The Vatican would like to “make all the priests in the world happy” according to the prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy.
Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-Sik said many clergy were “tired and discouraged, caught off guard by the challenges of today's society and the burdens they carry”.
He added that his job was to make priests happy, alluding to how clergy need to receive “support and accompaniment”, including ongoing formation.
The prefect was addressing a conference in Rome focussing on ongoing formation for clergy, seminarians and deacons.
Around 1,000 priests and pastoral leaders from 600 countries attended the conference.
Co-sponsored by the Dicastery for Evangelisation, the event featured prayers, presentations, and synod-style small discussion groups.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, urged clergy to resist the belief that their formation ended after ordination.
He said it was precisely “because we are ordained to the service of God and the Church, that we need to be continuously formed”.
He also urged priests to overcome a tendency to “absolutise and glorify one’s own culture”.
The key was to “appreciate” one own culture, but also “admit” its “brokenness”, and be prepared to “affirm” the positive aspects of other cultures.
Tagle championed priestly formation which addresses “wounds and pains that could easily lead to vindictiveness, cynicism, and hatred”.
During the event, the Vatican launched a re-vamped website for the Dicastery for Clergy, designed to support priests, deacons, and seminarians.
Available in English and Italian, the site offers up-to-date news and resources including papal and dicastery documents.
A “report initiative” page allows clergy to report on programmes that have worked in their own dioceses which could be used in other countries of continents.
The yellow-and-white coloured website contains includes a special feed featuring news and documents specifically for seminarians.
Priests and deacons can also access training courses – either in person or delivered online – on subjects including Canonical Administrative Practice and Formative Practice.
In South Africa, Bishop Sithembile Sipuka of Umtata has called for new training for priests to improve catechisis.
Sipuka, the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), said priests must be trained in new method of instruction, especially for young people, if the Church is to continue to grow in the region.
“Priests need to be trained in the pedagogy of teaching catechism so that they in turn can train catechists,” he said at the close of the SACBC plenary session early this month.
“In teaching catechism today, we must do more than drill children on the number of sacraments and commandments.”
Most parishes rely on untrained catechists as instructors, but Church officials agreed that new technology demanded a concerted response from the hierarchy.