Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

INTRODUCTION | 5

just as there is no age at which a person has completely achieved maturity. 3

8. This practical Guide is not meant to be an exposition on the meaning and identity of the priesthood or a theological treatment of priestly spirituality. Those themes are explored more explicitly in the 2013 Directory for the Ministry and Life of Priests (DMLP) from the Congregation for the Clergy. 4 In fact, the present document can be considered a companion to the DMLP, drawing from it liberally and presupposing its theological and pastoral insights. The purpose of this document is to help priests apply its wisdom in their lives. 5 It is a pastoral document and is not particular law for the United States. However, it is to be interpreted in accord with church teaching regarding faith and morals, the Code of Canon Law , and other church laws, both universal and particular. 6 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 ordi nary means to pursue it. The bulk of this document, however, explores the four dimensions of formation in turn. Chapters three through six single 9.

3 St. John Paul II, Vita Consecrata (On the Consecrated Life and Its Mission in the Church and in the World) March 25, 1996, no. 69, www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_ exh_25031996_vita-consecrata.html. 4 Congregation for the Clergy, Directory for the Ministry and the Life of Priests (DMLP), new ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013), no. 87, http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2013-06/13-13/Direttorio_ EN.pdf. Subsequently cited as DMLP 5 Priests who are consecrated may benefit also from Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata and from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic 6 See Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici [CIC]), www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/cic_index_ en.html, 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, www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20 Fundamentalis/The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vocation.pdf. Subsequently cited as Ratio Fundamentalis. 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