Bishop Barron's Talk to Kenrick Glennon-Seminary

Friends, I talked with students at @KenrickGlennon Seminary about the importance of academic formation for priests, and why we shouldn’t drive a wedge between the intellectual and pastoral aspects of caring for souls.

Watch on YouTube: https://t.co/3fVGL9SreN

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) October 29, 2020

How's that seminary reform coming along?

The Lack of Learning among Latins...

He is so right. The problem is that Catholics have not learned history but apologetic history - and so they don't know anything about the diversity of history. And of course, church history has almost been eliminated in seminary education.https://t.co/Nj3l1iP7MH

— Ulrich L. Lehner (@ulrichlehner) August 21, 2020

What Future for (Latin) Seminaries?

CWR: Seminaries and formation: One priest’s perspective and suggestion by Fr. John Chalny, STD
Carrying out the formation of priests in a monastic setting might seem counterintuitive. However, it is less so than it seems.

It is old news, I think, that our current seminary system is often inadequate and lacking. The seminaries designed after the Council of Trent served their purpose, but society and the Church’s self-understanding about its relationship with society are quite different today. This difference was already visible in many churchmen writing during the mid-twentieth century, and became macroscopically obvious during and following the Second Vatican Council. Liturgical and educational experiments ensued, often with disastrous results. Today, the pendulum has swung back toward more traditional proposals in many places, while in other places a reaction to the reactionaries has kept things more “liberal” and “open”, fluffy and formless. To this observer, both options seem ill-equipped to guide the flock without harming and dispersing it, either through excessive action or through paralyzed inaction.

The proposals given in the essay make sense in so far as the priesthood remains reserved to celibate men in the patriarchate of Rome. But the masculinity crisis needs to be addressed first.
The description given in the essay may fit older, especially Boomer, priests:

Many parishes and communities approve of their priest because he is “one of the guys”. So, in some locales, priests aim to become enthusiastic about football and hunting and beer. In other company, they might also take up golfing and learn about the finer points of coffee preparation.

But among the younger priests, even those who are more conservative/traditional often there is something missing to their masculinity. I have seen some exceptions to this and perhaps not unsurprisingly many of those candidates for the priesthood have served in the military or had a job that helped them develop masculine virtue. Perhaps "priestly" gravitas should just reflect being a mature man, rather than an affectation for the sake of preserving status and a formal distance from the laity.

Is the Latin Intellectual Project Over?

NCReg: Why Philosophy is Crucial to Understanding Theology by Father John P. Cush
Philosophy influences people and culture and shines light on the science of theology

If I had to choose between prioritizing philosophy or scripture study for deacons, I'd choose the latter, so that they could then learn theology properly rather than some version of "scriptural theology" that is really just scholastic theology with scripture proof-texts.

Second, political philosophy is important, especially for helping Latins understand the limits of Roman Catholic social teaching and how it has developed over time, but I can't say who should be the recognized authorities on this topic at this time, since most Latin philosophers and theologians tend to save RC social teaching rather than contest it directly.

Ss. Cyril and Methodius Seminary

A Good Start?

First Things: GETTING FORMATION RIGHT by Rev. Thomas V. Berg

But where will Latins find men to form men?

Sandro Magister: Homosexual Priests and Bishops. Neither "Healthy" Nor "Faithful"

How typical was the NAC of seminaries at that time?

Before the Council...

Lessons from an era of confusion by George Weigel
Msgr. Stephen DiGiovanni's book "Aggiornamento on the Hill of Janus" offers a snapshot of a once-stable institution caught in the maelstrom of ecclesiastical confusion and crisis—and offers lessons along the way.

How important to the Roman ecclesial tradition?

Fr. Hunwicke, Seminary training (2) :

(3) Para 4 cheerfully informs us (without explanation) that presbyters are ordained "by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit". Such epicletic enthusiasms do not conform to the spirit and genius (or the texts) of the Roman Church and her liturgy, in which the Episcopate is typologically aggregated to the Aaronic High Priest; the Presbyters to the Temple Priests; and the Deacons to the Levites. This was the clear teaching of the Roman Church from I Clement down to the aftermath of Vatican II, when Dom Botte got his hands on the Pontifical.

See also: Seminary training (1)

Vatican Issues New Document on Priestly Formation
Pope Tells Seminarians to Promote "Belonging"

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary

On Liturgical Customaries for Seminaries: An Example of Mutual Enrichment from the Anglican Patrimony by Revd Fr Christopher Smith

I am told that nowadays some seminaries have attempted more precise handbooks of behavior in church and seminary, general rules of life. I have not seen any of them myself. In my day in the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, everything from etiquette at table to liturgical decorum and expectations of clerical dress were all kind of an oral tradition that was passed from superiors to seminarians in the form of peer pressure to conform, rather than in any manual.

SVOTS has only 3 women on its faculty. STOTS, 1.

(3 at BCS)

Something Up at Mundelein Liturgical Institute?

Pray Tell: Changes at the Mundelein Liturgical Institute [UPDATED]

The Liturgical Institute

Rethinking the Seminary

Seminaries: What Were and Are They For? by Fr. Anthony Perkins (via Byz TX)

Pravmir: St. Vladimir's Seminary Founded 75 Years Ago Today