Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

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Seminaries

Seminary leaders bear a special responsibility for planning, organizing, directing, and evaluating the implementation of this Program of Priestly Formation in their respective institutions. Roles Within the Community of Formators The community of formators must include a rector and a spiritual director. 493 The number of formators must necessarily be sufficient for, and proportionate to, the number of seminarians. Thus, often there will be more than one spiritual director, vice rector, and other priest formators as necessary to provide personal accompaniment to the individual seminarians. To provide excellent and competent priest formators, diocesan bishops and religious ordinaries should be generous in encouraging priests to prepare for seminary work or in releasing their priests for this ministry, even if the seminary is not their own. Rector The rector, always a priest, serves as the pastor of the seminary community. 494 He is to be “distinguished by prudence, wisdom and balance, someone highly competent, who coordinates the educational endeavor in the governance of the Seminary.” 495 As the diocesan bishop or major superior’s direct delegate for the formation of seminarians, he serves as the father in the seminary community and takes an active part in the accompaniment of seminarians throughout their formation process. He sets the direction and tone of the seminary program. By creating a climate of mutual confidence and trust, he elicits the full cooperation and involvement of all members of the seminary community. His job description should be carefully drawn to ensure that he has the authority to discharge properly the responsibilities of his office. Given

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493 See CIC, c. 239; CCEO, cc. 338-339. 494 See CIC, c. 262; CCEO, c. 336 §2. 495 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 134.

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