Seedground of characters and martyrs

ST CUTHBERT'S, high on Ushaw Plain above Durham; St Joseph's, in the foothills beyond the Wigan Alps; St Mary's, just outside the suburban tendrils of Birmingham; Allen Hall, in the quiet of rural Hertfordshire; St John's, tucked away in one of the more silent parts of Surrey.
Twenty years ago these colleges, plus those in the foreign climes of Lisbon, Valladolid and Rome, with con.siderable help from Ireland, provided the training grounds for almost all the secular priests of this country.
They were the seminaries, the seedgrounds, in which the growing vocations to the priesthood were nourished and gradually brought to fruition. They were remote from the world, The "garden enclosed" was their ideal. They produced many fine priests who gave, and still give, much excellent service to our parishes.
Each seminary was very much a self-contained community. Some even had their own home farms and produced much of their own food. There was a strong tradition of providing home-grown entertainments and a reputation for producing very active, not to mention robust, sporting sides. The academic programme was an old and tried one. The first two years were spent studying philosophy and the final four studying the whole field of theology. Textbooks were almost invariably written in Latin, with a year's work in the subject contained in each volume. Lectures were given on, and sometimes from, the set texts. Usually the courses were arranged in cycles, so that all the students of theology would attend the same lecture, often in a massive lecture hall which gave fair opportunity for diversionary activities if the lectures got a little boring.
The routine of each day was set, with early morning prayer and Mass as the focal point. The cassock and the Roman collar were standard dress, with the biretta added for formal occasions. Every seminary had its own Rule which was strictly enforced, and conformity with it was one sign of a vocation to , the priesthood -while stories of how the Rule had been bent or avoided were staple fare at any gathering of priests.
The goal in sight at the end of the six years of enclosed study was the priesthood — and then out into a parish to meet at last the real life of a priest, hopefully under the guidance of a sympathetic parish priest. It was a system which had been tried and tested through the centuries since St Charles Borromeo had first begun to put the ideas of the Council of Trent into practice with his Milanese students.
It produced generations of priests who served their people with great unselfishness and whi were loved by them in return. It also produced many martyrs and many great characters. It was a style of training which it would he foolish to write off.
Yet today many things have changed. Lisbon has closed; St Joseph's now functions at Upholland only as a junior seminary, the senior students are studying at Ushaw; Allen Hall has migrated to Chelsea the latest sign of the migratory urge which started almost 20 years ago when the Beda, the college for late vocations, moved from its old home in central Rome to its imposing new buildings miles down the Metro.
But the changes have not been simply geographical. The whole life-style of the seminaries has changed. No longer are they gardens enclosed. The students of every seminary spend a considerable amount of their time outside, gaining experience of all kinds of pastoral work. It is ordination as a deacon which now marks the moment when men go out and begin fulltime work in the parishes, being gradually eased into what will become their life's work. So important has this part of seminary training become that most seminaries have a member of staff working full-time on the planning and oversight of the pastoral training of students. The programme of studies has also changed a great deal. Gone are formal lectures to large groups. Instead, much of the material of the course is dealt with in small seminar groups and in tutorial sessions. The studies now cover a much wider area than before: the modern behavioural sciences, ecumenical theology, a wider study of the liturgy, introductory study of the media of modern communications are but some of the topics which have been added' in recent years. In addition, students often do part of their studies outside the seminaries, especially as most of the seminaries have now established links with local universities.
Perhaps most of this would not be obvious to the casual visitor to the seminary — but what would be very clear would be the casual nature of students' dress. Apart from formal occasions the cassock is rarely seen. The Seminary Rule has been replaced by a few basic rules — generally the ones which arc obviously necessary for community living.
Often the reason for all these changes is summed up in the phrase "post-Vatican 11." But the answer is not as simple as that These changes have taken place, often piecemeal, for a wide variety of reasons. But at the moment the speed of the changes appears to have slackened a little.
That is why the Commission for Priestly Formation has decided that the time is ripe to attempt to take a broad look at the situation as it is at the moment, to try to assess what will be needed for the ,training of our priests for the immediate future and to suggest ways in which this can be achieved.
For this purpose it has set up a working party which is due to report at the end of 1978. In a subject of such importance the working party hopes to be able to consult widely. Individual suggestions will also be welcomed. Details of the terms of reference of the working party appear in the news columns of this issue of the Catholic Herald.
Fr Pius, OFM Cap