Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

166 PPF

Seminary Formation: Structural Elements

of evaluation must be clearly described in detail in the seminary handbook. The seminary should have a written statement of the criteria used in evaluating seminarians. Such evaluation is primarily the responsibility of the rector and the community of formators. It should also involve the input of the seminarians themselves, their various supervisors, and their peers. Each seminary must provide a procedure for the evaluation of seminarians. As part of this procedure, each seminary should ensure that seminarians are apprised of their progress as early as possible in their formation, particularly if there are concerns; that the priest formator regularly communicates with the seminarians; that the seminarians have a procedure for responding to matters raised in the evaluation process; that confidentiality, as articulated by the seminary, is observed; and that all doubts are resolved in favor of the Church. 210 The process of evaluation should be conducted in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence. It should promote the continued growth of the seminarian in the four dimensions of formation. Each seminarian should be evaluated on the basis of his actual progress and maturation, not on the basis of the mere passage of time. 211 Seminarians are accountable for all aspects of priestly formation within the four dimensions of human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation. This accountability includes participation in spiritual exercises, the spiritual direction program, liturgical exercises, and community life as well as the intellectual and pastoral dimensions of priestly formation. This approach is taken because all the aspects of priestly formation are “intimately interwoven and should not be

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210 The unity of the good must always be remembered; that is, the good of the Church can never contra dict the good of the individual but always implicitly includes it. 211 See Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 58.

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