when ordained a bishop in 2001 in St. Louis, his first words were: “Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on me! Immaculate Heart of Mary, help me!”

He then went on to express his joy in the priesthood, his love for the Church, his delight in his parishioners — and also brought the house down with his ever-ready wit. The newly appointed archbishop of New York is just that — a larger-than-life figure completely at home with the simple faith of ordinary Catholics.

Raised in a Catholic home in Ballwin, Mo., young Tim learned the faith from parents who never missed Mass — but also looked forward to cold beer and barbecues on Sunday afternoon. That formation came to the fore when Archbishop Dolan remarked that, among other things he looked forward to in New York, he noticed hot dog vendors close by the archbishop’s residence on Madison Avenue.

Critics of Archbishop Dolan consider the backslapping, guffawing, cigar-smoking, beer-drinking prelate an old Irish neighborhood pol, eager to lead the St. Patrick’s Day parade but not sophisticated in the life of the mind or the life of the spirit. A faithful son of St. Louis, he knows not only where every parish is, but how to get from the local rectory to the nearest Steak-n-Shake, a Midwestern diner chain. A nice fellow, his critics agreed, but not to be taken seriously.Those of us who lived under his guidance at the Pontifical North American College (NAC) know better.

Father Dolan served as rector of the American seminary in Rome for seven years (1994-2001). He was my rector from 1998-2001.

We were the privileged ones who regularly heard him preach — and he is a superlative preacher — not only during Mass, but at the memorable rector’s conferences that were later collected and published to great acclaim under the title Priests for the Third Millennium.

The printed page cannot capture fully his enthusiasm — and is excised of many of the in-house comments that provoked laughter all round — no one enjoys his jokes more than he does. Yet, the conferences are evidence of a fine mind at work, with a facility for bringing the Church’s perennial wisdom to current challenges. A historian by training, Msgr. Dolan taught a course on American Church history at both the Gregorian and Angelicum universities; a demanding professor, he did not cut corners for his own seminarians.

As a seminary rector, Msgr. Dolan lived the “both/and” intuition that is at the heart of the Catholic approach: both popular piety and liturgical prayer; both traditional music and contemporary styles of worship; both adherence to a rule and an encouragement of creative initiative; both theological orthodoxy and a cultivated life of the mind; both serious formation and fraternal good times; and, yes, both the pasta and the main course at pranzo. It was from Msgr. Dolan that I learned that the priesthood could be spiritually demanding, emotionally fulfilling, intellectually rigorous — and fun!

Before arriving at the NAC, I knew that the priesthood was a life of noble service, but looked ahead to a life of duty rather than looking forward to an enjoyable life. It has been repeated so often that it has become a caricature, but the first time I ever saw the rector, rosary in one hand and cigar in the other, I knew that I had found a compelling model of the priesthood.

My fellow seminarian at the time, Father Roger Landry, editor of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., newspaper, The Anchor, has commented that Archbishop Dolan is a needed corrective to the perception that the Catholic faith is a necessary burden that strips the joy out of life. “If there’s any priest in America capable of preaching the ‘good news’ of the Catholic faith with contagious enthusiasm and heart-piercing eloquence,” he wrote upon hearing the news of the New York appointment, “it’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan.”

The appointment itself showed Archbishop Dolan at his best.

Not so much the bonhomie — though only he could have slapped Cardinal Edward Egan on the back. It surely has been some time since the cardinalatial back had been so heartily thumped, but, then, Dolan has rarely encountered a back he considered unslappable. The real Dolanesque touch was to use the questions about the appointment as a teaching moment about the liberating potential of obedience.

“I wasn’t asked,” he said simply of the message from the apostolic nuncio. He was told of the Holy Father’s decision, and, therefore, the path was clear. Obedience can be liberating. It’s a Christian truth, but a disputed one, and something that many of those watching in New York and Milwaukee may not have considered before. It reminded me of the rector’s conference on obedience that he gave to us years before — an indication that this jolly teacher is capable of speaking hard truths.

“My own spiritual director believes that it is precisely in obedience — not in celibacy, strangely enough — that the priest of today is most countercultural,” Dolan said. “This culture of denigrating obedience is particularly obvious in our beloved United States of America, which was founded on disobedience. We legitimately celebrate the courageous patriotism of the revolutionaries who risked all to gain independence from an oppressive king, yes, but we also admit that at times we do equate liberty with license, freedom with rights unbridled by duty; that we exalt dissent over docility, and view with suspicion authority, tradition and accepting things purely on faith. … Astute foreign observers of the American scene, from Tocqueville to Solzhenitsyn, and from Bedini to Mother Teresa, have keenly perceived this flaw in American society, namely, to resist obedience to God, to tradition, and to moral principles, for the sake of choice, convenience or personal preference.”

