Pope Urges Solid Training for Seminarians and Priests

Says Christianity Cannot Be Reduced to "Merely Human
Wisdom"

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 26, 2003 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II
asked India's bishops to 
guarantee a "solid theological training" to
seminarians and priests, overcoming 
the temptation to make Christianity "merely human
wisdom." 

The Pope made his appeal today to the bishops of the
ecclesiastical provinces 
of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, Patna and Ranchi, who were
concluding their five-yearly 
visit to the Holy See. 

His appeal was particularly significant since India
now has the most Catholic 
seminarians in the world. According to the Church's
Statistical Yearbook, India 
at the start of last year had 11,303 students of
philosophy and theology 
(candidates to religious or diocesan priesthood) and
10,547 students in minor 
seminaries. 

By comparison, countries with many more Catholics have
fewer seminarians in 
philosophy and theology: Poland, for instance, has
6,767; Mexico, 6,700; and the 
United States, 5,080. 

Addressing the bishops, the Holy Father expressed the
hope "that you will 
persevere in your efforts to guarantee a solid
theological training in your 
seminaries and a sound continuing formation for your
priests, thus rejecting the 
temptation to reduce Christianity to a merely human
wisdom, a pseudo-science of 
well-being." 

"Proper theological preparation requires instruction
which, while respecting 
that part of the truth found in other religious
traditions, nevertheless 
unfailingly proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Way and
the Truth and the Life," he 
said. 

"To this end Catholic educational institutions must
offer a sound philosophical 
formation which is necessary for the study of
theology," highlighting that 
truth "transcends the limitations of both Eastern and
Western thought and unites 
every culture and society," the Pope said. 

He continued: "As sharers in Christ's prophetic
mission, we have a solemn 
responsibility to bring that truth ever closer to
ourselves and to others. This 
sacred duty is especially incumbent upon those who are
entrusted to train priests 
and religious. 

"Formators and professors are obliged to teach the
message of Christ in its 
completeness as the only way, not as one way among
many." 

"In so doing," he added, "theologians, as servants of
the divine truth, 
dedicate their studies and labors to ever deeper
understanding of that truth, and 
never lose sight of the meaning of their service in
the Church."

* * *




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com