HOLY Spirit Provincial Seminary rector Fr Neil Muir said there was lots of excitement for the four new seminarians officially beginning their propaedeutic year at the annual opening Mass yesterday.
The seminarians included three men from Brisbane archdiocese and one from Adelaide archdiocese.
It was the first time an Adelaide seminarian had come to study in the Brisbane seminary, Fr Muir said.
He said the presence of an Adelaide seminarian was a sign that the seminary had a strong reputation.
The first year in the seminary was all about learning who the seminarian is, he said.
“It’s not academically heavy, only about two or three university courses, it’s more a big emphasis on human formation and development,” he said.
“(It is) getting in touch with their gifts, discerning their weaknesses.
“I hope they experience it as a hopeful and joyful time.”
Fr Muir said the new seminarians brought the total to 18, including the transitional deacons.
Three more seminarians were expected to be ordained to the diaconate this year, he said.
“It’s my second year as rector and I’ve got my feet firmly planted on the ground now,” he said.
“I felt comfortable last year but I have a real sense of the direction we’re taking.
“We’ve got a good team of formators and are very much supported by the Queensland bishops.”
The way the seminary runs its curriculum has been changing, too.
Instead of seminarians going through year-levels, they instead will go through stages of discernment.
Fr Muir said the new system was inspired in large part by Pope John Paul II’s 1992 encyclical Pastores Dabo Vobis (I will give you shepherds).
“That’s really starting to take grip across the entire Church,” he said.
“It’s emphasis is on the four pillars of the human – intellectual, spiritual, pastoral (and human) – with human being the core.
“Discovering who you are and who God is calling you to be as a human being.
“The way in which we’ve structured the program, it has moved away from having the old way of first year, second year, third year and so on, to different phases.”
The phases are discipleship, pastoral internship and configuration before ordination to the transitional diaconate and onto priesthood.
Each phase comes with new ministries as the seminarian continues to develop and discern.
Fr Muir said the new system made the timeline to priesthood more flexible to the needs of the individual.
To find out more about the seminary, please visit: https://seminary.catholic.net.au/
