Norms for Priestly Formation BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF SCOTLAND Priests for Scotland NORMS FOR PRIESTLY FORMATION IN SCOTLAND June 2005 1 Norms for Priestly Formation FOREWORD The NORMS FOR PRIESTLY FORMATION IN SCOTLAND approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education in May 1992 have been revised and updated and again have been approved by the Congregation for Catholic Education in July 2004. The PRIESTS FOR SCOTLAND Commission, which succeeded the COMMISSION ON PRIESTLY FORMATION, is grateful to all who assisted in the re-writing of the Norms. The present document is the result of close collaboration with the Bishops’ Conference, Scottish seminary staffs, and many people engaged in the fields of human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation. The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland approved the publication of this document in November 2004. Right Reverend Vincent Logan: Bishop President, Priests for Scotland Reverend Andrew McKenzie: Director, Priests for Scotland June 2005 2 3 Norms for Priestly Formation Norms for Priestly Formation Contents Page 1. PRIESTHOOD IN SCOTLAND: FACING THE FUTURE 1. PRIESTHOOD IN SCOTLAND: FACING THE FUTURE ......................5 1.1 The publication of the first version of the Norms for Priestly Formation in Scotland took place in 1994 and coincided with the promulgation of the Post-Synodal 2. PRIESTHOOD IN SCOTLAND: THE BACKGROUND..........................7 Apostolic Constitution on Priestly Formation, Pastores Dabo Vobis. At that time it was encouraging to see the considerable convergence between the two documents. 3. THE MINISTERIAL PRIESTHOOD IN THE CHURCH........................13 Both have provided essential insights as this revised version of the Norms was drawn up and much that was contained in the 1994 original has simply been restated here. 4. VOCATIONS: PROMOTION, DISCERNMENT AND DIRECTION ....19 1.2 The future shape of priestly ministry, however, poses challenges that even as recently 5. THE PRE-SEMINARY PROCESS ..........................................................29 as 1994 were not fully appreciated. Some of these challenges have been noted and addressed by the variety of documents promulgated by different Roman 6. PRIESTLY FORMATION IN SEMINARY ..............................................37 Congregations and Pontifical Councils, to support seminary authorities in ensuring that a wide range of concerns be addressed during the course of seminary formation. 7. HUMAN FORMATION............................................................................43 1.3 The adaptation of formation to take account of the new demands being made on 8. SPIRITUAL FORMATION ......................................................................47 priests today reflects an awareness of the changes taking place throughout society. These changes affect not only the circumstances in which priestly ministry is being 9. INTELLECTUAL FORMATION..............................................................57 carried out but also the situations from which candidates for the priesthood come. Demographic trends already noticed in 1994 have largely been confirmed in terms of 10. PASTORAL FORMATION ......................................................................67 an ageing population, a fall-off in the numbers regularly attending Mass and other devotional exercises, a decrease in the number of baptisms, marriages and ordinations 11. THE CONTINUING FORMATION OF PRIESTS ..................................75 and the increasingly heavy burden of frequent funeral liturgies and the associated bereavement ministry. 12. CONCLUSION..........................................................................................81 1.4 More than ever the Church, and those who are pastors in the Church in particular, are APPENDIX 1: THE SEMINARY APPLICANTS’ YEAR................................83 called to proclaim Jesus Christ as the hope for Europe. Faced with these “statistics of decline”, the faith of the disciples of Christ must announce confidence and trust as we APPENDIX 2: DECREE ON THE ADMISSION TO SEMINARY OF enter the third millennium. In Scotland there is no shortage of signs that should fill CANDIDATES COMING FROM OTHER SEMINARIES, INSTITUTES the Church with hope. Politically the opportunities presented by political devolution OF CONSECRATED LIFE OR INSTITUTES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE...........89 give expression to the principle of subsidiarity, ensuring for the people of Scotland a greater say in the civil administration of their own affairs. Where the Church is APPENDIX 3: DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THE COURSE OF concerned the future promises to be one where increasingly the different Christian THESE NORMS ................................................................................................95 denominations will assume responsibility to work together to overcome the scandal of division. Within the Catholic community a growing awareness on the part of the APPENDIX 4: GUIDELINES FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF laity of what they have received in baptism and the part they have to play in the life SEMINARY SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS ..........................................................97 and mission of the Church is opening up new horizons almost daily. These and many other signs urge us to “hope against hope.” (Romans 4:18) APPENDIX 5 SEMINARY COURSES ............................................................99 1.5 The basis and inspiration for all ministry is the pastoral love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came “that they may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10); who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 4 5 Norms for Priestly Formation Norms for Priestly Formation 20:28); who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11). The communication of this 2. PRIESTHOOD IN SCOTLAND: THE BACKGROUND mystery is the heart of priestly formation and this document seeks to set out what we believe is the best way to achieve this in the context of the Church in Scotland today 2.1 In addressing the task of revising the norms for priestly formation, in force in with the help of God. Scotland since 1994, the Bishops’ Conference is aware that the Catholic community here - about 702,000 people, just under 14% of the national population - is a very small part of the universal Church. Nevertheless this community holds a significant position in the national religious pattern, second in size only to the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian in character and the largest body of the Reformed tradition in our country. The recent re-establishment of a parliament in Edinburgh restores to Scotland a dimension of nationhood unknown not only to recent generations but for several hundred years. The distinctiveness of the Catholic Church in Scotland since the restoration of the hierarchy in 1878 is the inheritance of a much longer history. Within European Catholicism Catholic Scotland has a long-standing identity of its own, recognised since the Middle Ages and now embodied in its own Conference of Bishops, and the Scots College in Rome. In order to situate what will be said later in this document, we will begin by considering the particular milieu from which Scottish candidates come and the community which as priests they will serve. 2.2 The aspirant who presents himself to be considered as a potential candidate for the seminary can no longer be considered as a member of the same kind of homogeneous group as in the past. For most of the 20th century the vast majority of seminarians could be expected to come from Catholic families, having received Catholic schooling and in many cases initial formation in the junior seminary. The trend during the final 15 years of the 20th century was that candidates have come to an awareness of vocation due to their involvement, not so much in a widely shared family and parish experience of what faith means as through personal involvement in groups or from contact with a particular priest who has provided inspiration during a pilgrimage or retreat or some other limited context. What for several generations could be taken for granted in candidates for the priesthood as regards spiritual and doctrinal formation and personal background is now rarely in evidence. Although in most cases the candidate will have been baptised as an infant, faith is often something that begins to matter in the late teens and early twenties. It is often accompanied by a personal experience of conversion or discovery which is regarded as a privileged moment. The meaning of this experience is found, for many, in the path that will take them to priestly ordination. Yet this path is often followed in an environment which is largely indifferent to religious commitment and unsupportive towards or dismissive of anyone suggesting that they were considering “leaving their nets to follow the Master.” (See Luke 5:1-11) 2.3 In these respects the man who applies for acceptance as a seminarian in Scotland, in many important aspects, will not be unlike candidates from other western developed nations. The young man drawn to a life of service in the priesthood brings with him 6 7 Norms for Priestly Formation Norms for Priestly Formation attitudes and predispositions which are part of that common culture. In 1970 the 2.5 A consideration of the main trends evident in the world today, such as globalisation, ‘Ratio Fundamentalis’ (See no 8) reminded us that many of the influences and democratisation, ecological awareness, violence and secularisation, all suggest that attitudes associated with