When Archbishop Dolan arrives in New York, America will discover an articulate, critical preacher of the Gospel, deeply learned in the history of the Church in the United States, and confident of her future despite all the manifest difficulties. But more than that, America will rediscover that it is a proud, happy thing to be a Catholic.

Father Raymond J. de Souza is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston (Canada) and was the Register’s Rome correspondent from 1999-2003.

Retreat offered for priests during Easter Week 2009

I would like to call your attention to the forthcoming retreat for priests that will take place during the Octave of Easter (April 13-17, 2009), at Malvern, PA. You find all information at www.clonline.us.

“Eight years ago, Msgr. Luigi Giussani, founder of the Movement Communion and Liberation, suggested that the diocesan priests in the United States following the charism of the Movement find ways to accompany their brother priests, demoralized by the image of the priesthood created by the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors. As a result, members of the Movement invited their parish priests to participate in a retreat seeking to retrieve and strengthen their experience of the incomparable beauty and unsurpassable value of their vocation.

Since 2000, such retreats have been held every year in places associated with the history of the Church in America, such as Emmitsburg, MD; St. Augustine, FL, and others. The joy and gratitude with which so many priests have responded to these retreats is a verifiable confirmation of the sacramental bond at the origin of our priestly identity.” (from the invitation letter sent to Bishops and priests)

I strongly recommend that you get in touch with all priests you know – particularly the ones who have shown even a little interest in our experience – and propose them to participate in the retreat. If money is an issue please feel free to let them know that the Knights of Columbus have once more graciously granted some money to help priests to participate.

For any further information please contact Olivetta (clnationaloffice@clhac.com or at 914-548-1275).

Spiritual maternity for priests

Do you ever think of the connection between holiness and priests? I am NOT suggesting a vague academic consideration of the topic but I am wondering about it in the concrete. Every now and again the notion –perhaps I can even say vocation– of spiritual paternity and maternity arises in me and I am not exactly sure where the idea comes from or where it is going. The matter of the holiness of priests –indeed, of all people, concerns me, but right now I am thinking specifically of the ordained’s holiness because it is a real need in our ecclesial life together today.

Friends, laity and clergy alike who work as spiritual fathers and mothers, live a beautiful vocation in walking spiritually with those who are ordained. They become familiar with the personal narratives of sin and grace, they hear about the presence of the Lord in daily living, and they know the struggles of faith, hope and charity. In a word, spiritual fathers and mothers see the reality of Divine intimacy at work.

So, let me say a very brief word about the idea of spiritual maternity for priests. Actually, let me point you in the direction of the spiritual maternity of Catherine Doherty, a well known mystic of the 20th century who had a special love for the priesthood and the enduring need of priests to be holy. Doherty said once, “I wish I could tell every priest that I share his pain and joy, whatever it may be, because I love the priesthood passionately.” But there are others as Cardinal Hummes indicates in a recent letter (see below), who have been called to this vocation.

What I am interested is real holiness, not fake spiritual sentimentality, not some vague “connection” with the divinity. Rather, holiness is a way of life centered on reality as it is given and lived in the light and tension of the Gospel, the sacraments and the Church.

Having concern for priests, Claudio Cardinal Hummes wrote in 2007 to the world’s bishops asking for help in establishing in their dioceses places of eucharistic adoration and the development of a spiritual work that looks to women to assist in flourishing of holiness in the priesthood. That letter bears greater attention and so I have linked it here.

Cardinal Hummes says many memorable things in his letter on spiritual maternity but important item that needs to rememmbered is the following:

According to the constant content of Sacred Tradition, the mystery and reality of the Church cannot be reduced to the hierarchical structure, the liturgy, the sacraments, and juridical ordinances. In fact, the intimate nature of the Church and the origin of its sanctifying efficacy must be found first in a mystical union with Christ.

For more information read my friend Father Mark’s recent essay on the subject.

“Garry & Harry” the story of twin brothers and priests: a story of hope in the face of Alzheimer’s

Fathers Garry and Harry Giroux are twin brothers, both Roman Catholic priests in a small town in upstate New York. In 2004, Father Harry was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and his brother Father Garry has been his caregiver ever since. “Garry and Harry” explores this fascinating story and the relationship of these brothers as they deal with their faith, family, and hope in the face of tragedy.

