SEMINARIANS MUST BE PROTAGONISTS OF THEIR PRIESTLY FORMATION

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received a group of 360 seminarians, rectors and professors from Sicily's major seminaries, together with Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, archbishop of Palermo and the prelates of Sicily's 18 dioceses in which the seminaries are present. He stressed the role of bishops, superiors and professors in the formation of seminarians, but added that "the candidate to the priesthood himself must be a protagonist of his formation."

The Holy Father praised initiatives in Sicily aimed at the formation of seminarians as well as the permanent formation of priests. With respect to ongoing formation, he quoted his 1992 Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis": "With priests who have just come out of the seminary, a certain sense of 'having had enough' is quite understandable, when faced with new times of study and meeting. But the idea that priestly formation ends on the day one leaves the seminary is false and dangerous, and needs to be totally rejected."

The Pope expressed gratitude for the increase of priestly vocations in Sicily but added that prayers and a pastoral ministry for vocations in parishes, schools and families is an ongoing process. "There must also be." he said, "a qualitative growth, through constant attention to the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation of the young aspirants (to the priesthood)."

"Human formation is the foundation of the entire priestly formation process and it is important for the seminary to be a privileged place in which are cultivated the human qualities necessary for building well-balanced and mature, strong and free personalities, capable of allowing one, as a priest, to bear the weight of pastoral responsibilities."

John Paul II noted that "human formation is completed in spiritual formation" and he underlined the importance of listening to the Word of God, prayer, the generous giving of oneself, a sense of Church, priestly obedience, and a willingness to live poverty and celibacy.

"In the current socio-cultural context," he went on, "marked by a widespread religious indifference and distrust in the real capacities of reason to reach objective and universal truth, ... intellectual formation demands a high level of commitment in studies, in full fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church."

The Holy Father dedicated closing remarks to pastoral formation, saying this "is the ultimate objective of the entire formative period in the seminary as it aims 'at forming true pastors of souls in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, teacher, priest and pastor."

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