Program of Priestly Formation 6th edition

HUMAN DIMENSION | 91

enter into peaceful solitude, ascetical practices that foster vigilance and self-mastery over one’s impulses and drives, and a habit of modesty. An especially important practice is holding all persons in the mystery of God, whether they are encountered in the course of formal ministry or ordinary life. This practice means viewing all persons in God, interceding for them before God, and claiming responsibility to direct them to God. A seminary human formation program should inculcate addi tional skills for celibate living as care for others, a deepening of the capacity to give and receive love, an ability to practice appropriate self-disclosure, an ability to develop and maintain healthy and inclusive peer friendships, and an ability to set appropriate boundaries by choosing not to act on romantic feelings and by developing self-discipline in the face of temp tation. A seminarian must be prepared to accept wholeheartedly the Church’s teaching on sexuality in its entirety, be determined to master all sexual temptations, be prepared to meet the challenge of living chastely in all friendships, and finally be resolved to fashion his sexual desires and passions in such a way that he is able to live a healthy, celibate lifestyle that expresses self-gift in faithful and life-giving love: being attentive to others, helping them reach their potential, not giving up, and investing all one’s energies in the service of the Kingdom of God. Given the pervasive reality of pornography in today’s culture, each program is to address this problem, as well as the appropriate use of electronic media, with pertinent policies and training in virtue. 265 The seminary must have written guidelines for admission, evalu ation, and community life that spell out its expectations regarding those attitudes, behaviors, and levels of psychosexual maturity that indicate a right mentality, proper motivation, and a commitment to celibate chastity. These guidelines should also specify unacceptable attitudes and behaviors that run counter to such a commitment. Any seminarian found to have pathological sexual attraction to minors is to be dismissed from the seminary with no possibility for read mission to the same or another seminary. 266 213. 214. 215.

265 See USCCB, Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2015). 266 See Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 191.