Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of Church Ministry
Leckey, Dolores
Robert P. Imbelli Robert P. Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, has taught at Saint Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie and the Maryknoll School of Theology. He currently teaches theology...
...he must always be the measure and not what is measured...
...Accepting that qualification, these central parts of the study offer valuable statistics and perspectives on the mul~ple components and dimensions of seminary life...
...Arriving a bit early, I knocked on the door of the Franciscan residence, and was greeted by a smiling friar, wrapped in an apron, waving a chopping implement with which he signaled me to follow him to the kitchen...
...As a Protestant theological educator, I want to highlight three areas...
...Theological schools can provide a context for critical reflection on the church's teaching and practices, and too close a connection can keep the schools from engaging this task, and thereby deprive the church of this critical, potentially renewing analysis...
...Her study thus deserves the close attention not only of those immediately engaged in the ministry formation enterprise, but of all concerned with the flourishing of Catholic life in the new century...
...Too tight a connection, in a church with a teaching magisterium and Ex corde ecclesiae, can dissipate this possibility for renewal...
...A relatively brief part 4 addresses "The Future," organizing its reflections under two headings: "Perceptions about Church and Ministry" and "Perceptions about Priesthood...
...They can come to appreciate one another as faithful Christians, serving Christ side by side...
...Daniel Aleshire (Continued from page 23) provide a more helpful formulation of the educational task of learning for religious vocation...
...to be indusive, it must have ministers and priests who have come from these communities and know them intimately and well...
...The connection causes listening, even when the church or the seminary doesn't like what it is hearing...
...Finally a "Conclusion" summarizes both the accomplishments of and some critical concerns facing the institutions...
...9 Third is formation for collaborative ministry...
...Schuth and her research team have probed and dug and been in conversation with lay students and seminarians, faculty, administrators, and trustees about a host of issues from motivation to spiritual maturity, from seminary culture to intellectual competency for ministry...
...While formation has come to include the whole educational enterprise in ministerial training, spiritual formation is a particular subset that refers to the somewhat hard-to-measure life in the Spirit...
...He was preparing a meal for the lay students due to arrive at the appointed hour...
...Their common efforts growing out of their unique vocation can strengthen the bonds of trust and truthfulness so necessary if there is to be a sustained and vibrant mission to the world...
...The friar-chef was Kenan Osborne, O.F.M., then president of the Franciscan School of Theology, and more recently the author of Ministry (Paulist Press, 1993), a comprehensive history of the laity and lay ministry...
...They are aware that increasingly the faith of our fathers and mothers will be transmitted by laity who will evangelize, prepare children and adults for the sacraments, teach the ways of prayer and contemplation, articulate the principles of Catholic social teaching, and bring the Eucharist to patients in hospitals and nursing homes...
...One of the strengths of the seminary as a site for preparing lay ecclesial ministers is that it offers an early experience of collaboration...
...n 1989, Sister Katarina I Schuth published a pioneering study of Roman Catholic seminaries and theologates, Reason for the Hope (Michael Glazier...
...Still other lay students choose a Protestant divinity school which may have more resources, but which lacks a Catholic environment, not to mention theology...
...In the late 1970s I was invited to meet with lay Catholics who were enrolled at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a coalition of various theologates...
...Dolores Leckey (Continued from page 23) hospitals, and in jails...
...The Protestant curriculum focuses on subjects, which are taught as disciplines, resulting in the educational assumption that if Scripture, theology, and history are learned sufficiently well, faithful practice and authentic spirituality will follow...
...Furthermore, their pastoral sense often is honed by that experience...
...The Catholic categories focus on the consequences of learning in the theological student, and they assume that authenticity in ministry requires the formation of candidates who know an array of subjects and skills...
...And, indeed, a majority of the bishops are concerned about how these new ministers are being prepared...
...And before that becomes the norm, it's a story worth tracking...
...Seminaries, mindful of the directives set forth in the apostolic exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, issued in 1992, and the 1993 revision of the U.S...
...Today, a few seminaries are following suit and, clearly, the lay students would welcome even more attention and help in matters of spiritual growth and development...
...The difference is that seminarians are often required to take pretheology, which brings them up-to-speed in matters of philosophy...
...These formational emphases do not prevent intellectual formation from gaining a privileged place in a seminary, but the categories in normative Roman Catholic use (Continued on page 28) Commonweal 2 3 February 11, 2000 ent in Scripture and sacrament, is central to all that we do...
...Roman Catholics, however, have more experience in addressing these problems than any other religious community in America...
