As we continue this Christmas season and begin the calendar year, the faculty, staff and students of Christ the King Seminary would like to offer you a blessed season of hope and joyous New Year of encounters with the Lord. We also believe this start to the new year is the perfect opportunity to give you a brief description of seminary life today as compared to around 50 years ago, as well as offer you a glimpse into changes that will be forthcoming.

Our purpose is to provide a clear portrayal of seminary life, while giving you some useful information to share with others. We want to reassure you that our formation process of preparing seminarians for the priesthood, as well as future deacons and other men and women for various ministries in the Church, provides them with the resources they need for a comprehensive development in their discipleship.

In this brief essay, we shall compare both the application process and the life of seminary formation from the period before Vatican II to today. Afterwards, we would like to outline for you some forthcoming changes in seminary life that will add greater clarity to the various stages, discernment and growth of seminarians during their formation years.
Today's application process for a seminarian candidate usually takes almost a year as he journeys with his vocation director. The applicant shares his family history, educational and occupational backgrounds, sacramental life, and reflections on his vocational journey. Each applicant undergoes a comprehensive psychological assessment at an accredited counseling center and provides letters of recommendation from people outside his family. Finally, the applicant interviews with his local bishop and the respective seminary he would attend before being accepted. Fifty years ago, the application process varied more from place to place and was generally not as extensive. Though the process may have included some psychological testing, it did not include the detailed assessments, background histories and interviews in use today. Instead, it was more a matter of being recommended by one's pastor, accepted by the diocese and seminary based on briefer family information forms, and the use of simpler screening tests.

Today's Seminary Compared to 50 Years Ago

In the two decades following Vatican II, seminary formation underwent major changes, outlined as follows:
1970: The Congregation for the Clergy promulgated what essentially is a guideline for priestly formation (known as the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis).

During their second year of theological studies, seminarians have a follow-up assessment of their psychosexual profile with feedback from one of the professionals of the Diocesan Counseling Center. They also have access to professional counseling services if requested or deemed necessary by the formation team. Every seminarian also attends an approved clinical pastoral education program, usually in a hospital setting, to assist in his growth of self-awareness and ministerial presence. During a year of pastoral immersion in a parish, the seminary formation team, parish pastor, and a parish evaluation team of lay men and women accompany the seminarian's pastoral growth and offer feedback. All this remains a standard part of the formation process and discernment at Christ the King Seminary, as it does at most other seminaries. In summary, great strides have been made in the formation of seminarians for the priesthood during the past 50 years.
On Dec. 8, 2016, the Congregation for the Clergy issued a new set of seminary formation guidelines, "The Gift of the Priestly Vocation" (the new Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis), essentially a rewrite of the 1970 Ratio listed above. The USCCB, hopefully together with a broad-based team of consultors, will use it as a framework for updating the Program for Priestly Formation. Seminaries around the country will then make internal changes and shifts of emphasis in response to the new guidelines.

2. Stage of Philosophical Studies (Discipleship) - This stage continues the lifelong discipleship in which all the baptized participate. For the seminarian, the primary focus is the authenticity and maturity of his humanity, so that he can truly offer a free response to God's call. The area of human formation, then, provides the concentration of this stage, educating the seminarian "in the truth of his being, in freedom and in self-control."
The information offered here provides only a small glimpse into what the bishops may decide to amend in the present PPF. In the ongoing attempts to make priestly formation as comprehensively balanced and effective as possible, the process will always require the sincerity and integrity of seminarians and formators alike, and the prayerful support and accompaniment of the entire people of God.

We hope this information on seminary life today lifts the veil on some of the mystery surrounding formation to the priesthood and gives you more confidence about the process. Christ the King Seminary remains an invaluable resource for animating the spread of the Gospel and strengthening our communities of faith in Western New York. We continue working to adapt to the changing demands of seminary formation, supporting all our students so that they may serve Christ in today's Church with faith-filled integrity and generosity. In this Christmas season, we welcome the Word made flesh, born in the simplicity, humility and poverty of a manger. God has promised to remain with us to the end of time and we await his return with renewed hope and eager anticipation. May what we have shared here reassure your trust in God's faithful promise to continue nurturing the Church with his Word and sacraments by preparing dedicated priests, deacons and lay ministers to serve us in the future.