Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

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Chapter 2: Ongoing Formation

flourishing as men and as priests. Ongoing formation continues the work that began in our seminary years. “This journey,” the Ratio Fundamentalis states, “is the natural continuation of the process of building up priestly identity begun in Seminary and accomplished sacramentally in priestly ordination, in view of a pastoral service that causes it to mature over time.” 45 This Guide , in fact, can be seen as a sequel to the Program of Priestly Formation , which was first published in 1971 and is now in its sixth edition. 46 68 Ongoing formation is needed to address not only the normal life changes that affect every priest but also the limitations of seminary formation. In some surveys, recently ordained priests have identified gaps in their formation. 47 Some of those concerns are well-founded critiques of seminary programs that rightly point out areas for improvement. Others, however, reveal not so much gaps in seminary formation as the need for further formation. After all, many aspects of priestly life—administrative abilities, financial expertise, leadership, and certain pastoral skills, to take some clear examples—are only fully learned in the field. Rather than shoehorning these important skills into an already burdened seminary curriculum—likely with dubious results—it seems wiser for the Church to provide some basics about these topics during the seminary years while actively fostering their development after ordination. 48 45 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 81. “It is particularly important to be aware of and to respect the intrinsic link between formation before ordination to the priesthood and formation after ordination. Should there be a break in continuity, or worse a complete difference between these two phases of formation, there would be serious and immediate repercussions on pastoral work and fraternal communion among priests, especially those in different age groups.” PDV, no. 71. 46 “Ongoing formation is not a repetition of the formation acquired in the seminary, simply reviewed or expanded with new and practical suggestions. Ongoing formation involves relatively new content and especially methods; it develops as a harmonious and vital process which—rooted in the forma tion received in the seminary—calls for adaptations, updating and modifications, but without sharp breaks in continuity.” PDV, no. 71. 47 See National Association of Catholic Theological Schools and Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), Enter by the Narrow Gate: Satisfaction and Challenges Among Recently Ordained Priests (Washington, DC: CARA, 2020). 48 “Initial and ongoing formation are distinct because each requires different methods and timing, but they are two halves of one reality, the life of a disciple cleric, in love with his Lord and steadfastly

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