This film is the work of Steven Madeja, a freelance filmmaker and film festival director in Potsdam, NY. Madeja received a Bachelor’s with honors degree in Film from Vassar College in 2008.

Watch “Garry and Harry“

Thanks to my friend Rachel for sharing this video.

Richard G. Cipolla celebrates 25 years of priestly service

This past Sunday, the Church gathered to worship God; she observed the Presentation of teh Lord in the Temple; and she observed 25 years of priestly service to the Divine Majesty of one her sons, The Reverend Father Richard G. Cipolla, PhD, DPhil (Oxon). Father Cipolla is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT, a teacher, a husband, the father of two, and a great friend. We were colleagues at Fairfield Prep (Fairfield, CT) in late 1990s and I served the Mass he celebrated faithfully at the Bridgettine Convent (Dairen, CT). The homily Father Cipolla delivered on Sunday follows. It bears reading and using for today’s lectio.

Candelmass, 25^th Anniversary Mass, 1 February 2009, St Mary’s Norwalk

She wraps him carefully, carefully against the cold, not the cold of a New England winter, but cold nevertheless. And as she wraps him she ponders all these things in her heart. And when all is ready she and her husband bring him to the temple, that the law may be fulfilled. And they bring their thank-offering for the birth of their son. They bring him to the temple to dedicate him, to redeem him as the first born with their little gift, meant to be a symbol and yet everything. As they enter the darkened temple the lamp burning before the holy of holies flickers, flickers in recognition of the reality replacing the symbol, the flesh of God enters the place of the symbol of God, and reality is changed, the warp and woof of the universe of space-time explodes silently, as the creator of space-time enters into the man made temple and shatters forever the disconnect between human history and the eternal God.

And you notice that is not the high priest who recognizes this child. It is not the religious authorities who officially wait for the Messiah, the redeemer. They are probably watching their wide screen plasma TV in the rectory. It is the pious old man, Simeon, who waits in the temple for the reality, and who recognizes this reality, mirabile dictu, when he sees it and when he recognizes the reality he takes the child in his arms and sings, he sings in perfect chant: Nunc dimittis. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And he holds the child to himself, the child who is his creator, and he sees the suffering of this child as a man, he sees what redemption means, he sees the sword of suffering in the heart of the child’s mother. He sees, he weeps, but he weeps with tears of joy.

The wreaths are long gone. The Christmas trees are part of the compost of town dumps. Our houses are bare, secular, waiting for the end of winter. And in the midst of all of this the Church demands that we celebrate the last feast of Christmas, the purification of St Mary the Virgin, commonly known as the Presentation of Christ in the temple, when we bless candles, reminding us that the child born on Christmas night is the light of the world. The world has forgotten Christmas until next Halloween. We, as St John reminds us, are not of the world, so we joyfully celebrate this last of the great Christmas feasts, a feast that is the climax of Epiphany, the feast that is one more answer to the question: who is this child? Who is this man? What does all of this mean? What is the cross? What is Easter? For mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples. Quite an affirmation. This is not theoretical or cultural Christianity, no pie in the sky business, no teddy bear in the sky God, no warm fuzzies. The astounding claim that the child that Simeon takes from Mary and holds in his arms is the Logos of the universe, the meaning of existence, the auctor of creation itself: this is at the heart of what the Christian faith is and what we do this afternoon is an antidote not only to the grey and boring secularism that marches on and tramples almost everything in its path but also is an antidote to that reduction of Christianity to right living, to morality, or to personal feeling that is grounded in an individualism that is contrary to the entire New Testament.

When people ask me, as they have for over twenty five years, why did you become Catholic? They ask me this for various reasons, some good, some bad. But in the end what they want is for me to give some sort of personal journey story, something that I could do on Oprah, and would warm people’s hearts. I am not adverse to warming people’s hearts, but that has nothing to do with why I became a Catholic and remain a dedicated Catholic. Why I became Catholic is because it is real and therefore true; it is true and therefore real. Someone with my scientific background could never believe in anything that did not have a grounding in this world of atoms, of electrons, of muons, of the very stuff of the universe, of the stuff of which we are made. An idealistic religion, as some forms of American Christianity have become with all of the attendant corollaries, is something I could never ultimately take seriously. At least classical Judaism takes history seriously, seeing history through the lens of the relationship of God with the Jewish people, not the individual, but the people, the collective, the community. Here the God of Israel is engaged with his people, to say the least, chastising them, goading them on, calling them back, but never less than real in their own history. History. This is the key. Cardinal Newman said: to know history is to cease to be protestant. Now saying this I emphasize my debt and my love for my protestant upbringing which gave me a knowledge of the Bible and which set me upon my path. But when I found out that the Bible has a history and that history is inseparable from the oral tradition of the Church and the living teaching magisterium of the Church beginning with St Paul down to today. When I found out that Christianity has a history and that history is inseparable from the human history of the past two thousand years and that the Church is imbedded and inseparable from that history, then one is forced to the conclusion that either God entered human history with the birth of Christ and therefore the very stuff of human history is forever transformed, or the whole thing is a nice story that gives us a vague hope that Kafka is not right and that we do not die like a dog.

