[marshmallow]

Pastoral experience will change these young priests. They will also be serving under pastors who are tempered by life, and human encounters.

The model here is John Paul II, right?

The article is pointing out that these young men are inspired by him and seek to model themselves after his example.

We don't want pastoral experience to change that, do we?

The late Pope showed us that piety and contemplation are compatible with pastoral zeal. The whining of the seminary faculty is essentially the "Martha" complaint of the gospels. They seem convinced that too much prayer and communion with God will ruin these young men.

It is they who are out of step.

[sinkspur]

These young men do not speak with pastoral voices. They speak with dogmatic theological blandness.

Pastoral experience and prayer will temper the dogmatism and infuse it with the sensitivity that JPII exhibited in his writings.