Yesterday on Radio 4′s Something Understood Mark Tully looked into seminary life, past and present. John Cornwell reflects on his experience in ‘junior seminary’ many years ago, and I try to explain what things are like today at Allen Hall. You can listen here – the programme is available online until Sunday 17th June.
St Joseph’s College, Upholland, where John Cornwell went to ‘junior seminary’
Here is the blurb:
In Something Understood this week, Mark Tully is intrigued by life in a Roman Catholic seminary. How are young men trained for the priesthood?
At Allen Hall Seminary in the busy heart of London, Dean of Studies and Formation Advisor Father Stephen Wang explains the need for his students to train for their pastoral role within the Catholic community. Seminarians at Allen Hall spend much of their time in local parishes, schools and hospitals preparing for life as a Diocesan priest. And yet it’s also crucial that they have the quiet, contemplative space they need to develop spiritually. They must become men of God and men of communion.
Mark explores the history of the seminary system, with readings from Anthony Kenny and Denis Meadows, and hears music written by ancient monks in isolation. He speaks to writer and academic John Cornwell, whose own time at Upholland Seminary in the 1950s left a strong imprint on his spiritual life. The Junior Seminary system he experienced from the age of 12 no longer exists, but John believes that there are still serious flaws in the way the Catholic Church trains its priests. He argues that seminarians are too separated out from the world and from the people they are destined to serve once ordained.
Ultimately, becoming a priest requires huge dedication – what Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe described as a ‘falling in love’ with God. Perhaps what is also needed is a balance, between the prosaic and the spiritual, between being within the world and being apart from it.
Perhaps nowadays there is too much emphasis on being “part of the world” and not enough on spiritual formation. The lack of the latter seems to be the basis for so many failing to live the life of a priest
It’s a risk. The challenge is trying to do both – to provide a deep and authentic spiritual formation, and to help people understand and engage with the world.
I am a layman and have never been to Seminary. However, there have been a number of changes effecting the training and formation of Priests as I understand it – please correct me if I’m wrong. Amongst these is the increased number of men entering Seminary later in life; men who have experienced ‘the world’ and whose experiences can be harnessed to good use for their future ministry. Perhaps if Seminaries were more austere – sorry, I can’t think of a better word, it could serve to alienate some of these men.
Finally, reading this post and hearing the programme was a very interesting way to start the day – thankyou.
Why would you want to ‘alienate’ late callings?
This was just my point, I would not want to alienate late vocations and heaven forbid they were alienated. If seminaries were more austere, as I understand they were in years gone by, then I meant that they might put off men with more experience of life.
:O))))
Wonderful Wonderful Wonder Full!
How did you manage to pull that off?
Mark Tully and Something Understood have been my favourite spiritual presenter and programme for the last I don’t know how many years.
You even used my most Loved piece of writing about Falling in Love by Pedro- Arrupe.
Stephen I think you might be a closet Jesuit !!!
Not so ‘closet’: he went to Campion House ;-)!