Yearning for the Past: Francis Only Wants BIG Seminaries
The "most important challenges" facing priestly formation today is an adequate number of seminarians which requires inter-diocesan, provincial or regional seminaries.
Francis made this false claim at a November 10 audience with Latin American seminaries, implying that small seminaries must disappear.
He said that the bishops "must" tackle this project in a "synodal [= forced] way". They should overcome "inertia" and "protagonism", "dream" together [instead of waking up] and not long for the past [= Vatican II]."
Francis wants the next generations of priests to be inspired by "the current direction of the Church" [=Francis], even though that direction leads to nowhere.
As usual, he railed against the Novus Ordo priests and bishops. A priest who does not pray "goes into the dustbin". The mediocrity of a priest is "worse than a mortal sin". A priest should respect his bishop who is "a scoundrel": "You are also a scoundrel" - he insisted on cadaver obedience, and gossiped that priests should …More
Big seminaries are necessary these days due to the high costs of maintaining large, old buildings. Building smaller, more energy efficient buildings isn’t cheap either. Seminaries are funded by endowments that were built up decades ago, as well as parish collections. They have also added lay programs, in order to bring in some actual tuition paying students. Very few dioceses, in the US at least, require seminarians to pay tuition, or to fundraise. There is also the matter of arranging for qualified formators, which is very difficult for small seminaries. He seems to be indicating that this is an ideal, which I’m not at all sure of, but it has been happening all over the place for the past couple of decades.
That's what the did at St. Charles Seminary, here in Philadelphia area. IN 1960's-70's, they started bringing in seminarians from other dioceses to suppliment enrollment and keep the place open. But after 10 years of Francis, even that doesn't work. There are now, as of 2022, fewer seminarians studying specifically for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, than there were in 1871 when the seminary was built. All the fruit of Vatican II and the rotten Novus Ordo.