If both can accept that there are varieties of charisms to which young men might be called ...
This statement here speaks to the problem with nearly all Trad seminaries ... the lack of support for different "charisms". If a young man felt called to the priesthood, it was basically an SSPX-type system where you went there and became an SSPX priest. There was a little variety, such as the occasional seminary professor vs. the mission-circuit priest, and some missionary work, but not everyone is cut out for those forms of the priestly ministry. Even then, it wasn't the priest's choice. So you had priests being forced out to straw huts in Zimbabwe (and then cracking up, as not everyone is suited for that.) In the past, if one were more the scholarly type, there were the Dominicans, if more contemplative, other orders, if "ora et labora", the Benedictines, if one felt inclined to teach, there were various teaching orders. Similarly for female religious, they could help the poor, teach, care for the sick (in hospitals), etc. This allowed different temperaments. But there was an almost one-size-fits-all (force fit) vocation among Trads. Sure, you had a tiny pocket of a Dominican house here, a Benedictine House there, but that's only if your theological perspective was in sync with that group. Imagine now that you had someone join the Benedictines, and then that Benedictine house suddenly comes to an agreement with Rome (take the Transalpine Redemptorists for instance). If you can't accept that, what do you do?, leave and go back to living with Mom and Dad in the basement? This is just a huge mess. But the worst part is the SSPX forcing different types of things on seminarians. I was always the contemplative/scholarly type, and a few times at STAS, I expressed out loud that, "too bad there isn't a vocation to be just a seminarian." I really loved that life there, and wasn't took keen on the idea of hopping from one plane to another on a mission circuit. But the SSPX would tell you what you were going to do ... whether or not it was a fit for your temperament. Don't get me wrong, every priest should be zealous for helping souls, but maybe spending half your week at an airport would wear on some individuals and lead to mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual breakdowns over the long term. I would have enjoyed being a seminary professor, for instance, but that certainly would not have been left to my choice, and given that I occasionally disagreed with the SSPX even back then, there would have been zero chance of that happening.
Topic: Uniting the Resistance Clans? (Read 4664 times)