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Thursday, February 24, 2005
CNS STORY: Seminary rector wants priests who can dialogue, evangelize
CNS STORY: Seminary rector wants priests who can dialogue, evangelize
By Patrick Joyce
Catholic News Service
MENLO PARK, Calif. (CNS) -- Forming priests who will respond to Pope John Paul II's call for a "new evangelization" and share the pope's eagerness to dialogue with the world are top priorities for Sulpician Father Gerald L. Brown, rector of St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park.
"One of the great challenges for today's seminaries is how to come to terms with the kind of evangelization that is needed in contemporary times," he said in an interview with Catholic San Francisco, newspaper of the San Francisco Archdiocese. "How do we tap into the hunger that's there and, at the same time, encourage the value of coming together as church?"
Father Brown, a former provincial superior of the U.S. Sulpicians, became rector of St. Patrick's last July. He said seminary leaders must learn new ways of finding and reaching out to people who may have vocations to the priesthood, religious life or lay ministry.
"A lot of people in this generation are looking for something very meaningful in their lives," Father Brown said. "They're searching. ... The question is: How do we create opportunities for people in those age groups to reflect on the possibility of a vocation, how do we tap into their lives at that moment when they're about ready to make a major life decision?"
He said one problem is a lack of "structures we can plug into" to reach young adults. "We do well with people as they prepare for Communion and confirmation, but then what happens to them after that?" he said. "We have lost many young adults. We have to find a way of reaching out because many of them are concerned about questions of faith and the meaning of life."
Candidates for the priesthood at St. Patrick's generally range in age from their late 20s to their 50s. He said many ended up in the seminary as a result of an encounter with a priest who recognized a possible vocation and asked the right questions. "What about all the others who aren't here, simply because nobody knows where to find them?" he asked.
He noted that the age range of students poses challenges for seminary formation. "The older students come with tremendous experience," he said. "The danger is to deal with them as if they were just beginning students. We've had to learn how to benefit from their experience. We need to take that into account, in the classroom and spiritual direction and counseling and in our academic program.
With seminarians born abroad forming about one-fourth of U.S. ordinands in recent years, the diversity of nationalities and cultures in the seminaries today is "a great strength" but also a challenge, he said.
Not only must students from Asia, Africa and Latin America learn to deal with the U.S. culture, but "we who are the host culture need to understand what makes us distinct as a culture," Father Brown said. "How do we transmit that knowledge so the international student can be effective here? We also need to be open to learning from the experience of other cultures."
He said the makeup of the seminary faculty and staff should also reflect the diversity of cultures found in the student body.
Another priority today is forming future priests who can collaborate well with lay people and permanent deacons. "All of us must work together, with mutual respect, to bring the Gospel to people," he said.
"There are 10 times as many people studying for full-time lay ministry in the church as there are seminarians," Father Brown said. "On the graduate level in the United States there are 3,500 seminarians and 35,000 lay people. And of course the number of permanent deacons is growing."
But the biggest challenge in seminaries, he said, is to help seminarians integrate the "four pillars" of growth needed to make them well-rounded, effective priests: human formation, spiritual formation, intellectual formation and pastoral formation.
Those elements are not compartmentalized with a priest being "intellectual one minute, then pastoral another minute," he said. "One has to be spiritual in everything and the intellectual life has to help change what it means to be human and spiritual. All those things work together. Seminarians -- and all of us -- have to learn the skill of integrating. That is not easy."
END
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB.
By Patrick Joyce
Catholic News Service
MENLO PARK, Calif. (CNS) -- Forming priests who will respond to Pope John Paul II's call for a "new evangelization" and share the pope's eagerness to dialogue with the world are top priorities for Sulpician Father Gerald L. Brown, rector of St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park.
"One of the great challenges for today's seminaries is how to come to terms with the kind of evangelization that is needed in contemporary times," he said in an interview with Catholic San Francisco, newspaper of the San Francisco Archdiocese. "How do we tap into the hunger that's there and, at the same time, encourage the value of coming together as church?"
Father Brown, a former provincial superior of the U.S. Sulpicians, became rector of St. Patrick's last July. He said seminary leaders must learn new ways of finding and reaching out to people who may have vocations to the priesthood, religious life or lay ministry.
"A lot of people in this generation are looking for something very meaningful in their lives," Father Brown said. "They're searching. ... The question is: How do we create opportunities for people in those age groups to reflect on the possibility of a vocation, how do we tap into their lives at that moment when they're about ready to make a major life decision?"
He said one problem is a lack of "structures we can plug into" to reach young adults. "We do well with people as they prepare for Communion and confirmation, but then what happens to them after that?" he said. "We have lost many young adults. We have to find a way of reaching out because many of them are concerned about questions of faith and the meaning of life."
Candidates for the priesthood at St. Patrick's generally range in age from their late 20s to their 50s. He said many ended up in the seminary as a result of an encounter with a priest who recognized a possible vocation and asked the right questions. "What about all the others who aren't here, simply because nobody knows where to find them?" he asked.
He noted that the age range of students poses challenges for seminary formation. "The older students come with tremendous experience," he said. "The danger is to deal with them as if they were just beginning students. We've had to learn how to benefit from their experience. We need to take that into account, in the classroom and spiritual direction and counseling and in our academic program.
With seminarians born abroad forming about one-fourth of U.S. ordinands in recent years, the diversity of nationalities and cultures in the seminaries today is "a great strength" but also a challenge, he said.
Not only must students from Asia, Africa and Latin America learn to deal with the U.S. culture, but "we who are the host culture need to understand what makes us distinct as a culture," Father Brown said. "How do we transmit that knowledge so the international student can be effective here? We also need to be open to learning from the experience of other cultures."
He said the makeup of the seminary faculty and staff should also reflect the diversity of cultures found in the student body.
Another priority today is forming future priests who can collaborate well with lay people and permanent deacons. "All of us must work together, with mutual respect, to bring the Gospel to people," he said.
"There are 10 times as many people studying for full-time lay ministry in the church as there are seminarians," Father Brown said. "On the graduate level in the United States there are 3,500 seminarians and 35,000 lay people. And of course the number of permanent deacons is growing."
But the biggest challenge in seminaries, he said, is to help seminarians integrate the "four pillars" of growth needed to make them well-rounded, effective priests: human formation, spiritual formation, intellectual formation and pastoral formation.
Those elements are not compartmentalized with a priest being "intellectual one minute, then pastoral another minute," he said. "One has to be spiritual in everything and the intellectual life has to help change what it means to be human and spiritual. All those things work together. Seminarians -- and all of us -- have to learn the skill of integrating. That is not easy."
END
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB.
