It’s been made public that the Vatican has ordered the seminaries of our country to be evaluated. The media has buzzed much over the single issue of the proposed ousting of homosexuals from the seminaries. This is, however, a small if necessary focus of this investigation.
For many years, these institutions of higher theological learning have been dizzying the brains of seminarians with confusing accounts of some pivotal teachings of the Catholic Church. Young men entering the seminary usually do not do so to become rebels against the magisterium and defamers of Catholic tradition. Rather, this is a thing inculcated in them over a period of years of ‘formation.’ They are tutored in the subtle art of theological ambiguity, of how to conserve a veneer of Catholicism while personally believing and practicing what is contrary to the faith. Especially through the technique of an oppressive psychological conditioning, they are led to espouse aberrant theological views (for example, to regard the sacred Scripture as mere literature whose inerrancy is to be debunked; or to doubt that our Lord possessed divine knowledge during His life on earth). They are permitted to hold and sometimes openly express opinions on matters contrary to the defined teaching of the Pope, such as the moral impossibility of women priests (an issue now forever determined by the definition of Pope John Paul II). They may be taught by word or example to disregard liturgical norms. Much more insidious than these is the infusion of a cynical mental attitude regarding holy things and defined beliefs, an attitude due to years of ‘formation’ in classroom teaching and group discussions, by faculty evaluations, and in psychological counseling. Often there is no single thing that is the cause of this kind of malformation. It’s rather the cumulative effect of a twisted and persistent conditioning which clouds reason, foments arrogance, stifles the devout life, and, in the end, destroys the faith of the seminarian. Behold the result: the unbelieving, rebellious, impious priest who enters the parish to undo the holy apostolic and Catholic faith and root out any vestige of Catholic piety in the faithful.
