POPE Benedict XVI wrote a beautiful letter to seminarians last October 18, and poured out his sentiments and desires for the young men who are preparing themselves for the priesthood.
I feel the content of the letter should be shared with the general public, so that this intricate care for the seminarians becomes a concern not only for a few officials, but also for all of us in the Church, priests and lay people alike. Though in different ways, we are all involved in this issue.
The priesthood will always be necessary since man will always need God. The Pope reassures us in that letter that precisely because of the growing secularization of the world today, priests, good, holy priests are needed. Instead of becoming irrelevant, they have become more urgently needed.
Thus, those preparing for the priesthood should be given the appropriate attention, considering that the Church after the scandals of clerical sex abuses has to recover from the severe damage she suffered. Hopefully, the future batches of new priests from the present seminarians would be an improvement.
There´s indeed a lot of bright spots in the Church today. But ugly stains and blots, the unwelcome weeds are also present, and they involve the clergy themselves. The letter of the Pope, though couched in tactful language, should be considered under the light of our Lord´s severe reproaches on the leading men in his time whom he accused as hypocrites.
It cannot be denied that even up to now very disturbing cases of priestly anomalies still proliferate. There´s alcoholism, gambling, lack of prayer life, discipline and basic virtues of obedience, poverty and chastity. Some priests even have children, and many people know it except that no action is being done out of a misplaced sense of compassion, etc.
At the height of the priestly scandals, many bishops even went to the extent of making an appeal to actively gay priests to please get out. There definitely is a need for some weeding out of bad elements, obviously with due process. Justice cannot swerve from charity. But the ongoing formation of seminarians and priests should be strengthened, the loopholes plugged. There´s a crying need for a drastic shake-up.
There are reports that in many seminaries, the seminarians are left pretty much to fend for themselves as they are expected to live full freedom in responsibility, but without due guidance from the authorities. It´s a policy that has been twisted beyond recognition.
And so even homosexual practices are tolerated, unorthodox doctrines are taught, a culture of pretension and hypocrisy is promoted, etc. It´s a very painful picture. It´s like the seminary is left to bleed to death. When classes or spiritual exercises are given, there´s a general feeling they are just playing games. Traces of agnosticism and skepticism can even be detected in these activities.
If we have to view these developments from another angle, we can readily say that the devil must be behind all this. We should not be surprised by this, but it would be funny if we don´t do our part to tackle this threat adequately. We have all the means. We just have to put our mind and heart to it.
And that attitude, more or less official, of hiding these things because of discretion, tact, etc., should be buried. True, we need to be discreet and charitable all the time, but we also need to do some strong action in imitation of Christ. Our time calls for it. The complicating developments we have now literally require it.
In that letter, the Pope mentioned some important points to be given utmost attention. The seminarians should be a true man of God. They should live a deep eucharistic life, and have a great love for the sacrament of penance. They should love popular piety well. They have to study the ecclesiastical sciences thoroughly, and work hard to attain genuine human maturity.
Obviously, these goals need daily administration. They just cannot be left simply as goals. They have to be planned out and worked out, their details adapted to the very concrete personal circumstances of each seminarian. Their spiritual life should be in good order. Once the first signs of slackening up appear, appropriate measures should be rushed.
For sure, personal spiritual direction is a must here. But how many priests and seminarians go to it? How many really pray and go to confession with true penance?
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