Priests are necessary to the Catholic Church. Without them, Catholics
would not have access to many of the sacraments, especially the
Eucharist, Confession, and the Anointing of the Sick.Following the Decree on the Nature of the Priesthood which we dealt with in last week, the Vatican II Fathers, recognising the great significance of priests, composed Optatam Totius, the Decree on the Training of Priests, in order to lay out the principles and general regulations for priestly formation.
Aimed at the desired renewal of the whole Church, the document centers on fostering good priestly ministry “animated by the spirit of Christ”. The Council Fathers set out to create good priestly vocations, giving more attention to spiritual training, revising ecclesiastical studies, preparing for pastoral work, and continuing studies after ordination.
The Vatican II Fathers who wrote Optatam Toitius were fully aware that the priesthood is necessary for the desired renewal of the Catholic Church. They proclaimed the “extreme importance” of priestly training according to sound principles that harmonise traditional practices with updates according to the condition of the modern world. Priestly formation is required for all prospective priests, and while the document is concerned primarily with diocesan clergy, the prescriptions laid out by the council are to be “appropriately adapted to all”.
Regarding priestly training in different countries, Episcopal conferences in each country or rite must establish a Program of Priestly Training, submit it to the Holy See for approval, and revise it as necessary. In this way, “the universal laws be adapted to the particular circumstances of the times and localities so that the priestly training will always be in tune with the pastoral needs of those regions in which the ministry is to be exercised”.
In the second chapter, the urgent fostering of priestly vocations is addressed. According to the document, the entire Christian community must work together to promote vocations to the priesthood through prayer, penance, education, and moral Christian living.
Likewise, parents, teachers, parishes, priests, and bishops all have special responsibilities to encourage young men who may be called to the priesthood. However, the council holds that the Church's hierarchy reserves the right to judge priestly candidates and call and consecrate those it finds worthy.
According to the council, the work of fostering vocations should, in a spirit of openness, “transcend the limits of individual dioceses, countries, religious families and rites”. Looking to the needs of the universal Church, “it should provide aid particularly for those regions in which workers for the Lord's vineyard are being requested more urgently”.
In Minor seminaries designed to develop the seeds of vocations, the students should be prepared by “special religious formation”, particularly through “appropriate spiritual direction”, to “follow Christ the Redeemer with generosity of spirit and purity of heart”.
The third chapter deals with the setting up of major seminaries. The purpose of seminaries is to create priests who are “shepherds of souls after the model of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
The council asserts seminarians are therefore to be prepared for the ministry of the word “for the ministry of worship and of sanctification”, and that through their prayers and their carrying out of the sacred liturgical celebrations “they might perfect the work of salvation through the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments”.
According to the document, seminary education as a whole must have a pastoral goal. Seminaries should also employ the most competent teachers, who are sound in doctrine, have pastoral experience, and are trained in pedagogy and spirituality. Under the rector's leadership, the Council Fathers encourage them to form “a very closely knit community both in spirit and in activity”.
The council also document that candidates for the priesthood must be carefully screened to make sure that they are physically and emotionally fit for the great responsibility they intend to undertake. Also to be considered is the ability of the candidate to bear the priestly burdens and exercise the pastoral offices.
In the entire process of selecting and testing students, however, “a due firmness is to be adopted, even if a deplorable lack of priests should exist, since God will not allow His Church to want for ministers if those who are worthy are promoted and those not qualified are, at an early date, guided in a fatherly way to undertake other tasks”.
In chapter four, greater attention is given to the spiritual training of priests. According to the council, all candidates for the priesthood must receive spiritual formation in order to “learn to live in an intimate and unceasing union with the Father through His Son Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.”
Conformed to Christ, the Priest through their sacred ordination “should be accustomed to adhere to Him as friends, in an intimate companionship, their whole life through”.
Students should be taught to seek Christ in the faithful by meditation on the Scriptures; actively participating in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, praying frequently and deeply, and learning to see Christ in those around them, in those they must obey, and in those they serve.
The Vatican II Fathers purport “students should learn to live according to the Gospel ideal, to be strengthened in faith, hope and charity, so that, in the exercise of these practices, they may acquire the spirit of prayer, learn to defend and strengthen their vocation, obtain an increase of other virtues and grow in the zeal to gain all men for Christ”.