The event we celebrate in this Mass, the presentation of Christ in the temple, is part of human history. If it is not, forget about it. It means nothing. And what we do together this evening is part of human history. It may not be observed by many people, just as the birth of Christ was observed by very few people, just as his death on the cross was observed by very few people, just as his post-resurrection appearances were observed by very few people. But nevertheless it is happening in this world in this place as a part of human history. And what we do here is the context of the Church’s liturgy, in the context of the Mass. We are not just a bunch of people coming together to commemorate a religious festival, like the Romans did with Saturnalia. We are not here to ponder intellectually or mentally or heartfully what
Christianity means. We do not come here to learn. We come here to connect and be connected to the pivot event of human history: the death and resurrection of the Lord of history. We come here to worship the God who is above his creation, eternal, all powerful, the ground of being, but who comes among us in the forms of bread and wine, stuff of the universe and pretty basic stuff at that, who comes to us in this church at this altar in this space and time, who comes as the Son to offer himself up to the Father in the eternal sacrifice that alone makes that connection between God and man possible and real. Simeon held the child Jesus in his arms. What a wonderful thing. But we go far beyond that. In this Mass the Son offers himself to the Father, Calvary is re-presented, and the infinite grace of that offering is bestowed upon us, and as we receive Holy Communion symbol and reality become one, as God enters our body to transform us from death into life. This is where worship and life come together. This is where culture and faith come together. This is where beauty and truth kiss, this is where eternity and time intersect. This is where those whom we have loved and who have died in Christ are with us in the most real way as part of the body of Christ. This is where the angels and archangels and the blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints join with us in this offering of sacrifice and praise.

And all of this in sign and symbol that partake of the reality of God in this extraordinary form of the Roman rite. The ordinary form, the Mass of Paul VI, is known as that because it happens to be celebrated in most Catholic parishes today. That is what ordinary means. The form we celebrate here and now, given back to the Church by the courage and foresight of the present Pope, is extraordinary in the jargon of the Church. Extraordinary means here not exceptional but rather not ordinary. This is the rite that is the distillation of the Catholic faith of at least fifteen hundred years; this is the stuff of Catholicism, not man made, not the product of scholarship or committees, but rather the product of organic growth, like a wonderful old house with some funny and strange features, rooms that seem too small or too large, some curious old furniture, and yet when you step into it, you know that this is a home, a home that has been lived in by countless generations, a home that is meant to be enjoyed, contemplated, a place to have fun in, a place that is home in the sense that it is full of that love that makes a home a real home and not merely a house.

Some of you know the ending of TS Eliot’s poem, “Little Gidding”:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

The first time I celebrated this form of the Mass, these lines came to me, for I knew this place for the first time as the place for which I was ordained a Catholic priest. And what I have come to realize is that the Traditional Mass has been given back to the Church by the grace of God in order that new generations might know the place for the first time in all its beauty and truth. For how many years was this place deformed by lifeless, legalistic celebrations of the Mass? How long was this place hidden from a laity consigned to being mere spectators at a clerical event? How long was the entrance to this home barred by those who refused to believe that the people of God were intelligent enough and faithful enough and graceful enough to live fully in this home and so built a new home to appeal to a generation that already has grey hair and is as outdated as is the Brady Bunch split level house? This form of the Mass has been given back to the Church as a gift, a gift to be shared, a gift to be cherished, a gift that lies at the very heart of what it means to be Catholic.

This task of renewal is indeed formidable. It is much more formidable than that which President Obama faces in this time of national crisis. The liturgical damage of the past forty years is deep; it is as high as a mountain, for it is not only a question of liturgical form, it is that mountain of willful ignorance that has confused worship of God with worship of the self. And there are days when I look at that mountain and say to myself that there is no way to return. But then I look at the great number of young children at the coffee hour following the 9:30 Solemn Mass on Sunday; I see them running around, I see them stuffing a doughnut into their mouths, I see them with their young parents who have brought them to the Mass, I see them as children whose only experience of Mass is precisely this what we do today, the worship of the transcendent God who became flesh: then the mountain does not seem as high. How fitting is that we celebrate this Mass in this church whose lack of an altar rail, whose absent side altars, whose soiled wall to wall carpet, all speak of the liturgical deterioration of the past forty years. And how fitting it is that this parish church, not one of the wealthy parish churches of this diocese, is determined to bring back the beauty of this church, not for beauty per se, but so that it can once again be a fit setting for the coming of God in the flesh to his people and their response of adoration.

