Cardinal Stella on New Vatican Seminary Document: Avoid 'Rigidity'

The National Catholic Register ^ | 12/7/16 | Edward Pentin

[marshmallow]

Coinciding with publication of new and updated guidelines on priestly formation, Cardinal Beniamino Stella says that seminaries should focus on pastoral discernment and form priests to be "without rigidity, hypocrisy."

The Congregation for Clergy is about to issue a new document on basic norms for priestly formation which aim to move away from “rigidity” in the interests of fostering greater pastoral discernment and accompaniment, according to the Congregation’s cardinal prefect.

In an interview in tomorrow’s L’Osservatore Romano timed to coincide with its release, Cardinal Beniamino Stella explains that the document is a revision of the “Basic Plan for Priestly Formation” issued in 1970 which was later updated in 1985. Those documents were both issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, the guidelines, otherwise known as Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, will be promulgated tomorrow, December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Cardinal Stella, a Vatican diplomat and one of the Pope’s most trusted aides, says the decision to issue the new document is in view of “the effect of the rapid evolution the world is subjected to today” as well as changing “historical, socio-cultural and ecclesial contexts in which the priest is called to embody the mission of Christ and of the Church.”

He stresses the document should reflect those realities “without causing significant changes relating to other aspects: the image or vision of the priest, the spiritual needs of God's people, the challenges of the new evangelization, the languages of communication, and more.”

The cardinal says three words encapsulate the overall vision of the document — humanity, spirituality and discernment:

* Humanity: the need for the seminarian to be accompanied by a process of growth that will make him “humanly balanced, serene and stable.” Only then, he says, will priests have...........

[marshmallow]

Yeah, it was "rigidity" which led to the infestation of seminaries with homosexuals, leading to the sex abuse scandal and costing the Church billions, not to mention the enormous scandal given to the faithful. It was "rigidity" which led to the liturgical and doctrinal chaos in the Church over the last 50 years and emptied the pews resulting in the closures of parishes. It was "rigidity" which led priests to abandon their vocation in droves.

The only possible circumstance in which "rigidity" is justified is in dealing with seminarians who have a love of Latin and the Tridentine Rite of the Mass. They may be shown the door, pronto, since they're "sick".

[Petrosius]

Sadly “rigidity” has often been a code word for orthodox belief.

[Ouchthatonehurt]

We live in the age of “The God of Suprises”

[jobim]

“We have been encouraged and enlightened by the Magisterium of Pope Francis.”

“novelties in the Church are never separate from the tradition”, rather they “integrate and deepen”

Is any comment necessary? Is this not self-explanatory?
Are we not in crisis?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Can’t be “rigid” on morality, but you must be absolutely rigid when it comes to climate change.

[LadyDoc]

Good bye Good Men?