Candidates for the priesthood learn to embrace and appreciate the gift of celibacy with gratitude. According to the council, this renunciation of marriage “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” helps seminarians embrace the Lord with an undivided love altogether befitting the new covenant and bear witness to the resurrection.
Essentially, the whole pattern of seminary life, permeated with a desire for piety and silence and a careful concern for mutual help, must be so arranged that it provides, in a certain sense, an initiation into the future life which the priest shall lead.
The revision of ecclesiastical studies is dealt with in the fifth section of the document.
Candidates for the priesthood study a variety of academic subjects to prepare them intellectually for their vocation. The council suggests that before beginning specifically ecclesiastical subjects, seminarians should be equipped with that humanistic and scientific training.
Moreover they are to acquire knowledge of Latin which will enable them to understand and make use of the sources of so many sciences and of the documents of the Church. The study of the liturgical language proper to each rite should be considered necessary, while a suitable knowledge of the languages of the Bible and of Tradition are encouraged.
In revising ecclesiastical studies the aim should first of all be that the philosophical and theological disciplines be more suitably aligned and that they harmoniously work toward opening more and more the minds of the students to the mystery of Christ, the Council Father say. “For it is this mystery which affects the whole history of the human race, continually influences the Church, and is especially at work in the priestly ministry.”
The introductory course to the formation program communicates the Mystery of salvation, helps students understand the program of studies they are undertaking, and strengthens them to accept their vocation with personal dedication and a joyful heart.
The council states philosophical disciplines are to be taught in such a way that the students are first of all led to acquire “a solid and coherent knowledge of man, the world, and of God” and help student priests learn how to dialogue with the modern world.
Students should also learn to use their reason in “rigorous investigation, observation and demonstration of the truth,” but they must also recognize “the limits of human knowledge” and the necessity of faith.
The theological disciplines should be taught so that students will correctly “draw out Catholic doctrine from divine revelation, profoundly penetrate it, make it the food of their own spiritual lives, and be enabled to proclaim, explain, and protect it in their priestly ministry,” the document states.
According to the council, Theology courses should focus on Scripture and Dogma. Students must learn about liturgy and sacraments, moral law, salvation history, canon law, Church history, ecclesiology, and ecumenism, all with a Christocentric emphasis.
Recognising the importance of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, the Vatican II fathers affirm students for the priesthood should be introduced to knowledge of other churches and religions. This is encouraged “so that they may acknowledge more correctly what truth and goodness these religions, in God's providence, possess, and so that they may learn to refute their errors and be able to communicate the full light of truth to those who do not have it”.
Attention is also given to pastoral training for seminarians. According to the council, student priests should be “diligently instructed in matters which are particularly linked to the sacred ministry, especially in catechesis and preaching, in liturgical worship and the administration of the sacraments, in works of charity, in assisting the erring and the unbelieving, and in the other pastoral functions”.
Seminarians should be properly instructed in inspiring and fostering the apostolic activity of the laity and in promoting the various and more effective forms of the apostolate. They should also be “imbued with that truly Catholic spirit which will accustom them to transcend the limits of their own diocese, nation, or rite, and to help the needs of the whole Church, prepared in spirit to preach the Gospel everywhere,” the council said.
Finally, the Vatican II Fathers suggest priests should continue their education through pastoral institutes, meetings, projects, and other opportunities that they might grow in their knowledge and spirituality.
The council concludes that those pursuing a vocation to the priesthood must “realise that the hope of the Church and the salvation of souls is being committed to them”. They should accept their formation and vocation willingly, the Fathers said.
The period that followed the promulgation of Optatam Totius was marked by a severe drop in the number of priestly vocations in the Western World. Church leaders had argued that secularisation was to blame and that it was not directly related to the documents of the council. Historians have also pointed to the damage caused by the sexual revolution in the late 1960s and the strong backlash over Humanae Vitae.
Had the document been written at a later stage, the decrees on the priesthood would have surely focused more on why there has been a drop in priestly vocations and how to go about fostering vocations in the future.
Whatever the reason for the decline in vocations, the Second Vatican Council affirms that the future of the Church depends on its priests, who share in the ministry of Christ.