Heady stuff, you say. Quite far from the happy-slappy Catholicism most Catholics have know for the past forty years. Quite far from the liberal Protestantism that has joined forces with the secular steamroller, quite far from the radically individualistic evangelical Christianity that draws thousands to the mega-churches on a Sunday. Quite far from the generic American religion that is a cross between vestiges of Christianity and vague moral stirrings. Quite far indeed. As far as eternity. As far as infinity. The infinity of the Logos, of the reason that holds the universe together. The infinity of the God who did not need us yet created us of his will. But ultimately the infinity of love, the love that knows no bounds, no not any, even to death, even to death on a cross for us, pro nobis, death for life, my life, your life, the only infinity that means anything at all, the infinity that became finite in the womb of Mary for the sake of love.

The changing face of the monastic life

A Spiegel Online article of January 25, 2007 looks into the monastic life from the German perspective: fewer monks and nuns professing vows and more lay people for a way to make sesne of their lives. The experience of the monks and nuns in Europe, in this case Germany, is not unlike the experience one can have in monasteries in the USA when it comes to diminishing numbers, lack of vision and hope for the future, and with plentiful examples of liturgical & theological dissent. One can’t forget that so many of the ’68ers are still in charge.

But not all is bunk as there are a number of indicators pointing out that people are considering the monastic life anew. In fact, there are bright, generous and fun men and women entering the monasteries: they are on fire with the reality of serving and loving the Lord and His Church; they are ready to spend themselves for the eternal good of others and they are willing to preach Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior for humanity. That doesn’t mean that thousands of men and women are running to cloister but those are very willing to take up the sacrifice of the cloister seriously. In accepting Christ one is never disappointed or easily thrown under the bus.

BUT there are equally bright, generous and loving people whose vocation is not to enter the monastery but it is to follow Christ more deeply in following a rule of life –like the Rule of Saint Benedict– while living in the world. The oblate life (also referred to as a third order or even in a secular institute) is beautiful and flourishing today.

I’ve had this article in my file for a while but some interesting points are worth considering even now. Monastic life in the 3rd millennium.

Visitation of Catholic Seminaries & Houses of Formation: Final Docs

In 2005-2006, the Congregation for Catholic Education conducted an Apostolic visitation of all the seminaries and houses of formation which prepare men for the sacrament of Holy Orders. The visitation was coordinated by Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, a veteran seminary rector. The Congregation’s document is signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the Prefect and Archbishop Jean-Louis Bruguès, O.P. the under-secretary.

Cardinal O’Malley notes in his letter to the US bishops that, in general, the report is positive, healthy but indicates the holes in the formation programs, namely:

– Mariology and Patristics;

– a commitment to sentire cum Ecclesia in the area of moral theology, particularly homosexual behavior;

– need for continued vigilance toward matters of the internal forum;

– that there be a greater collaboration between bishops and rectors to ensure consistency of formation for seminarians during times of vacation (what do seminarians do when they aren’t in school or being supervised?);

– that Mass be celebrated every day in the seminary, including Sunday;

– that only priest personnel vote for the advancement of candidates;

– that there be a check for irregularities the program;

– and to know and deal with the impediments candidates may have incurred at the start of formation.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s letter to the US bishops

The Final Report from the Congregation

NO formation program of priestly formation is perfect. As is all reports there are some items that never surface with honesty: prayer life, assent to

what the Gospel teaches, assent to magisterial teaching on all matters, sexuality, service to those in need, healthy interpersonal relationships with men, women and consecrated religious. Though I can’t say with certainty that the interviews were dishonest I can say that there is a certain amount of non-disclosure based on the context of the seminarians and faculty and who made up the visitation committee. Not all committees were equal. Plus, the bishop with a seminary in his diocese had an opportunity to dispute what was written in the report. Some things can be rewritten. What I am also interested in are the names of the seminaries and formation houses who are doing the good work and those who need to revamp their programs. In all of this review and hype about programs, we need to keep one cnetral fact straight: keep the focus on Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Without Christ, what’s point?