...For the most part lay people come to seminary without the underpinning of philosophy that for many generations has been the foundation of theological study in the Roman Catholic tradition...
...The problems of educating persons to serve in the culturally complex contexts emerging in America are iraCommonweal 2 8 February 11, 2000...
...One exception was the Franciscan School of Theology, where I was invited to a meeting to listen to the students' ideas about their needs and what might be done...
...By now they know that low ministerial salaries will have them paying forever, and they are dealing with the problem in several ways...
...I want to flag four aspects of this research, which affect the preparation of lay ecclesial ministers...
...Typically, lay students attend part-time, which has benefits and losses...
...Though appreciative of all three, I would single out that of Notre Dame historian Scott Appleby, to whose probing (and often sobering) reflections, "Surviving the Shaking of the Foundations: United States Catholicism in the Twenty-First Century," I shall return...
...Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of Church Ministry examines the context--students, faculty, and educational practices---of the institutions that educate candidates for ministerial priesthood and nonordained ministries in Roman Catholic parishes and other settings...
...Happily, the lay students are enthusiastic about these efforts on their behall and they appreciate faculty interest in the education/formation of the whole person...
...This study identifies the problems of educating multicultural seminarians for a multicultural church...
...The question of how lay students can finance their theological education has been central for years...
...9 The second aspect is intellectual formation...
...To be sure there were a few bishops (newly ordained for the most part) who questioned the appropriateness of the term ministry in connection with lay service or employment...
...In fact, the subcommittee's report highlights the essential role of the vast majority of laity...
...He currently teaches theology at Boston College...
...And what were those questions and concerns...
...My grandchildren will know, and that does matter...
...That, too, may already be happening in some places...
...The book has four parts: The first provides an analysis of the current social and ecclesial context from which church ministers come and in which they must serve...
...Many Catholics worry about the connection, which at times seems too intimate...
...Others may choose to pursue studies in a Catholic college or university where funding is sometimes available...
...That particular point--spiritual formation within human formationis a major theme of Schuth's book, and marks the Franciscan school as a pioneer...
...9 First of all, these schools have developed a theological curriculum that provides a solution to some problems that Protestants have been struggling with for the past fifty years...
...it needs a center of theological reflection on its work...
...hen a cultural geographer studies a community of schools, the result can provide a good map...
...While there are problems with a tight connection to the church, the increasing problem many seminaries are experiencing is a lack of meaningful, if not mandatory, ties that bind the work of the theological school to the needs of the faith community...
...to be places where a Christic vision and imagination permeate the celebration of liturgy, guide the style of theology, and inspire the boldness of pastoral initiatives...
...In fact, they are already doing so...
...All of these academic settings are educating the church's future lay ministers...
...9 Second, Roman Catholic theologates have a deep connection with the church...
...Schuth is clear that there is a dearth of scholarship money...
...The panel was followed by small-group discussions focused on these topics and a plenary session where questions and concerns were aired...
...When asked bluntly whether she remains hopeful, Sister Schuth responds with an unequivocal "yes," but adds: "The reasons for hope have altered somewhat and new problems now confront us...
...What does it mean, in America of the twenty-first century, to confess Christ as the measure, to "prefer nothing to Christ" (as The Rule of Saint Benedict enjoins), to experience in Christ the recapitulation of all God's hope for humanity...
...All of the laity are called to work toward the transformation of the secular world...
...They also wonder if the term suggests competition with priesthood, although Bishop Gerald Kicanas, Commonweal 2 2 February 11, 2000 a panel member, precisely situated lay ecclesial ministry in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, and gave explicit attention to the differences between ordained and lay ministry...
...Protestant theological education offers convincing evidence that this assumption is more durable than correct...
...It is this latter group which is the subject of the report...
...Obviously the semiCommonweal 2 6 February 11, 2000 narians are anxious, being on a tight time line to qualify for ordination...
...We should be asking ourselves how we can attend to the formation of these ministers more effectively," said one bishop who seemed to speak for many...
...The late Cardinal Basil Hume of England, in a lecture prepared for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, sounded this refrain as he looked toward the new millennium...
...The item in question was a report of a subcommittee on lay ecclesial ministry which was permitted one-and-a-half hours of agenda time (a largesse almost unheard of during the annual business meeting) to report its conclusions regarding the state of lay ministry in this country...
...Some do this by working in the secular realm...
...Almost one-fourth of seminarians in theologates, according to this study, are American racial and ethnic minorities...
...Formation is generally meant to include various aspects of ministerial education...
