Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Apostolic visitation calls for overhaul of Church in Ireland

(Catholic News Agency / EWTN News) ...The report says that the Church needs to show “greater concern for the intellectual formation of seminarians” to ensure that their education is “in full conformity with the Church’s Magisterium.”

It suggests that the pastoral training of seminarians be re-evaluated to ensure “it is sacramental, priestly and apostolic” and concerned with “preparing candidates to celebrate the sacraments and to preach.”

It also states that the seminary buildings should be “exclusively for seminarians of the local Church and those preparing them for the priesthood” to “ensure a well-founded priestly identity.” There had been concern in recent years that there was insufficient separation between the seminarians at St. Patrick’s College and the secular students of the National University of Ireland, which are both situated in Maynooth in County Kildare.

The major superiors of religious orders also have to design new programs to focus on “living their vows in a contemporary context,” in accordance with “the Apostolic Tradition of the Church’s teaching” and the “charism of the founder of the Institute.” This should be done with a view to “revitalizing communities of prayer, community life and mission...”

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