We’ll let us start the year with a great snow storm, arctic
temperatures and a blog about Pope Francis; a very fascinating and historic
figure.
The Pope’s recent headline grabbing comments included “POPE
WARNS PRIESTS CAN BECOME ‘MONSTERS” By Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press
as seen in the Detroit News 1/4/2014.
Basically the pope was warning church superiors of the
failings of seminary training.
I have always stated that taking a kid after high school and
placing him in a seminary where after some years, the kid becomes a priest, is
fundamentally a flawed process since the “kid” is never allowed to experience “real”
life and therefore, in my opinion, never fully reaches a normal male adulthood
but is expected to “minister” to a community with a presumed “wisdom” of how
life is to be led properly as per God’s direction.
This is an obvious absurdity and the current pope knows this
and therefore is trying to address this issue. Francis did not join the
priesthood until much later in his life becoming a chemist after attending
university and actually serving as a night club bouncer; he also contemplated
marriage.
Francis said of seminary training that “We must form their hearts;
otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then the little monsters mold
the people of God. This really gives me goose bumps”.
Francis does not outline the exact changes he wants to make
to current seminary training but I think he wants to change the product
produced by seminaries especially as evidenced by the current crop of church
leaders that preach how people should behave (anti-gay, anti-abortion,
anti-contraception, etc.) without understanding how society and the people in
that society, function.
I believe that young adult males (18) who desire to become
priests, should attend a secular university and receive a degree before they
are accepted into a seminary. Otherwise, entering a seminary after high school
is the same as entering military service where the very impressionable young
men are basically molded into soldiers / priests before learning to think for themselves
which comes through life experience; in fact, they don’t want you to think or
have any independent thoughts; the easier it will be for you to follow orders
without hesitation.
It appears that Pope Francis has been thinking about issues
in the church for quite some time and just when he was ready to retire and
spend the remaining years in prayer and contemplation, he gets a chance to act
on his concerns and change history!
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