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Pro_Domina
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Would anyone here finish school in a minor seminary in a religious order?
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Friar_David_O.Carm
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Most likely, unless the order/congregation sends you to the minor seminary you would finish it as a postulant (pre-novice) which means that technically you would not be part of the order/congregation while you finish.Would anyone here finish school in a minor seminary in a religious order?
This is a new option my order is trying. I believe that we have a candidate who will be starting out at a college seminary next fall and will live there for the first two years and spend weekends with the pre-novitiate community then for the last two years he will move into the pre-novitiate.
My province requires that one have completed their bachelors degree before they can move on to the novitiate.
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Pro_Domina
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Isn’t that a bit risky? I mean I sustain that most kids don’t reach 16 and are still innocent. But after the bachelors, it is a seen it done that situation.Most likely, unless the order/congregation sends you to the minor seminary you would finish it as a postulant (pre-novice) which means that technically you would not be part of the order/congregation while you finish.
This is a new option my order is trying. I believe that we have a candidate who will be starting out at a college seminary next fall and will live there for the first two years and spend weekends with the pre-novitiate community then for the last two years he will move into the pre-novitiate.
My province requires that one have completed their bachelors degree before they can move on to the novitiate.
I mean more than numbers, quality is what is important.
C
chicago
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By “minor seminary”, I am inferring that you intend to say a pre-theologate, college level course of study rather than the historic/traditional use of that term to mean something more along a high school level program. (I really wish that this confusion in contemporary usage of terms could be better clarified, but that concern is, admittedly, something that comes out of my own experience of having been a high school seminarian 15-20 years ago.)
Anyway, as a minor seminarian I most certainly was giving serious consideration to joining a religious community right out of high school.
I was somewhat disillusioned with the difficulties of my own Archdiocese and its bureaucracy at the time. As such I found the concept of continuing on in the diocesan seminary program a frustrating thought. Nor was I enamored with the particular circumstances of the college seminary. So that path wasn’t something I expected to proceed any further down.
Conversely, I was quite attracted to certain religious communities and had positive experiences with them from my youth. Most notably the Franciscans, but especially any one which had a particular apostolate to the poor and needy, in some semblance of humility. Further, I wanted something more in the way of sacrifice and commitment which I just didn’t perceive as being possible outside of an religious order. And the idea of a supportive, shared communal life was somewhat appealing to me. So it is what I set my discernment more seriously upon when I was 17 - 18. Were I to continue on a path of such a vocation, I thought, most likely it would have been within religious life. (I also was eyeing some college level seminaries which were run by religious orders.)
By the time I graduated from the minor seminary, I had discerned that my vocation was to be elsewhere, and so I never got all that far down this path in the end. (Though I did briefly revisit the concept in my early 20s.) So, perhaps, this explanation doesn’t answer your question, after all! But I do think that it goes to show there are clearly young people who would seriously consider the religious life at an earlier age.
Also, just a thought, not every member of a religious community goes on to get ordained to the priesthood. So it would make more sense that they don’t necessarily have to first complete college studies before entering. Shoot, it used to be the case (some years ago) that likely most of their vocations came via schools run by the communities and young people who attended them.
Anyway, as a minor seminarian I most certainly was giving serious consideration to joining a religious community right out of high school.
I was somewhat disillusioned with the difficulties of my own Archdiocese and its bureaucracy at the time. As such I found the concept of continuing on in the diocesan seminary program a frustrating thought. Nor was I enamored with the particular circumstances of the college seminary. So that path wasn’t something I expected to proceed any further down.
Conversely, I was quite attracted to certain religious communities and had positive experiences with them from my youth. Most notably the Franciscans, but especially any one which had a particular apostolate to the poor and needy, in some semblance of humility. Further, I wanted something more in the way of sacrifice and commitment which I just didn’t perceive as being possible outside of an religious order. And the idea of a supportive, shared communal life was somewhat appealing to me. So it is what I set my discernment more seriously upon when I was 17 - 18. Were I to continue on a path of such a vocation, I thought, most likely it would have been within religious life. (I also was eyeing some college level seminaries which were run by religious orders.)
By the time I graduated from the minor seminary, I had discerned that my vocation was to be elsewhere, and so I never got all that far down this path in the end. (Though I did briefly revisit the concept in my early 20s.) So, perhaps, this explanation doesn’t answer your question, after all! But I do think that it goes to show there are clearly young people who would seriously consider the religious life at an earlier age.
