The Reform Seminaries Need

By C. Colt Anderson and Christopher M. Bellitto
LaCroix International
April 4, 2019

https://international.la-croix.com/news/the-reform-seminaries-need/9812


As former seminary professors, we have looked upon the last several months of revelations about clergy sex abuse, cover-ups, and institutional infighting with the same disgust and sadness as our sisters and brothers—but we are not surprised.Though we honor and support the many good people who work and study in seminaries, we know that seminaries have played a significant role in the church's current crisis.It is essential to understand how priests and thus, ultimately, bishops are formed, especially the way they are enculturated into clericalism from their first days in seminary. It is the air they breathe there.Clericalism in seminary formation is explicitly singled out as a problem in the Synod on Youth's final document, approved in late October 2018, and it affects everyone in the church—it is a systemic and widespread problem. While not new in church history, of course, it is a particularly pressing concern during this time of scandal.Pope Francis has repeatedly targeted clericalism as the great enemy of ordained ministry today. You can easily see the career-climbers he warns about in seminaries.If you want to learn how to work your way into the clerical caste, watch these men. They are learning Italian, wearing cufflinks and cassocks, and don't at all mind being called "Father," even though they are still in studies.Along with our colleagues in other formation programs, we have easily singled out seminarians with scarlet fever: while there may be few vocations to the priesthood, there are plenty of ambitious young men aiming for a bishop's miter.Clericalism can be thought of as a type of exceptionalism. Seminarians soon learn that the rules and standards, such as mastery of course material, do not really apply to them.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."We have had discussions with seminarians who struggle with drinking or drugs and sexual activity that...