Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

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Human Dimension

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, evaluation, 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 readmission to the same or another seminary. 266 Preparation for Simplicity of Life Human formation should cultivate a spirit of generosity, encouraging the seminarian to become a man for others and to curb expectations of entitlement; seminarians should learn practical ways of living simplicity of life. 267 Manifestations of undue materialism and consumerism in the seminarian’s behavior should be confronted and corrected. The formation program should articulate the distinctive qualities of simplicity of life appropriate for one preparing for priestly leadership. Simplicity of life is particularly important in our own age when human needs and desires are so consciously manipulated and exploited. A consumer society often reduces people to things, which are used and then discarded, plunging society more deeply into a 265 See USCCB, Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography (Washington, DC: USCCB, 2015). 266 See Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 191. 267 “A right attitude to the world and to earthly goods . . . is of great importance for priests for this reason, that the Church’s mission is carried out in the midst of the world and that created goods are absolutely necessary for man’s personal progress. Let priests be thankful then for everything that the heavenly Father has given them towards a proper standard of living. However, they ought to judge everything they meet in the light of faith, so that they will be guided towards the right use of things in accordance with God’s will and will reject anything that is prejudicial to their mission.” Presbyterorum Ordinis , no. 17.

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