US study: Seminarians need better support, screening

The report released this month by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame contends that some candidates for the priesthood need more psychological evaluation and help than they are currently getting, and some US bishops ought to defer more to the formation team at seminaries as to whether a seminarian ought to be ordained.

The report also recommends more stringent requirements around sexual maturity before a candidate receives holy orders and more resources for those who have special needs, such as autism or attention deficit disorder.

The goal, the study’s authors said, is to more effectively identify candidates who shouldn’t become priests and to help candidates who should become priests prepare better for celibacy and parish life.

“The longer one spends engaged in the work of priestly formation, the more likely we are to have to endure the excruciating experience of watching a man be ordained who, in one’s strong judgement, should not be,” stated the report, which was authored by two experts in seminary formation.

“For the good of all involved, the seminarian included, we must move beyond a fixation on numbers and insist on the quality of the men being called.”

One proposal in the report urges seminaries to make clear to candidates that they must disclose “personal issues” to formation staff as an obligation out of “love for the Church”.

The report’s significance is placed in the context of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Former McGrath director and Notre Dame theologian John Cavadini wrote in the foreword that the emphasis of quality over quantity that has guided McGrath’s work on seminary formation “will create an ecclesial culture where sexual abuse is less likely to occur and where, when it does, its consequences for victims and the whole People of God are addressed in a timely and pastorally effective way”.

Asked how widespread the problems in US seminary formation identified are, the report’s co-authors described them as weaknesses in an otherwise healthy system of preparing men for the priesthood.

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US Seminaries Need to Improve Screening and Support for Priesthood Candidates, Study Finds (By Matthew McDonald/National Catholic Register)