...The separation causes seminaries to speak increasingly generically, because they no longer have a particular community that will listen, and the church that founded the seminary shops the marketplace of religious ideas and innovations for the ones that hold greatest short-term promise...
...he agenda item that received no press coverage at the November 1999 General Meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops may, in the long run, be the most important for the future of the Catholic church in the United States...
...In the words of the subcommittee report, "Effective collaboration requires recognition of the basic equality of persons as well as necessary distinctions or differentiation in their roles and responsibi9l i" t i es...
...And, with few exceptions, these students are paying their own way...
...The students were distressed that the schools, while admitting them to class and accepting their tuition, were little concerned about their spiritual needs...
...The church is in a period of enor(Continued on page 24) Dolores Leckey Dolores Leckey worked for twenty years on issues of lay ministry for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops...
...The term lay ecclesial minister is a generic term and refers to those prepared for ministry in the church and who serve in a public, stable, recognized, and authorized manner...
...Part 2 ("The Mission and Members of Theologate Communities") and part 3 ("Formation Programs") focus on the present realities of the seminaries, conscious that the observations capture but a moment in the life of "dynamic and vital institutions, always engaged in change and modification...
...Now, a decade later, in her new study, Schuth reviews the current state of these institutions...
...In an interesting way, the immigrant church at the turn of the twentieth century has become the most "American" church at the turn of the twenty-first...
...Their pursuit of an advanced degree is a sign of their seriousness about their vocation...
...A panel composed of two bishops and two laywomen presented to the assembly, in crisp eight-minute summaries, the best and most current thinking regarding the theology of lay ministry, the formation of lay ministers, including their sense of vocation, the multicultural issues embedded in current and future developments, and the relationship between the ordained and the lay ecclesial minister...
...Her logical conclusion, therefore, is that adequate scholarship funds "are absolutely vital for the ongoing viability of the schools and the competence of their graduates...
...When an exceptionally sensitive and skilled cultural geographer, such as Katarina Schuth, charts a territory, the result provides a map that not only identifies locations and boundaries, but also marks the ups and downs of the terrain...
...9 The first is spiritual formation...
...Some seminarians complain about this, arguing that the professors are slowed down...
...Over the years the arc of her inquiry has grown to include not only the men who are preparing for ordination, but the lay people (mostly women) who are preparing for other ministries...
...In her conclusion, Schuth writes a line that captures much of the tenor of her study...
...In addition, presidents or rectors of the institutions responded to extensive questionnaires, as did a random sample of faculty and vocation directors...
...There would be Eucharist, he said, the sharing of a meal, and, equally important, the sharing of life and faith among these hopeful church ministers-to-be...
...A number of bishops, seeing the problems that an ill-prepared ministry will engender, are already in her comer...
...Moreover, examination of the data suggests ministers may soon represent the church at critical moments of life and death, at the graveside, for example, as our bodies are prayed into the earth...
...9 A third contribution that Roman Catholic theological education can make to the broader community relates to the education of students for the increasingly multiracial and multicultural composition of the church...
...Though the study attends to lay students enrolled in theologates, its main focus is seminarians preparing for the priesthood...
...Catholic bishops' Program of Priestly Formation: intellectual formation, spiritual formation, personal formation, and pastoral formation...
...Schuth has entrusted the essays in this part to three scholars who bring particular expertise to their task...
...others do this by working in the church and focusing on the building of ecclesial communion which has as its ultimate purpose the transformation of the world...
...At least one university fully fiJnds the lay students...
...She concluded that study on a note that was both realistic about the challenges and hopeful about the future...
...the parishes need the resource of theologians who can enrich and inform their work...
...Sister Katarina Schuth's recent book can help answer these expressed concerns...
...This was a regular Thursday evening occurrence, a hospitable Franciscan invitation, which placed spiritual formation within the context of human formation and relationships...
...Many of these lay candidates are already deeply involved in church ministry: in parishes, on diocesan staffs, as chaplains on campuses, in (Continued on page 26) Daniel Aleshire Daniel Aleshire is executive director of The Association of Theological Schools...
...And this is a problem...
...theologates that enroll candidates for the priesthood (many of them also serve laywomen and men preparing for ministry...
...This study describes Catholic theological education in the normative categories used in the U.S...
...I, for one, would like the minister to be well prepared for these final rites...
...Schuth's research notes, however, that the lay students and the seminarians come from similar backgrounds, are influenced by similar cultural factors, and are products of similar religious education...
...Contrast these with the fourfold theological curriculum that has characterized post-Enlightenment Protestant theological education: Scripture, theology, history, and practical or pastoral studies...
