Today's Seminarians

This Richard P. McBrien column ran in the Catholic Herald of October 20, 2005. Father McBrien takes his topic from Peter Steinfels September 24, 2005 "Beliefs" column in The New York Times. Steinfels is concerned with whether the quality of seminary education will be well-served by the upcoming Apostolic visitations, says Father McBrien.

He points out that the official Vatican guidelines for the teams of "apostolic visitors" consist of 96 questions to be posed to faculty, seminarians, and some alumni. "The thrust of these questions," Steinfels notes, "is to assure that future priests are fully prepared to live celibate lives, as well as morally disciplined and prayerful ones, and that they are thoroughly committed to church teachings, especially as laid out in recent official documents from the pope and Vatican offices."

Not that there's anything wrong with that?

However, what properly concerns Peter Steinfels -- and should be a matter of concern for all Catholics -- is that there are no explicit questions about the seminarians" "capacities for initiative, creativity or imagination and consultative leadership...."

Here you go:
97. Can you make the Consecration more meaningful by ad libbing it in a Trying Out For The School Play voice?