Equipping Priests for Apostolic Action: The Catechumenate as the Form for Seminary Formation

Abstract: The Second Vatican Council's decree on priestly formation, Optatam Totius , along with other post-conciliar documents on seminary formation, advocated for four different principles to organize seminary curriculum. The first was a pastoral principle, reflecting the ministerial priest's mission to serve the Body of Christ. The second was a doctrinal, one that reflected the mystery of Christ. A third principle organized formation by proximity to ordination, while a fourth organized the curriculum based on an academic model. In 2016, the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis introduced a significant shift by advocating that seminary formation to be organized based on a progressive deepening of Christian discipleship. In light of that shift, this essay proposes that a specific pastoral initiative, the catechumenate, be the primary principle that shapes seminary formation. Patterning formation on the catechumenate would make the seminary a super-catechumenate, forming priests to engage post-Christendom society with a model based on a missionary dynamic.