Priestly Formation...
…actually begins in the family, continues through the discernment process, is solidified during seminary years of study and pastoral experience, and is confirmed at ordination, where it becomes a lifetime of collaboration with God’s grace and human effort.
Assessment and
Application Process
Guided by our overall diocesan goal to nurture and develop holy and well-formed priests, great care is taken to ensure a careful and thorough assessment and application process for all potential seminarian candidates. These assessment and application processes generally encompass the following:
Initial Contact and Inquiry
This can start as simply as asking a priest at your parish to give you some tips for developing your prayer life. As you grow closer to God, you may sense a call to offer more of yourself to Him, “Who did you create me to be Lord?” Sometimes a conversation can become an invitation, to pursue more deeply, attend a discernment event, bring it up with a priest, a trusted friend, or the vocations director. If you begin to feel a sense that God is calling you to be a priest, bring that up with a priest you know, or contact the Vocations Director directly to speak with him. General Qualifications for Acceptance to the Priesthood
- Baptized, confirmed and practicing Roman Catholic men
- Faith in, and love for, Christ and His Church.
- Good moral character.
- A high school diploma with favorable academic abilities.
- Emotional balance and maturity.
- Good physical health.
- Psychological readiness and capacity to pursue a sustaining, life-long commitment.
- A deepening habit of prayer and a balanced devotional life.
- Maturity to recognize and the willingness to respond to the needs of others.
- Readiness to serve in the manner to which he is called by God, through his Bishop.
- A developing spirit of detachment that helps him be in the world but not of the world.
- Freedom to enter this state in life.
- Be between the ages of 18-40. (Rare exceptions are considered on a case by case basis)
- Have a connection and familiarity with the Diocese of Arlington and the people with whom the candidate feels called to serve here as a future priest, i.e. by living (past or present), working or studying within the diocese for at least two years. (In circumstances of military families exceptions can be made.)
Once your discernment has reached the point of feeling a call to continue exploring your vocation in the context of seminary, ask the Vocations Director for an application to seminary. He will help you discern if this is the right moment for that, and give you guidance along that path.
Formal Interview
Part of receiving the application is a formal interview between the Director of the Office of Vocations and the potential candidate in which the following topics are discussed:
- Personal health and well-being.
- Family and employment history.
- Religious and educational background.
- Current service and volunteering
- Scope of discernment of the priesthood and the diocese.
Application
Acceptance into the diocesan priesthood formation program requires that a candidate demonstrate emotional maturity, academic ability, personal stability and consistent growth in the practice of the faith. If, after the formal interview, the director believes the individual possesses suitable psychological, intellectual and spiritual attributes, the candidate is then invited to begin the formal application process. The general components of the application encompass the following:
- Completed Diocese of Arlington Priestly Formation Application Form with photos
- Minimum of 4 Letters of Reference.
- Copies of Identification cards, driver’s license, and/or passport
- Sacramental records and parents’ marriage records.
- All official transcripts.
- Medical Physical Exam (Paid for by applicant and/or their medical insurance)
- Psychological Assessment and Evaluation with IQ testing. (Paid for by the diocese)
- A complete F.B.I./fingerprinting and state(s) sex offender and criminal history background checks. (Paid for by the diocese)
- Completed various Release Forms.
- Completed Office of Child Protection Compliance
- Participation in a one-day VIRTUS: Protecting God’s Children™ Program for Adults
- Read and Signed Universal Code of Conduct
- Autobiography (4-10) pages.
- Two short essays (2-4) pages.
Application Review
Individual circumstances may adjust or vary the sequence of events outlined above. Applications may be submitted at any time of year. The general necessary time frame to compile and complete all required application material is between 2-3 months. Applicants normally receive word of acceptance or non-acceptance within two months of submitting a completed application, but generally no later than the first week of July.
Steps to Priestly Formation
Formation is first and foremost cooperation with the grace of God.
According to the latest Program of Priestly Formation, “The goal of priestly formation is to form missionary disciples so that they are ready for consecration as shepherds for God’s People, sharing in the authority of Christ the Redeemer, who sent the Apostles to preach and to heal…The Gospel foundation of priestly formation precedes programs, structures and plans” (PPF6, #14-15).
Propaedeutic Stage
Aims to provide seminarians the foundation they need for a new way of life by developing habits of prayer, study, fraternity, trust and appropriate docility to formation.
Discipleship Stage
A systematic and rigorous formation that has at its core the goal of growing in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ though a life of meditation and contemplation, as well as formation in virtue. The study of philosophy occurs during this stage.
Configuration Stage
The stage in which the seminarian models his life on the self-donation of Jesus Christ, Shepherd and Servant, as he prepares more immediately for Holy Orders. It will include deeper contemplation of and a more intimate and personal relationship with the person of Christ with the aim of producing a greater priestly identity and spirituality. As he conforms himself more to the Shepherd, he grows in self-offering proper to the pastoral care of the sheep. The study of theology occurs during this stage.
Vocational Synthesis Stage
Allows a deacon to enter into the life of a cleric, residing in a pastoral setting (usually a parish), incorporating the entirety of the formation he has received since his Baptism. It is no longer a stage of discernment or of determining suitability for holy orders (which have happened at earlier stages), or of acquiring new skills (though that will surely happen); rather it is about the deacon’s readiness to assume the duties of full-time ministry once ordained a priest, which occurs at the completion of the vocational synthesis stage.
Seminary Life
Like a regular institution of higher learning, seminary life is academic and intellectual; there are classes, exams, papers and a whole lot of reading.
Seminary life is about growing in your prayer life. Building good habits of prayer is one of the main focuses in seminary. Mass and holy hours are built into the structure of the daily schedule, as well as communal morning prayer and evening prayer.
Seminary life is social and fraternal. A priest must be social; after all, he is ordained for the sake of the people he serves. It is important he learn to be comfortable being himself around others.
Seminary life is challenging. It is meant to stretch and form each individual seminarian to be the best version of themselves for the sake of the people they will one day be called to serve.
Watch “A Day in the Life” of some of our seminarians, and you will realize one certainty about seminary life: it is definitely not boring.
