Our Mission The Major Seminary - A Formation Community

The Major Seminary is the place for the formation of candidates for priesthood as affirmed by the Second Vatican Council: "The institution of the major seminary, as the best place for formation, is to be certainly reaffirmed as the normal place, in the material sense as well, for a community and hierarchical life, indeed as the proper home for the formation of candidates for the priesthood, with superiors who are truly dedicated to this service."(Optatam Totius, 4) The seminary is also the place and a period in life and an educational community for candidates for the priesthood. The candidates in formation are called to re - live the experience of formation which our Lord provided for the Twelve which is a necessary premise for the apostolic ministry. Such an experience demands from the candidates the practice of detachment in a particularly clear and specific fashion, a detachment from their roots, from their usual work, from their nearest and dearest (cf. Mk. 1:16-20; 10:28; Lk. 9:23, 57-62; 14:25-27).

In its deepest identity the seminary is called to be, in its own way, a continuation in the Church of the apostolic community gathered about Jesus, listening to his word, proceeding toward the Easter experience, awaiting the gift of the Spirit for the mission. Such an identity constitutes the normative ideal which stimulates the seminary in the many diverse forms and varied aspects which it assumes historically as a human institution, to find a concrete realization, faithful to the Gospel values from which it takes its inspiration and able to respond to the situations and needs of the times (Pastores Dabo Vobis, n. 60) The seminary is, in itself, an original experience of the Church's life. In it the bishop is present through the ministry of the rector and the service of co - responsibility and communion fostered by him with the other teachers, for the sake of the pastoral and apostolic growth of the students. The various members of the seminary community, gathered by the Spirit into a single brotherhood, cooperate, each according to his own gift in the growth of all in faith and charity so that they may prepare suitably for the priesthood and so prolong in the Church and in history the saving presence of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd (ibid.)

From the human point of view, the Major Seminary should strive to become "a community built on deep friendship and charity so that it can be considered a true family living in joy." As a Christian institution, the seminary should become an "ecclesial community," a "community of the disciples of the Lord in which the one same liturgy (which imbues life with a spirit of prayer) is celebrated; a community molded daily in the reading and meditation of the word of God and with the sacrament of the Eucharist, and in the practice of fraternal charity and justice; a community in which, as its life and the life each of its members progresses, there shine forth the Spirit of Christ and love for the Church."

As an educational ecclesial community it undertakes the vocational accompanying of future priests, and the discernment of vocations to help the candidates to respond to their call in preparation for the sacrament of orders with its graces and responsibilities, by which the priest is configured to Jesus Christ head and shepherd and is enabled and committed to share the mission of salvation in the church and in the world. Inasmuch as it is an educating community, the seminary and its entire life is committed to the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation of future priests with its contents, modalities and characteristics. The content and form of the educational work require that the seminary should have a precise programme, a programme of life characterized by its being organized and unified, by its being in harmony for the preparation of future priests. In this way, it brings together into a harmonious whole a clear statement of the goal to be achieved, the requirement that candidates proceed seriously toward the goal, and therefore should pay attention to a series of situations, problems, difficulties and different rates of progress and growth. This means a true love and a sincere respect for the person of the candidate for the priesthood.(cf. PDV, n. 61).