In the 1980s, the “Priest Perceiver Interview” (PPI) was a popular screening instrument for seminaries. Vocations directors – highly trained in an afternoon PPI workshop – asked questions that included trite, touchy-feely psychology, and garden variety dissent. But the combination of two questions was especially malignant: “Do you believe in the Resurrection?” “What would you say if archeologists discovered the bones of Jesus?”
Young seminarians knew the preferred response: “Yes, I believe the early Church inserted the Resurrection event into the Gospels, but the bodily Resurrection isn’t essential to our faith. The spirit of the teachings of Jesus is the important thing.” More astute (and daring) seminarians would quote St. Paul: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:17) It is disturbing to consider how the vocations apparatchiks induced many seminarians to deny the Catholic faith. How many of those young men are bishops today?