Ad Limina Apostolorum (Blog) | St. Augustine's Library
Thursday, August 25, 2005

Visitation Misinformation (and Clarification) 

I arrived back from Germany to find the blog-boards buzzing with news - well, rumours - about the Apostolic Visitation of seminaries. Specifically, a number of blogs were circulating rumours that the Coordinator of the Visitations was one Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Lincoln Diocese. Somewhat shocked at the rumors, since they were so obviously untrue, I tracked them back to their source. Apparently a seminarian or formator at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit leaked to a blogger that that seminary's Visitation was announced for mid-October, with Bishop Bruskewitz as Chair of the Visitation Team.

Regrettably though perhaps understandably, readers confused the office of 'Chair' of an individual Visitation Team with the 'Coordinator' of the entire Visitation process. For clarification: In any visitation, even for the purposes of academic accreditation, each institution is visited by a team, and every team has a chair, who assumes ultimate responsibility for that individual visit. With 229 seminaries (according to reports we've been getting), we can anticipate around 100 different visits (some joint programs will probably be combined), hence 100 different chairs. One Coordinator oversees the entire program.

Yet within hours the rumour that Bruskewitz was the overall Coordinator spread to blog after blog. The comments on the original blog teemed with enthusiasm, with many boldly announcing that this position was a stepping stone on Bruskewitz's way to a promotion to the Cardinal Archbishopric of Washington, DC, and a pitiable Lincoln resident begging the Holy See not to take him away. Then the hopes were dashed by CNS, who picked up a news release announcing that Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Military Archdiocese was appointed as Coordinator.

Not that the like-minded have anything to worry about. LifeSite news ran a story the same day crowing over O'Brien's sky-high record on pro-life issues (his scathing rebuke of dissenting politicians may have won them over). O'Brien served as rector of St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie and the Pontifical North American College in Rome - two of only a handful of seminaries renowned for their orthodoxy during this period, and for steering clear of the excesses which swamped most American seminaries in the 80s. He also served as an auxiliary under Cardinal O'Connor of New York, a man not known for a reputation as a left-winger. (Not that O'Brien's record will satisfy all comers, of course.)

The other reason the surprise was ill-founded is that O'Brien's role as Coordinator hit the press back in April in an AP story ("Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the U.S. Military Archdiocese has been appointed to coordinate the review"). O'Brien himself did a full interview for Our Sunday Visitor on the Visitations on July 3 (not on the web, which only tells you that bloggers do not read non-web-based media, and also have short memories).

If you want the real O'Brien's take on seminary formation, you have to go a few years back, though, to a June 2002 article he wrote (long before his appointment) for the OSV periodical The Priest (also unavailable on-line, sorry folks), entitled "Reformation of Catholic Seminaries." Here we find a stinging rebuke of the seminary formation programs from the 1960s through the 1980s, maligned as seedbeds of dissent, intellectual apathy, and sexual misconduct of all kinds. As a result, many clergy trained in the pre-Marshall Visitation* period received a formation that can only be described as a "tragic failure," generating priests "whose affective immaturity proved pathological." O'Brien concludes:

"That some . . . in the priesthood, fell into the temptations we are reading of, while certainly inexcusable, scandalous and so very destructive to the lives of others, is understandable in light of the shallow spiritual and emotional soil into which their celibate commitment was sometimes planted. Undoubtedly many thereafter saw the tragic error of their ways, repented and reformed. While the Lord has surely forgiven them, they, the Church and many of their victims will not avoid paying a most costly price for a long time to come." (emphasis added)

Here you have it. The sexual abuse crisis as a symptom of a deeper problem: failed, abysmal, and destructive seminary formation programs which created failed priests who carried out abysmal and destructive ministries. The cure: a reform of seminaries which ensures (a) a seminary environment that nourishes moral integrity and chaste celibacy, (b) intellectual formation that is both faithful to Magisterium and rooted in the profound philosophical tradition of the Church. O'Brien recognized this over three years ago, and probably a decade or two before that. That the Holy See chose such a man to head the Visitations should neither surprise nor discourage us.

* On the Marshall Visitation in the 1980s a half-decent summary was written by one participant, Bishop Donald Wuerl, in the September 30, 2002 issue of America. The final and formal report from the Congregation for Catholic Education on that Visitation can be found in Origins documentary service, October 16, 1986 (vol. 16, no. 18).

