Some candidates for the priesthood need more psychological evaluation and help than they are currently getting, and some U.S. bishops ought to defer more to the formation team at seminaries as to whether a seminarian ought to be ordained, contends a new report from a leading Catholic think tank.
The report, published earlier this week by the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, also recommends more stringent requirements around sexual maturity before a candidate receives holy orders, and more resources for those who have special needs, such as autism or attention deficit disorder.
The goal, the study’s authors say, is to more effectively identify candidates who shouldn’t become priests and to help candidates who should become priests prepare better for celibacy and parish life.
“The longer one spends engaged in the work of priestly formation, the more likely we are to have to endure the excruciating experience of watching a man be ordained who, in one’s strong judgment, should not be,” states the report, which was authored by two experts in seminary formation. “For the good of all involved, the seminarian included, we must move beyond a fixation on numbers and insist on the quality
