Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

Foreword

The development of this Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests began in October 2020. Under the leadership of Bishop James Checchio, Chair, the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations (CCLV) formed a working group to draft the document. Members of the working group included Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg, Chair; Bishop Richard Henning; Very Rev. John McCrone; Rev. Jeff Eirvin; Rev. Carter Griffin; Rev. David Songy, O.F.M. Cap; Deacon Steven DeMartino; and Sr. Mary Joanna Ruhland, RSM. Rev. Jorge Torres, Rev. Luke Ballman, and Rev. Daniel Hanley of the CCLV Secretariat supported the working group. Feedback from the body of bishops during the regional meetings of the June 2021 Plenary Assembly and CCLV’s collaborating committees was incorporated into the draft completed in 2021. The members of the CCLV Committee who brought this document to completion are Bishop Earl Boyea, Chair; Archbishop Charles Thompson; Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt; Bishop François Beyrouti, Bishop Ronald Hicks, Bishop David Toups, Bishop Austin Vetter, and Bishop William Wack. Complementary to the Program of Priestly Formation , sixth edition, this document aligns with the structure and paradigm of ongoing formation reflected in the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutiones Sacerdotalis (December 2016) and the Directory for the Ministry and Life of Priests (June 2013) by emphasizing personal, fraternal, and episcopal means of ongoing forma tion. It is a letter from the bishops of the United States to their priests. Its tone is pastoral, not programmatic, and its purpose is to suggest concrete means for priests, as the primary protagonists of their own formation, to continue their personal and priestly formation following their ordination to the priesthood. This Guide is meant to encourage priests to reflect on their life and ministry and formulate an individualized plan of formation in light of the current realities in the life of priests, society, and the Church. We encourage using this text in the context of dialogue with laity, brother priests and their bishops.