Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

GOFP 9

Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

regarding faith and morals, the Code of Canon Law , and other church laws, both universal and particular. 6

9 This document follows the structure established by Pope St. John Paul II in Pastores Dabo Vobis and taken up by the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis and the Program of Priestly Formation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). 7 Just as seminary formation is arranged under the four dimensions of formation—human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral—so too are these dimensions a helpful framework for the ongoing formation of priests. Chapter one sketches the goal of ongoing formation: a thriving and fruitful priesthood. Chapter two shows ongoing formation to be a lifelong process and identifies the ordinary means to pursue it. The bulk of this document, however, explores the four dimensions of formation in turn. Chapters three through six single out markers for growth in their respective dimensions as well as personal, fraternal, and episcopal means to grow in those dimensions. 8 10 This document can be used in a variety of ways. Priests will find it helpful to review the document regularly, so that new avenues of growth are never lacking. Specific resolutions to improve are essential to any plan of ongoing formation. Priests are urged to discuss these resolutions in spiritual direction and with priest friends and mentors. 6 See Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici [CIC]). cc. 276, §2, 4°, and 279 §2. Subsequently cited as CIC. 7 Congregation for the Clergy, Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation) (Vatican City: L’Osservatore Romano, 2016), no. 81. Subsequently cited as Ratio Funda mentalis. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Program for Priestly Formation in the United States, 6th ed., Washington, DC: USCCB, 2022. Hereafter cited as PPF. 8 Personal, fraternal, and episcopal means are envisioned by the Ratio Fundamentalis and the PPF. “After all, it is the priest himself who is principally and primarily responsible for his own ongoing formation. . . . Priestly fraternity is the first setting in which ongoing formation takes place.” Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 82. “This journey of discipleship and growth in Christian faith and service con tinues after ordination with ongoing formation, in which the ordained priest seeks an ever-deepening conformity to Christ under the guidance of the diocesan bishop or competent authority of the insti tute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life.” PPF, no. 33.

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