By The report also warns seminaries must not become an “artificial environment” detached from the ordinary life of the faithful.
The General Secretariat of the Synod has published a preliminary report urging that women’s “views and assessments” be given due weight in the discernment of candidates for priesthood and warning against seminary models that separate future priests from the ordinary life of the people of God.
The text gathers conclusions from a synod study group tasked with examining priestly formation in a synodal key. The proposals are not definitive and have been forwarded to Pope Leo XIV for review.
One central concern in the report is the need to rethink seminary formation so it does not foster a culture of separation from parish life. “The formation itinerary must not create artificial environments detached from the ordinary life of the faithful,” the document says, calling instead for formation in “close contact with the daily life of the people of God.”
The report says the seminary “should not be a prolonged experience far from the people of God” and proposes “other formative modules along the way, not alternative but complementary to the ‘place/time’ of the seminary.” Those modules could include residence in parish communities or other ecclesial settings, while avoiding any further extension of overall formation time.
Such isolation, it warns, can become fertile ground for unhealthy dynamics. The report says this approach “will avoid the condition of separation where irresponsibility, dissimulation, and clerical infantilism are more easily bred.”
The document also stresses the importance of a “real experience of the life of faith and commitment in the Christian community” before entering specific vocational paths, describing it as an indispensable condition for initial discernment.
On selection for ordination, the report says the people of God should be “truly listened to” in the process “in view of the conferral of holy orders,” including consultation with the candidate’s pastor and those who have known his pastoral service — “giving due importance also to the views and assessments of women.”
The publication is part of a broader move toward transparency as the synod releases the work of its study groups, with additional reports expected in the coming weeks, including texts on liturgy in a synodal perspective and on the status of episcopal conferences, ecclesial assemblies, and particular councils.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
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Bishops, please stop listening to us. We are often individually as stupid as any infantile cleric. And “Learning” from synods composed of many of us is not the way to overcome a poor formation.
There is a Vatican II document that gives advice on clerical formation. I have read it a couple of times and do not recall that it extolled the wisdom that could be gained from looking to us for advice on clerical formation.
Being a proponent for women priests, I am struggling with this article not identifying the process by which a woman’s input can improve seminarians’ focused sacramental education.
“leading to a woman’s views and assessments and be given DUE WEIGHT in the discernment of candidates for the priesthood and warning against seminary models that separate future priests from the ordinary life of the people of God.”
Again, the hierarchy seems to be “toying” with the full contribution of sacred women. Unquestionably, women are society’s heavy lifters. A primary example was my Irish grandmother, who sacrificed her life while giving birth to 13 babies. Her husband just stood by.
If we ordain a woman, could our aged dogmatic restrictions tolerate the change?
Watch this space…
“If we ordain a woman, could our aged dogmatic restrictions tolerate the change?”
Kindly point out why, how, and where there is an expiration date on the teachings of Christ, who is “is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8).
As for how “a woman’s input can improve seminarians’ focused sacramental education,” there are many wonderful Catholic female theologians (I know several personally) who have plenty to teach seminarians about theology, the sacraments, and much more.
One of the presenting symptoms of pathological leftism suffered by people such as MorganD is-and I think it has Marxist roots, is a belief that if novelty isn’t a panacea, it’s certainly better-to the point that their neophilia is pathological.
Of course in many cases it’s just a vehicle to impose their will on others. If it’s not in the DSM, it should be there, but in any case, it’s another manifestation of the same disorder that led the late Roger Scruton to coin the phrase “oikophobia”.
Metaphorically, MorganD would come across a centuries old Cathedral, declare it inordinately lavish, ornate and wasteful, an distraction and an impediment to the inherent human desire to seek God and would want to demolish in order to erect some soul-stealing, Brutalist eyesore under the guise of using the proceeds for charity.
Carl. I know that we have previously discussed this subject.
As I read the responses, I found a diatribe of insults that reduced the dialogue to a dog fight. And, with no crisp answer from the writers to discard female ordination. Female isolation may be described as discrimination.
You: “There are many wonderful Catholic female theologians.” EWTN: We must address social injustice issues from a Catholic perspective, focusing on WOMEN’S RIGHTS. Create support networks for women facing personal and SPRITUAL challenges.
Dogma lite: Christ invited only males to his last supper.
Mother Church is female.
Apostolic Succession: The belief that only men can be validly ordained as they represent Christ, who was male.
Create support networks for women facing personal and spiritual challenges.
Heb 3:8 – “Do not harden your heart.” I could interpret hardening as an invitation to pray to Jesus.
Thank you.
https://ewtn.co.uk/article-why-christ-wont-let-his-church-ordain-women/
This is exactly why syndodmania must stop. One bad idea after another. My suggestions to the synodalistas who sit at round tables contemplating theirs and others’ navels – get a job.
“Being a proponent for women priests”
Being as you discarded the prohibitions on divorce and re-marriage, we shouldn’t be surprised. Heresy always begins below the belt.
Then again, I suspect this is just a manifestation of your gender fluidity. In spite of your assertions to being a mature-age, male, military vet your rants read like those of a teenage girl who still has a bedroom full of stuffed animals.