Also, just a thought, not every member of a religious community goes on to get ordained to the priesthood. So it would make more sense that they don’t necessarily have to first complete college studies before entering. Shoot, it used to be the case (some years ago) that likely most of their vocations came via schools run by the communities and young people who attended them.
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Pro_Domina
Guest
I guess I have to rephrase myself a bit.
I mean more in the line of would start a postulancy before graduating from high school, as many congregations are starting up their formation while the candidates are still in studying in the order’s school or in some cases, a minor seminary.
A generic example is,
I am 14. I want to become a member of a religious community. I am in 8th grade. I find out about a program that starts at 14.
Am I willing to leave my parents and easy life and begin my formation?
I mean more in the line of would start a postulancy before graduating from high school, as many congregations are starting up their formation while the candidates are still in studying in the order’s school or in some cases, a minor seminary.
A generic example is,
I am 14. I want to become a member of a religious community. I am in 8th grade. I find out about a program that starts at 14.
Am I willing to leave my parents and easy life and begin my formation?
C
chicago
Guest
Many? Like who? I don’t know of any which really accept a candidate before the age of 18.I guess I have to rephrase myself a bit.
I mean more in the line of would start a postulancy before graduating from high school, as many congregations are starting up their formation while the candidates are still in studying in the order’s school or in some cases, a minor seminary.
A generic example is,
Alright, what you’re talking about is a traditional minor seminary program, then. Something which isn’t all too common anymore, especially in that form. It was fairly normative at one point, and there were many such institutions in the United States up until about 40 years ago. It seems that most major religious communities had at least one.I am 14. I want to become a member of a religious community. I am in 8th grade. I find out about a program that starts at 14.
Am I willing to leave my parents and easy life and begin my formation?
But, really, even in such a case the seminary school is serving more in a preparatory form. It is getting young men ready for a certain way of life within the community while educating them in standard scholastic rigors appropriate for their age. But the student isn’t really leaving all behind or anything. Rather, they are attending what amounts to a sort of boarding school (or day school, in some cases) where the life of the community clearly influences their practices and way of life. Still, the parents remain (or at least they ought to) very much the parents of the child with proper parental influence and authority over their sons’ schooling, discernment, and formation. Once the boy is an adult, though, he certainly has every right to join the community if he so chooses (and if they are willing to take him.) But no one is expected (or accepted) to leave all behind and join the community at age 14, no matter how gung ho and sincere he may be about it.
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Pro_Domina
Guest
I recently found an article on the subject
jstor.org/pss/3710431
In LA and ASIA they still exist and are growing.
Many dioceses are realizing that to preserve the youth it is neccesary to start their life of piety and formation at a younger age like it used to be. It simply works.
I know that some orders, the Legionaries of Christ, the Heralds of the Gospel, the Institute of the Incarnate Word and other thriving orders have minor seminaries or at least houses of formation directed towards youth.
jstor.org/pss/3710431
In LA and ASIA they still exist and are growing.
Many dioceses are realizing that to preserve the youth it is neccesary to start their life of piety and formation at a younger age like it used to be. It simply works.
I know that some orders, the Legionaries of Christ, the Heralds of the Gospel, the Institute of the Incarnate Word and other thriving orders have minor seminaries or at least houses of formation directed towards youth.
C
chicago
Guest
This article is from 1968. The times have changed a lot since then.I recently found an article on the subject
jstor.org/pss/3710431
LA? (Here that means Los Angeles.)In LA and ASIA they still exist and are growing.
I’m glad to hear this, though. I certainly believe that minor seminaries have their place and wish that more dioceses and religious communities managed to find a way to support them in contemporary times. That said, perhaps the culture is different in the places you noted which makes their usefulness more worthwhile and effective, still.
The experience and mass closure of minor seminaries in the United States over the past 40 years would argue differently.Many dioceses are realizing that to preserve the youth it is neccesary to start their life of piety and formation at a younger age like it used to be. It simply works.
Yes. And this is good. (Though some are having problems with these institutions, too.) Still, it remains a relatively minimal blip on the overall radar screen as concerns such outreaches to youth. In the United States, the number of minor seminarians is, I believe, under 1000. The most populous school that was until recently, Quigley (in Chicago), closed last year. And of the overall number, how many persevere to ordination? Very few.I know that some orders, the Legionaries of Christ, the Heralds of the Gospel, the Institute of the Incarnate Word and other thriving orders have minor seminaries or at least houses of formation directed towards youth.
Again, I do believe that minor seminaries have their place and that such outreaches should be more significant. But the reality of today (at least in the U.S. and probably much of Europe, also) is bleak in regard to what is available or forthcoming.
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