United States: Canonical visit to seminaries by the Vatican

Source: FSSPX News

 

On September 16, the Washington Post announced the inspection of 229 seminaries and houses of religious formation in the United States, during the academic year 2005-2006, by a commission of 117 bishops and priests responsible for seminaries. The Roman Congregation for Catholic Education, which has control of training given in the seminaries throughout the world, has itself named the members of this commission, whose coordinator will be Mgr. Edwin F. O’Brien, American archbishop of the Armed Services in Washington.

 The Washington Post claims to have read the Vatican document which explains the schedule of the visits to teachers and students of the three final years. Fr. Stephen J. Rossetti, of the Saint Luke Institute at Silver Spring in the State of Maryland, specified that this inspection would be promoting the life of chastity. “I think it will certainly raise the standards” before entry into the seminary.

 Furthermore, an Instruction signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and Mgr. Michael Miller, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, was approved at the end of August 2005 by Benedict XVI and will shortly be published. This document recalls the requirements of the Catholic Church, which has always forbidden the ordination to the priesthood of homosexuals.