Monday, April 23, 2007
Pius XII on Minor Seminaries
[Note: This address was given to three thousand minor seminarians gathered in Rome on September 5, 1957]"Sound studies are not always the only benefit to be drawn from minor seminaries, nor is this the main reason for their existence. Sound Christian pedagogy confirmed by long centuries of experience teaches that true personality, strong virtue, and profound convictions are not formed in a haphazard manner.
"Life is too short, the years of adolescence and of youth are too delicate not to be in pressing need of guidance and protection. The young man who has at heart to become a priest, must ripen in the climate most favorable to a lucid choice. The education of his still fragile will requires prudence and respect.
"He will therefore find in the minor seminaries greatly experienced and solicitous counselors and teachers who will guide his step, stimulate his intelligence, develop his generosity and the feeling of his responsibility in the proper functioning of the seminary.
"If minor seminaries are so useful and beneficial, it is because their institution is based on a precise knowledge of the needs of the adolescent and Christian youth. Families can therefore rely on the wisdom of the Church to judge one's aptitude for the priesthood and the means best suited to prepare for it.
"The Catholic priesthood is truly one of the purest glories of the Church and one of the most striking marks of her holiness. She has therefore always given it her most solicitous care throughout the centuries.
"Despite the weaknesses of human nature, she has maintained at a very high level its ideal of life, without sparing any effort to make her priests men of God and men of the Church, truly capable of taking charge of a part of the flock of Christ and of giving an account of it to God on the day of judgment. She has arranged their intellectual, moral and pastoral formation in an always precise and demanding manner.
"After ordering the erection of major seminaries in dioceses, she has then created special institutions meant for candidates to the ecclesiastical life. Far from having to repent such an institution, she congratulates herself for it when she witnesses the happy fruits borne by minor seminaries in the field of studies as well as in the formation of character."
"Life is too short, the years of adolescence and of youth are too delicate not to be in pressing need of guidance and protection. The young man who has at heart to become a priest, must ripen in the climate most favorable to a lucid choice. The education of his still fragile will requires prudence and respect.
"He will therefore find in the minor seminaries greatly experienced and solicitous counselors and teachers who will guide his step, stimulate his intelligence, develop his generosity and the feeling of his responsibility in the proper functioning of the seminary.
"If minor seminaries are so useful and beneficial, it is because their institution is based on a precise knowledge of the needs of the adolescent and Christian youth. Families can therefore rely on the wisdom of the Church to judge one's aptitude for the priesthood and the means best suited to prepare for it.
"The Catholic priesthood is truly one of the purest glories of the Church and one of the most striking marks of her holiness. She has therefore always given it her most solicitous care throughout the centuries.
"Despite the weaknesses of human nature, she has maintained at a very high level its ideal of life, without sparing any effort to make her priests men of God and men of the Church, truly capable of taking charge of a part of the flock of Christ and of giving an account of it to God on the day of judgment. She has arranged their intellectual, moral and pastoral formation in an always precise and demanding manner.
"After ordering the erection of major seminaries in dioceses, she has then created special institutions meant for candidates to the ecclesiastical life. Far from having to repent such an institution, she congratulates herself for it when she witnesses the happy fruits borne by minor seminaries in the field of studies as well as in the formation of character."
Labels: Holy Father, Priesthood, Seminarian, Seminary, Vocation
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