I had the privilege last month to address seminary administrators and faculty members gathered for the National Catholic Education Association Convocation in Schaumburg, Illinois.
I shared with them my esteem for their work and the high regard I have for their important role of preparing future priests for service in the Church.

 

Father Robert Gonzalez, one of our own diocesan priests, served many years teaching philosophy in the seminary. He made an impact on several generations of priests, including some of our own in the Diocese.
Father Joseph Lombardo served in administration at Mountain View College Seminary in California and Father Jeremiah McCarthy, a priest of the diocese now serving with the Association of Theological Schools, was rector at Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California.

 

I am pleased that Father Joseph Nietlong, who has served a number of years in our Diocese as a parochial vicar and pastor, has begun this month to teach philosophy and form priests at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. I am sure he will enjoy immensely his new assignment to the seminary. That was certainly my experience for more than 20 years.
Seminaries play an essential role in preparing priests who serve with competence, integrity and fidelity.
I shared with the attendees at the Convocation several experiences I have had as a bishop in the last 11 years that I think have implications for seminaries and the important work they do.

 

The first was the need for future priests to stand up and speak out for human dignity. We need priests who, in the words of Benedict XVI, have “hearts which see.” As I have stood in front of an abortion clinic or spoken with migrants or visited jails or traveled to India and Nepal, it is clear that there is much evil in this world of the Third Millennium. Despite our fondest hopes that surviving Y2K we would experience a time of prosperity and peace unheard of in history, evil remains.

 

War is raging in many places. Poverty is the food of many. Abortions abound. Harm is inflicted on the littlest and weakest. Threats escalate. We are afraid to fly in airplanes, or ride on trains, or sit in cafes or walk down the street.
A priest – a bishop – cannot remain silent in the face of the overwhelming evil that exists in the world. We need priests who see and hear the pain and cries of the poor. We need priests with convictions that move them to act without fear or intimidation in confronting evil.

 

Second, I asked that they help our future priests know the important, irreplaceable role they play as ordained priests in the Church. Moreover, that they remind them that they are not the Church nor are they solely responsible for the mission of Christ. They are to be co-workers with their bishop, with one another and with all involved in ministry.
I suggested that seminary faculty bear responsibility to form priests who see laity involved in ministry as a cause for rejoicing, as those who long to work with them in building up the Church, and not as people to be feared or “kept in their place.”

 

Third, I encouraged them to stress with their seminarians the great challenge of the 21st Century – how to pass on our tradition to the new generation, the ones we call milennials (those born after 1979).

 

Many young adults and even teens, while they identify themselves as Catholic, have little commitment to the Church. They believe some of what the Church teaches, but not all. I have heard so many parents lament that their children simply are unconvinced by what the Church teaches.

 

We need priests who will listen to the new generation and who will teach in a way that inspires and persuades.

 

Fourth, I asked our seminaries to prepare their seminarians to pastor in a sometimes angry and divided Church in such a way that seeks to unify and not further divide. If you would read my mail or e-mails you would see that Catholics are in very different places, each one thinking that they have a full grasp of the truth. The extremes in the Church today are obvious, but all need shepherding.

 

We need priests who will read widely and listen carefully to the broad range of Catholic thought. We need priests who will not water down what the Church teaches and who will help people understand the subtleties and nuances of Church teaching.

 

Clearly, priests cannot agree with or condone everything that is said and done by the people they serve, but they can resist adding further to the division of the household of God. They can avoid being self righteous, strident or lacking in civility.

 

Finally, and most importantly, I suggested that our future priests and priests now serving our Church must understand the absolute need for personal holiness.

 

Seminaries can take good men and educate them to be competent theologians and train them to be pastoral leaders with highly honed skills.

 

But, if the men they educate and train are not men of prayer in love with the Lord on their ordination day and every day afterwards, they will have failed in their mission That was my wish list for our future priests. What is yours?

 

Bishop Gerald D. Kicanas

Bishop of Tucson