Life in the Seminary: Men Face Strict Rules

  • Thread starter Thread starter Catholic_Press
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Catholic_Press

Guest
The seminarians’ wallets are empty, except for driver’s licenses and insurance cards. To buy anything, they must ask their superiors for money – an exercise in obedience and a reminder that material things aren’t important.

More…
 
Very interesting. I think that those young men who are able to shuck their worldliness through this seminary will end up much better priests than the normal “run of the mill” priests we’ve gotten over the past years since Vatican II. Although, I do have to say the young ones we’re getting now are head and shoulder over the ones that went through seminary in the late '60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.
 
Seminaries that form men for the secular priesthood should not look like this. The semianry is to prepare them for their ministry which will not look like this.

The seminary in this article is for the Neocatechumenal Way which the article says is not a religious order but it is a religious community.

Personally I have issues with this group but that is for another thread.
 
I lived this way for a year about 15 years ago.

I was traveling the US doing youth ministry with NET Ministries. IIRC, we got $50 a month to cover worn out clothes, toiletries, giving and occasional road trip / free day food. They covered health insurance, housing, travel, food and program costs.

It was quite liberating to not need money and not have to worry about money, especially in a faith environment. Makes you realize what your needs really are versus your wants and desires. Doesn’t seem like a bad idea even for diocesan priests. It sure was good experience for this future secular consumer…
 
I was a seminarian with a religious community from 1975 through 1982. The rules described in this article are certainly no stricter than the rules we lived by when I was a seminarian. I think it’s good to have these rules, but I didn’t realize they were that unusual among seminaries.
 
I know several priests who have worked with seminarians and priests from the Neocatechumenal Way and, while there were exceptions, overwhelmingly the experience was negative. I have had limited contact with them and my experiences were mixed.

I do think there are some serious issues with the manner in which their seminaries are run. Their seminarians who become priests tend to have a much more difficult time making the transition from seminary life to parish life. Many have also commented that there seems to be cult-like behavior by members.

Some people have nothing but good things to say about them, but the vast majority of people who encounter them seem to have some kind of negative experience.
 
I did six months of initial entry training (Basic/AIT) with the US Army five summers ago, welcome to my world ha ha ha. 😃
 
Cult leaderships make their members wholly dependent on them, like making them ask permission to go to the toilet. Priests don’t have a vow of poverty, do they? They’re just supposed to live frugally(?)

My tuppenceworth: You need to damp down egotism but not make men dependent, effeminate or break their spirit. They’ll be required to run churches and parishes one day.
 
Layman said:
Cult leaderships make their members wholly dependent on them, like making them ask permission to go to the toilet. Priests don’t have a vow of poverty, do they? They’re just supposed to live frugally(?)

My tuppenceworth: You need to damp down egotism but not make men dependent, effeminate or break their spirit. They’ll be required to run churches and parishes one day.
Click to expand...
You are right that secular priests do not make any vows. The promise obedience to their bishop, but it’s a different kind of obedience than that which is practiced by religious. The promise celibacy. Even that is different from the vow of chastity made by religious. There is some legitimate concern when you train secular priests as if they were monastic or mendicant religious. The whole idea is that these are different callings. You should not confuse them or blend them. Being a secular priest is not the same as being a religious who is also a priest at the same time.

That being said, there is nothing effeminate about asking for permission, being dependent on a community and a superior. There is nothing cultish about it either and it does not break the spirit.

In our Franciscan tradition we do ask for permission for almost everything, including leaving the house. No we do not ask for permission to use the toilet. There are some things that are considered common sense. But we do ask for permission to buy things, to keep gifts, to go places, to travel, and even to pray extra hours. We do not have money in our pocket. Every house has a brother who is the procurator. He controls the funds of the community. When you need money you must ask him for it and you must tell him what it’s for. You must also sign for it.

We do have schedules that we follow, even if you’re attached to a parish. You must attend the Liturgy of the Hours with the community. You must drop everything to attend community meals, community recreation and community prayer. You must leave your parish alone for weeks at a time to attend the community retreat, a chapter or other important community matters. Usually you hire a secular priest or a priest from another religious order to cover your parish.

You may not be ordained without the permission of the supeior and the vote of the community. Our most famous case was Fr. Solanus Casey who made solemn vows as a Capuchin Franciscan, but the night before he made solemn vows he was ordered to write in his own hand that he would accept the denial of his request to be ordained, if the major superior so mandated. That was the only way that he could make solemn vows and remain in the order, if he put his entire future and life in the hands of the major superior. That has not changed in most mendicant and monastic orders and it has not broken anyone’s spirit or made anyone effeminate. I’m not sure whay you say this.

As to the seminarians of the neocatechumate, I have concerns, because this austerity is not part of the life of secular men. They are seculars, they are not consecrated men, even though they are a religious community of sorts. I’m not sure I know what their canonical status is. I hope that the experience will be good for the seminarians and not harmful for them when they find themselves among their secular confreres.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Aren’t these men to be secular priests? Then training them like monks does not seem apt. To go from a highly-controlled environment of subordination, to parish life in the secular world, where people are looking to you for leadership, does not seem ideal.

The thrust of the article was that the NeoC’s might be overdoing it a bit. That’s all I meant.

e.g. “They have virtually no time alone, on or off campus, and are required to travel in pairs, “two by two,” like Jesus’ disciples.”
 
Layman said:
Aren’t these men to be secular priests? Then training them like monks does not seem apt. To go from a highly-controlled environment of subordination, to parish life in the secular world, where people are looking to you for leadership, does not seem ideal.

The thrust of the article was that the NeoC’s might be overdoing it a bit. That’s all I meant.

e.g. “They have virtually no time alone, on or off campus, and are required to travel in pairs, “two by two,” like Jesus’ disciples.”
Click to expand...
I believe they are to be secular priests. My point to you was to be very careful, because many monastic and mendicant orders do train this way and still run parishes. My order does. We work in parishes and schools and we are not available 24/7 to the parish or the school or any ministry. When we take on a ministry we train the laity to follow our conventual schedule and to understand our way of life. They love it, because they feel that they’re part of the Franciscan family. But the NeoC’s don’t have parishes that they run, as far as I know. They will be stationed with either other secular priests or within parishes run by religious.

We have a secular priest in our house and he’s not very comfortable at night when everyone disappears at 10:00 for the grand silence and no one will speak to him. Everyone is studying, working on something, resting or doing something that does not require conversation until 9:30 in the morning. We feel sorry for him, because he feels lonely. But there is nothing that we can do.

This is the concern that I have for the Neo C’ seminarians.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top