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Gertabelle
Guest
The OP is in Belgium.
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StephieNorthCo
Guest
Thanks for the clarification. Missed that.
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TK421
Guest
The original question is neither here nor there.
The SSPX have no authority to accept candidates for the priesthood. Any ordinations by an SSPX bishop are illicit and an act of disobedience. So you are asking whether something was a wrong decision in the context of something that is in itself wrong.
Whether or not a person is accepted for the priesthood could be determined by any number of things. Having a past unchaste relationship does not exclude a person as a candidate.
The SSPX have no authority to accept candidates for the priesthood. Any ordinations by an SSPX bishop are illicit and an act of disobedience. So you are asking whether something was a wrong decision in the context of something that is in itself wrong.
Whether or not a person is accepted for the priesthood could be determined by any number of things. Having a past unchaste relationship does not exclude a person as a candidate.
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StarMapp
Guest
Perhaps the Holy Spirit requires you elsewhere?. One needs to consider perhaps the priest is also responding to Him for your and his benefit. Yes, definitely try the FSSP.
May God go with you.
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StGerardMajella
Guest
Is it normal procedure for a prospective priest to be questioned about past personal sexual activities as a pre-condition to entering the seminary?
If anyone asked me that question, I would inform them that my past interpersonal relationships were a private matter, and frankly, no one’s business but my own.
It seems rather rude and highly intrusive - or an abuse of matters possibly divulged in the confessional. Assuming the applicant has no prior criminal history, this line of questioning seems quite unprofessional and unacceptable.
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Don_Ruggero
Guest
Yes. It is a very thorough vetting process
As a formator, if I received an answer such as you propose the person’s application would be closed as would any consideration of candidacy.
As a formator, if I received an answer such as you propose the person’s application would be closed as would any consideration of candidacy.
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Augustinian
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There are scores of different orders and seminaries out there. If one doesn’t want you, that’s their prerogative, doesn’t mean that there aren’t other seminaries that would want you at their institutions.
Seminaries aren’t like city buses, they aren’t obliged to pick up anyone who flags them down.
Its more similar to any other school or employment, they turn down a lot of people- don’t take it personally.
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deprofundis89
Guest
It’s not that they want to be nosy about your past relationships but it does help them understand a person and also it does help come to know that the person isn’t just using the religious life as a escape route from ones troubled relationship in the hope of finding solace. It also helps them come to know what kind of life the person may have lived…
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Don_Ruggero
Guest
It is more than that.
Different formation programmes have different time periods that must pass in which the person has lived in continence. In our case, it involved a period of years.
Different formation programmes have different time periods that must pass in which the person has lived in continence. In our case, it involved a period of years.
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poche
Guest
Pope John Paul II wanted to be a Carmelite. I don’t know what happened but it didn’t work out. Just think how different history would have been if he had become a Carmelite.
Tis_Bearself
Patron
Actually that doesn’t seem to be correct any more. It was reported recently that Pope Francis has given SSPX permission to ordain without permission of the local bishop, and for a few years before that they were allowed to ordain with permission of the local bishop and did so.
The Pope has also been giving SSPX priests various other permissions such as to conduct weddings. The goal is to eventually have the SSPX in full communion with Rome.
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StGerardMajella
Guest
The only reason I can imagine would be for blackmail purposes or to “black-ball” a candidate. If an applicant has no prior criminal history, then a person’s private life is just that - private.
Many popular and well-known cults engage in this kind of behavior where they use information divulged in private for blackmail purposes and to keep adherents “in line”. For what other purpose would such information serve?
I would have very serious questions about your motives if you asked me questions such as these. I would consider this line of questioning to be nothing short of being highly unprofessional and with malicious intent.
I can understand wanting to weed out criminals and predators, and that is why we have fingerprints and FBI criminal background checks. I can also understand asking marital status - single, separated, married, widowed. Beyond that, this line of questioning gets creepy.
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Gertabelle
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A person seeking admission to the seminary or religious life is not applying for a job!
I entered a monastery at the age of 19, and you better believe there were some personal questions asked of me, not only by the prioress of house I entered, but also by other superiors of other congregations of nuns that I was interested in.
Whether or not I’d dated, whether I’d ever been in love, my upbringing and my relationships with family members and friends – everything was on the table.
Why? Because this wasn’t a job application. I wasn’t going to be spending 40 hours a week with these people and then heading off to my own private life away from them the rest of the time.
Being in the seminary or religious life is a LIFE. You are pursuing a life you are going to live with these people 24/7/365.
And not only can you expect personal questions, you can also expect to take a lengthy psychological exam.
If a community doesn’t ask these sort of questions – RUN! Find a place that takes their vocation and their community seriously.
