Philippine Program For Priestly Formation
To help fellow bishops of Asia address the needs of their priests, of Cotabato offers practical advice based on the experience of the Church in his own country. According to the 68-year-old Oblate prelate, who is secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops´ Conferences (FABC), 'The Updated Philippine Program of Priestly Formation' in the Philippines was developed in response to 'sexual scandals involving a number of priests and some members in leadership position' in the period 2000-2002.
The Philippine bishops 'worked quickly to stop the damage to the Church and to introduce measures that would effectively address the issues,' he told about 70 prelates on Aug. 31 at the seminar on 'Caring for Priests - Especially For Those with Difficulties.' Organized by the FABC Office of Clergy of the Federation of Asian Bishops´ Conferences, the event was held Aug. Download Free Car Racing Game For Windows 7 64 Bit on this page.
1 at Redemptorist Center in, 150 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The full text of Archbishop Quevedo´s presentation follows: CARING FOR PRIESTS: ONGOING FORMATION AND HELPING MEASURES Introduction Conventional wisdom in the past held the view that problems which our priests agonized through could be resolved by persevering prayer, a sincere, sorrowful comprehensive Confession and tough penance. A refreshing extended vacation far away from sources of temptation could also help.
A transfer to another assignment was a common helping measure. Another solution was an extended spiritual theological, pastoral updating course. In very serious cases, we would also recommend a holy and God-experienced thirty-day retreat. Solitude and prayer, we were convinced, could resolve the most serious problems. Indeed, we can not underestimate the value of prayer and asceticism in resolving priestly problems.
But in the light of all the talks that we have heard in the past few days, we have become more aware that many of the problems are not resolved simply by 'prayer and fasting.' The causes of some priestly problems lie deep in personalities, upbringing, reinforced by environment. How mistakenly did we simply take the usual course of action, quite unaware of the deep-rooted and complex causes of sinful priestly behavior. We now know more than ever that we have to discern very carefully the whole process related to vocation, attending closely to personality traits, family, upbringing, and environment. These greatly impact the recruitment and selection of candidates to the priestly and religious life, their initial formation and their own-going formation. Similar factors play a role in the kind of helping measures that would effectively benefit priests with special difficulties.
Spirituality, Canon Law, guidance and counseling, psychology and other social sciences all combine to help us in this process of discerning, nurturing and helping vocations. My task is to inquire into one part of this process, namely, the on-going formation of priests and the helping measures that relate to priests in especially difficult situations. These two issues are distinct but they are not unrelated.
The questions I shall treat are: what kind of ongoing formation do our priests need? What kind of helping measures do we provide priests when they are in crisis situation? I shall speak from the experience of Philippine Bishops and simply share with you what they have done. Ongoing Formation of Priests - the Need for Vision In the confusion and vocation crisis that followed Vatican IL the issue of ongoing formation became a constant preoccupation. Countless programs were designed and initiated. Much of these have been relegated to the bin of good intentions and wishful thinking. As in the pastoral priority of building Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC), the difficulties of implementation stood in the way.
Ongoing formation programs offered by updating institutes generally consist of a list of courses, like a cafeteria menu, that might attract individual tastes and interests. We find a plethora of courses such as quantum theology, gender sensitivity, feminist reading of Sacred Scripture, contextualized spirituality, eco-spirituality, inclusive liturgy, participatory leadership, and the like.
Table of Contents RaTio FoRmaTionis introduction 5 Chapter 1 — The Canadian Context of the Program for Priestly Formation and the nature of the Priesthood 7. The document Program of Priestly Formation (fifth edition) was developed by the Committee on Priestly Formation of the United States Conference of Catholic. The Commission on Seminaries: 1. For the previously said updating and adaptation of the Philippine Program for Priestly Formation which is essential to the.
Free Html File Upload Form. In themselves such courses might have great validity. But the real imperative, the conditio sine qua non, is the why and wherefore of updating and renewal courses. The context of ongoing formation is likewise imperative. There has to be a vision of ongoing formation within which individual courses and even processes become desirable, necessary, relevant, and useful for the priests in their particular situation.