A gray and a white collar shirt © Cristian Gennari (CBA)
Herbert Rieger, Regens des Priesterseminars der Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Sankt Georgen, warns against too radical steps in priest training. Few educational institutions could underestimate local traditions.
"Sites that are too small are not good places for formation," Jesuit priest said in interview with katholisch portal.de on Monday. At the same time, local traditions are "extremely complex". In this respect, central solutions "could also be too central, sometimes rather flexible solutions between fixed places and fluid training content, which are made inter-professionally, offer themselves".
A working group of the German Bishops' Conference had proposed last week, in view of a persistently low number of candidates for the priesthood, to concentrate the training on a few locations – including as focal points Munich, Munster and Mainz. Rieger said he was surprised that three specific locations had already been named. Sankt Georgen does not appear in the paper.
Importance of local traditions of the church
In a next step, it is now necessary to discuss "the places and the evaluation of their various possibilities," said the Regens. "To reduce the whole system to three locations underestimates the local traditions of the church in Germany: the milieus are very different, whether the diaspora in the east, folk church elements in Paderborn or Trier, or large multi-religious and intercultural scenarios like here in Frankfurt."There needs to be a middle way that many can go along with voluntarily," he said.
In addition, Rieger added, fundamental changes are needed in priestly education. "We need uniform standards for personality formation, human maturation and sexual education modules."