Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - In several so-called motivational seminars, participants are often reminded that the basic law of the universe is the law of "cause and effect." It is a law, which says that for everything that happens, there is a cause. This is so true of all human activities that even when human activities are met by the spiritual, the law of "cause and effect" does not cease to apply. And so, one can tell a tree from its fruits; just as no one gathers grapes from thorns or figs from thistles (Mt.7:16).
Similarly, what a Christian community and the life of its faithful are, are related to their upbringing and to how the community is ministered unto. The life and the ministry of a priest are also related to his formation. Both points were strongly made at the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist.
The simple recognition of the validity of this law and of its application to the formation of priests and other pastoral agents should elicit from all Bishops and Superiors the greatest interest and concern for the formation of their pastoral agents. The present quality and texture of our Church communities were largely determined by how they were ministered unto in the past; and the type of ministry, which our parish communities received yesterday, depended on how the priests and pastoral agents were formed.
Very many so-called young Churches or Churches in mission lands, however, do not have a long history of living with this concern about the formation of their pastoral agents. Some Bishops in mission lands have not even had to deal with the issue of the formation of their personnel yet. The missionary groups working in those territories have had to deal with that.
But all of this is fast becoming an experience of the past, as, in the face of dwindling missionary vocations, several mission territories now need to find and train (form) their own pastoral agents. In doing so, it has often been possible to receive help from the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; and it has also been possible to receive help from the several Missio offices of the older Churches of Europe and America. The one has traditionally supported the formation of pastoral agents in their own countries and fashioned access for seminarians, priests and religious to the rich formation centres in Rome. The other has supported the formation of various categories of pastoral agents at home and abroad. To them all, the Churches and the Bishops of the mission territories are heartily grateful for their invaluable assistance.
Ultimately, however, the greatest responsibility and concern for the formation of pastoral agents devolve on the local Ordinaries and their Personnel Boards. These have to ensure the availability of adequately formed committed and dedicated priests for their own sanctification and for the sanctification of God' s people; and in this, there can be no room for mediocrity of any sort. Accordingly, the seminaries and the houses of formation, which they develop, either individually or jointly, as provincial or regional seminaries, must dispose of the best calibre of personnel, as formators. Theirs is not only to teach and to facilitate growth in mind and body; there is also to stimulate, accompany and nurture within the candidates in formation a genuine conversion experience, a sense of discipleship, love for prayer and the Word of God, a
sense of stewardship, and a sense of service. For, formation for the priesthood is done not Only in front of the blackboard and behind the desk. It is also done before the tabemac1e and on one' s knees. (Cardinal Peter Turkson Kodwo Appiah, Archbishop of Cape Coast) (Fides Service 27/10/2005, lines 45 words 652)
