Program of Priestly Formation 6th edition

INTRODUCTION | 9

virtual relationships and constant recourse to social media. In addition, the widespread availability of pornography on the inter net is a pervasive reality and a pernicious threat to human and moral development. (2) Second, many factors within the Catholic Church in the United States also present opportunities and challenges that directly affect seminary formation: a. The Catholic Church in the United States is reinvigorated espe cially by the new ecclesial realities born of the Second Vatican Council, which have offered amore positive context for vocations. b. With a renewed sense of mission, the Church wants to engage in the new evangelization in these areas: evangelization through ordinary pastoral ministry, evangelization through ministry to the baptized who lack a relationship with the Church, and evange lization to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ or who have rejected him. 25 c. The Catholic Church in the United States continues to be firmly committed to and engaged in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and cooperation, something that “belongs to the very essence of” the community of the Lord’s disciples. 26 d. Globalization has underscored the need for greater coordination and deeper communion with the Church in other parts of the world. Ecclesia in America bears witness to this reality and respon sibility, especially in our own hemisphere. e. The ministerial collaboration of priests with bishops, other priests, deacons, men and women in consecrated life, and lay men and women is an important feature of the life of the Church in the United States. f. The important presence and unique contribution of women in society and in the Church need to be acknowledged and nur tured. They offer an edifying example of humility, generosity, and selfless service. 27 21.

25

See Evangelii Gaudium , no. 15.

26 St. John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint ( On Commitment to Ecumenism , 1995), no. 9, www.vatican.va/content/ john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25051995_ut-unum-sint.html . 27 See Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 151.