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StGerardMajella
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To what ends and for what purpose? Confidential personal information doesn’t need to be shared with anyone. Divulging this kind of information with complete strangers opens yourself up to blackmail, mistreatment, threats, and worse. These kinds of tactics are more commonly utilized by cults.
In other communities, such as college or military, where close quarters with peers is also common, questions such as these are never asked. In fact, certain questions such as these are completely off-limits for legal reasons. My employer, for example, cannot legally ask me about how many children I have.
Why should the monk or superior need to know whether I had a good relationship with my parents or whether I’d ever been in love? Why would they even care?
Don’t you think it is rather odd to have an older superior require this private information from an applicant? They have the “goods” on you and your most private, confidential information, and you have none. That seems like a recipe for disaster and opens up the door for intimidation, coercion, and worse.
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Gertabelle
Guest
Once again, requesting to become part of a religious house is nothing at all like applying for a job.
A religious community is a family, and anyone seeking admittance is presumably seeking admittance for life. Can you not see the difference between that and applying for a job or living in a dorm or barracks with someone?
And I cannot for the life of me imagine anyone wanting to be part of a religious community where they felt they might be threatened, coerced, or any of the other negative things you keep imagining. If a person felt that way, they’d never want to be part of the community to begin with!
As to your comparison to a cult… Well, I guess you could say there are similarities between a cult and religious life, or even joining the military for that matter. One is told what to wear, what to eat, what to do, and so on, day in and day out. And in the case of religious life (I’ve never been in the military so I don’t know) there are even limitations with regard to contact with one’s family and friends.
On the other hand, in religious life, all the doors lock from the inside. One is truly free to leave whenever one chooses. And unlike the military, if a person does just walk out of a seminary or monastery, the police don’t hunt them down and press charges.
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Don_Ruggero
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Clearly, you have absolutely no idea, let alone experience, about formation in either a diocesan seminary or in consecrated life.
There is absolutely no parallel between being in college or the military or a job and entering into formation for the priesthood or for consecrated life. Your paradigm is completely inadequate, given the Church’s mandate to formators.
There is absolutely no parallel between being in college or the military or a job and entering into formation for the priesthood or for consecrated life. Your paradigm is completely inadequate, given the Church’s mandate to formators.
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Augustinian
Guest
There is a parallel, in that people are rejected every day of the week, whether its admittance to Harvard, a job at Macy’s, or admission into a religious order.
It certainly makes sense, due to the permanent nature of the latter, that admission to a seminary would require a closer examination of the the applicant. If the recruiter at Macy’s hires someone that doesn’t work out, they can be politely asked not to come back and that is that. Its a lot more difficult and expensive in the case of a seminary candidate.
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Don_Ruggero
Guest
I did not find the comparison an occasion to laugh at all. I found it insulting.
As insulting as the other comments, actually. Blackmail. Threats.
To even compare the process of formation for priesthood and/or consecrated life – with all that results: the lifetime commitment they entail, the bond that incardination or emission of life promises imposes on both the diocese/institute of perfection to say nothing of the candidate, and finally the sacred consecration effected within the individual – with a mere job or enrolling in college or military service leaves me speechless.
Any person who came into my office when I was a formator with such an attitude would have a one word response. “Out.” With a warning sent to the Bishop of the diocese in which that person lived.
My goodness.
As insulting as the other comments, actually. Blackmail. Threats.
To even compare the process of formation for priesthood and/or consecrated life – with all that results: the lifetime commitment they entail, the bond that incardination or emission of life promises imposes on both the diocese/institute of perfection to say nothing of the candidate, and finally the sacred consecration effected within the individual – with a mere job or enrolling in college or military service leaves me speechless.
Any person who came into my office when I was a formator with such an attitude would have a one word response. “Out.” With a warning sent to the Bishop of the diocese in which that person lived.
My goodness.
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Don_Ruggero
Guest
The parallel is such a superficial one that I consider it inconsequential.
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Gertabelle
Guest
By that standard you might as well say that there are parallels because all these things involve human beings.Don_Ruggero:
There is a parallel, in that people are rejected every day of the week, whether its admittance to Harvard, a job at Macy’s, or admission into a religious order.
It certainly makes sense, due to the permanent nature of the latter, that admission to a seminary would require a closer examination of the the applicant. If the recruiter at Macy’s hires someone that doesn’t work out, they can be politely asked not to come back and that is that. Its a lot more difficult and expensive in the case of a seminary candidate.
Seriously, this is a very superficial connection you are making. Working at Macy’s is not the same as living at Macy’s with the other employees, or expecting to live the rest of your life with those employees.
Jobs come and go. Schools come and go. But a religious vocation is for LIFE – and more importantly, it becomes someone’s life.
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