The reform seminaries need
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The reform seminaries need


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The reform seminaries need

Published April 4, 2019.









As lay faculty members we have both been told, "You don't vote on our advancement or ordination," which falls just short of saying "so you don't matter."



Seminarians know that, given the shortage of priests in the United States, it won't be long after they're ordained that they'll be pastors with a parish of their own. We often heard conversations in the lunchroom that indicated as much: "When I'm pastor, I'm going to put my place on the map."




One suggested reform, then, is to make an explicit effort to keep seminarians as the lay people they are. The goal of a seminarian's path is ordination, but until ordination to the diaconate, that seminarian is a lay man.

Why are they wearing cassocks and a Roman collar before then? When we asked that question of seminarians and priests on faculty, we were repeatedly told, "So they will get used to it." Nonsense. This practice amounts to training in clerical condescension and strutting more often than not.

It reinforces the hierarchy of vocations that still plagues the church—indicated by the way we say that a former priest is "reduced" to the lay state.

But an even more important reform in seminary education and, in turn, parish life, would be to mix men and women in classes. If that sounds radical, it is precisely what the Synod on Youth's final document proposes: the joint formation of laity, consecrated religious, and priests.

Separating men and women can lead to hypermasculinity and a focus on the "otherness" of priests. This was especially fostered during John Paul II's papacy, with its near-cult of the priesthood.






Having women and men sit side by side in formation programs also offers significant intellectual and spiritual benefits. Surely a woman's voice in a classroom discussion of Scripture will expose a seminarian to ideas and perspectives not his own.

And won't that woman be interpreting, explaining, and applying Scripture in RCIA and other formation programs in her parish?

Even in more specialized situations—say, a practicum in preaching and penance—wouldn't it be helpful for seminarians to hear the perspectives of women as they consider what makes for an enriching homily, or as they prepare to encounter parishioners in the confessional and in sacramental preparation, especially for marriage?


No priest is better than a bad priest

This formation can start in classroom learning as fellow students.

Seminary training should also deliberately include supervised apostolic experiences under a lay person's authority. There must also be sisters along with married and single people teaching their specialties (and paid a living wage with medical benefits so that they can support a family).


Their input must be deliberative and not merely consultative—that is, it must really count. Moreover, a seminary's board of trustees must have lay members who, again, have deliberative and not simply consultative votes that the bishop is free to ignore.









The synod's final document warns specifically against wandering seminarians (seminaristi vaganti).



A final suggestion involves John Paul II's 1992 apostolic exhortation on seminary formation, Pastores dabo vobis, which presents high standards in terms of admissions, behavior, and academics.

Consider, however, that the current edition of the American bishops' Program for Priestly Formation still states only that the admissions process "ought" to give sufficient attention to the emotional health of the applicants, that candidates "should" give evidence of having interiorized their seminary formation as evidenced by their ability to work with women and men, that seminarians "should not" be excused from pursuing accredited degrees, and that seminarians "should not" be advanced if they lack positive qualities for formation.

Since bishops can and do offer dispensations from anything that is not mandatory, we maintain that those "oughts" and "shoulds" need to be turned to "musts"— and then firmly patrolled.




C. Colt Anderson, is professor of Christian Spirituality at Fordham University. He taught at Chicago's Mundelein Seminary (1999–2008) and Washington Theological Union, where he also served as the Vice President of Academic Affairs (2008–2012). He was a member of two seminary visitations in 2005. Christopher M. Bellitto, is professor of History at Kean University, and taught at New York's St. Joseph's Seminary/Dunwoodie and its lay Institute of Religious Studies (1995–2001). He was part of a contentious layoff of faculty at Dunwoodie.

This article first appeared in Commonweal Magazine

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