...Schuth's study, while charting the issues and practices of theological education for Roman Catholics, also describes several issues that are influencing theological education beyond the Roman Catholic community...
...While the academic preparation may be excellent, Schuth is concerned about the quality of pastoral training, which is an essential component in seminary curriculum...
...Still, it may be desirable for lay students, also, to dip into some pretheology work...
...Schuth, or members of her team, visited thirty-eight of the forty-two U.S...
...But this Catholic Christological and transformative imagination must be continually rekindled and renewed...
...Schuth's research and interests have been and remain seminaries, in particular theologates, and those who prepare for ministry therein...
...Spiritual direction is available, and days of recollection are regularly scheduled, as are longer retreats...
...The goal of the new study is "to explore how and how well the schools are fulfilling their mission of preparing men and women for ministry in the twentyfirst century...
...The finest service that seminaries could provide is to nurture communities of discernment where such questions are raised and wrestled with...
...On more than one accrediting visit of The Association of Theological Schools (ATS) to a diocesan seminary, I have heard a bishop say, in response to questions about small enrollments and the cost of education, that the diocese needs a seminary for more than the education of lay and priesthood candidates...
...1. Roman Catholic theologates, as this study describes them, have several contributions to make to the broader community of theological schools...
...The digging has uncovered a treasure of information and analyses that deserves attention and which could assist church leadership in intelligent pastoral planning...
...The course of study takes much longer, but there is also more time to integrate what one learns into one's life and work Commonweal 2 7 February 11, 2000 patterns...
...These bishops have come to terms with the reality of this historical moment, a reality shaped by the developing theology of ministry, a deeper understanding of priesthood, and by pragmatic necessity...
...In the early days they went heavily into debt, but today, according to her research, they are reluctant to do so...
...A few others expressed concern that the laity's primary vocation, namely strong families and the transformation of society, would be lost in the ferment of lay ministry...
...But Schuth suggests, and with some justification, that the seminary is the preferred setting for the preparation of all ecclesial ministers...
...It doesn't matter if I know what's going on at graveside...
...It appears that lay students are beginning to fare better in this regard, at least to those of us who like to mark progress more than decline...
...Many theological schools, outside the Roman Catholic community, are experiencing increasing degrees of separation from their founding ecclesial constituencies...
...They worry about confusion despite widespread usage throughout the world for decades now...
...And, of course, a number of dioceses have established their own lay ministry programs which are usually affordable, with a delivery system designed for adults with other responsibilities...
...Then the full scope of the Decree on Priestly Formation might begin to be realized: Optatam totius ecclesiae renovationem, "the renewal, so greatly desired, of the whole church...
...He stated his conviction that unity in the church would be dependent upon "a rediscovery of the centrality of Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life...
...No Protestant church body can claim the percentage of racial, cultural minority seminarians that the Roman Catholic community claims, even though they wish they could...
...Over five hundred-and-fifty interviews of faculty, administrators, and students took place...
...i ! Increasingly church leadership is convinced of the necessity of collaboration...
...What the lay students bring to the classroom, say the professors, is life experience replete with concrete illustrations that help illuminate certain theological concepts...
...Program for Priestly Formation, both of which emphasize the priority of priestly formation and its specialized nature, and a few theologates also mindful of the need to provide solid spiritual formation for lay students, have allocated resources for this purpose...
...While the future holds different ministries and different roles for the seminarians and the lay students, these years of formation together, to some extent at least, promise a more trusting future for these workers in the vineyard...
...The professors are less concerned about the philosophy gap...
...The situation was quite different twenty-plus years ago when the lay presence in seminaries was new and somewhat challenging...
...The United States is becoming increasingly mulficultural and multi-ethnic, and any religious community that hopes to be "American" must be inclusive of this growing racial and cultural minority population...
...Like theologian Rosemary Haughton, they may think of theology more as a particularly exacting form of poetry than a philosophical construct...
...9 Fourth is the issue of finance9 Theologates are now enrolling lay students in record numbers...
...Either construction of the theological ~rriculum can lead to failure, and Schuth's interviews show, in the judgment of rectors and faoalty who care deeply about the theological formation of candidates for priesthood, that theological education constructed around these formational themes is not succeeding in the way that many would hope and that the church may need...
...She is now a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University...
...In it she provided valuable information and assessments regarding the efforts of Catholic institutions for ministerial formation to respond to the directions charted by Vatican II...
...In a common environment the lay minister and the future priest can come to understand one another's thinking, aspirations, and awareness of God...
...But the patterns of renewal a theological school can bring to a community of faith require a fundamental sense of connection...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 3