# posted by Jamie : 8:29 AM

|


Under the Patronage of
St. Augustine of Hippo

Contact me:
adliminaapostolorum
[at] hotmail.com

Ad Limina Apostolorum: An ecclesiastical term meaning a pilgrimage to the sepulchres of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, i.e., to the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles and to the Basilica of St. Paul "outside the walls".


"Augustine of Hippo Refuting Heretic"
(illuminated manuscript,
13th century)

"Jamie . . .
I could kill you in three seconds.
"
-Bishop Sheridan

Books Recently Read or Currently Reading

John Milbank's Theology & Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (next in stack)

Colson Whitehead's Zone One (reading)

Michael Wyschogrod's Body of Faith: God and the People Israel (reading)

J. B. Schneewind's Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy (reading)

Paul Hacker's Ego in Faith: Martin Luther and the Origins of Anthopocentric Religion (finished: 3 stars)

Edward Peter's Modern Guide to Indulgences: Rediscovering this Often-Ministerpreted Teaching (finished: 1 star)

Blogs I Read

Blogroll Me!

Liturgy

Missale Romanum
Parallel Text of Latin Mass
Order of the Mass
Today's Mass Readings
Collect of the Day
Mass Times
Liturgical Calendar
Liturgical Year
Catholic Calendar Page
Church Year.net
Liturgy of the Hours (Universalis)
Liturgy of the Hours (Apostolate)
Parallel Latin/English Psalter
Psalms in Metre
Pope's Commentary on Psalter
Gregorian Chant
More Gregorian Chant
Schola Cantorum Bogotensis
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
Monks of Adoration
Catholic Liturgical Library
Treasury of Latin Prayers
Thesaurus Precum Latinarum
Litany Collection
Novena Prayers
Real Presence Association
Liturgy Q&A (Zenit)

Scripture

Bible Gateway
Unbound Bible
New Testament Gateway
NT Gateway (Greek)
Douay-Rheims
Latin Vulgate
More Vulgate Resources
Nova Vulgata
e-catena

Hagiography

Patron Saints Index
Holypersons.org
Doctors of the Church
St. Thomas More (Litany)
Saint Bonaventure
St. Josemaria Escriva
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla
Saint Padre Pio
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Queen Isabella of Spain
John Henry Newman

Apologetics

Catholic Answers
Biblical Evidence for Catholicism (Dave Armstrong)
Cor ad cor loquitur (Blog)
Nazareth Resource Library (Akin)
Surprised by Truth (Madrid)
Catholic Outlook (Hoge)
Scripture Catholic (Salza)
Defenders of the Faith (Ray)
Envoy Encore (Blog)
Peter Kreeft
Mark Shea
Catholic Apologetics Bible Concordance

Church

Holy See
Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club Catholic Hierarchy
Bishops of the United States
USCCB
Diocese of Arlington

Theology

Catechism of the Catholic Church
Ecumenical Councils and Decrees
Papal Encyclicals
Church Documents (New Advent)
Code of Canon Law
Academic Theology Links (Georgetown)
Modern Theologians (Wabash Center)

MONTHLY ARCHIVES:

03/01/2002 - 04/01/2002
03/01/2004 - 04/01/2004
04/01/2004 - 05/01/2004
05/01/2004 - 06/01/2004
06/01/2004 - 07/01/2004
07/01/2004 - 08/01/2004
08/01/2004 - 09/01/2004
09/01/2004 - 10/01/2004
10/01/2004 - 11/01/2004
11/01/2004 - 12/01/2004
12/01/2004 - 01/01/2005
01/01/2005 - 02/01/2005
02/01/2005 - 03/01/2005
03/01/2005 - 04/01/2005
04/01/2005 - 05/01/2005
05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005
06/01/2005 - 07/01/2005
07/01/2005 - 08/01/2005
08/01/2005 - 09/01/2005
09/01/2005 - 10/01/2005
10/01/2005 - 11/01/2005
11/01/2005 - 12/01/2005
12/01/2005 - 01/01/2006
01/01/2006 - 02/01/2006
02/01/2006 - 03/01/2006
05/01/2006 - 06/01/2006
11/01/2009 - 12/01/2009
08/01/2010 - 09/01/2010
11/01/2010 - 12/01/2010
04/01/2011 - 05/01/2011
09/01/2011 - 10/01/2011
01/01/2012 - 02/01/2012




Buy my Wife's Cabbage Patch Kids!

<< # St. Blog's Parish ? >>

St. Blog's Parish Hall

Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

This site is certified 61% GOOD by the Gematriculator

This page designed by Christopher Blosser
© 2003-2004 Jamie