Rome, Italy June 1, 2017
Month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Dear Priests, Seminarians, Brothers, and Novices,
“If the Church wants good ministers—said John of Avila—she must provide a proper education for them.”
For this reason it has been and continues to be our deep aspiration “to form priests for the Catholic Church according to the Heart of Christ,” who are men of great “human and Christian maturity” so that they reach the extent of the full stature of Christ and “with their works, members should demonstrate that they have God in their hearts because every tree is known by its own fruit, and faith, if it has no works, is dead. ”
We have a need for an authentic body of superior men, with “the spirit of a prince,” with “the impetus of the saints and martyrs who gave everything for God,” who have a priestly vision of reality with which they see all that is authentically human as a way to the Father; of men “who fully live the ‘freedom’ of God’s children in full docility to the Holy Spirit;” capable, moreover, to suffer in silence, to give his life up for his sheep; not simple soldiers, not “tributaries,” not hired men, not amateurs, but men who are “capable of carrying the burden of responsibilities,” “true Shepherds of souls in the most sublime meaning of the word, who know how to form Jesus Christ in souls from the overflowing of the treasure of grace and virtue.”
In other words, we aspire and we decidedly strive to form apostles, holy missionaries, who feel in the depths of their souls the words of Christ at the Last Supper: I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
Therefore, we consider it fundamental that our religious be nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching, primarily by the “loving knowledge and prayerful familiarity with the Word of God” by means of which they will acquire a holy “familiarity with the Word made flesh” and will be formed in “the strictest fidelity to the Supreme Magisterium of the Church of all times,” solidly instructed in a sound theology—which “proceeds from faith and seeks to guide towards faith”—built “upon the solid base provided by a profound knowledge of the philosophy of being, a ‘perennially valid philosophical heritage,’ and the advances of philosophical investigation.” More so, considering our specific end of evangelization of cultures, it is of highest importance that our members cultivate first in themselves culture and be versed in both ancient and modern languages.
This must be done in such a way that our plan of formation seeks to engrave the Incarnate Word in the minds and the hearts of our members in formation so that their lives may be—as we say in our formula of profession—“a living memory of the way that Jesus, the Word made flesh lived and behaved.” Only in this way will our religious “be able to efficaciously present Our Lord to the nations and to carry out the Mission in a dignified manner.” Only in this way, will they be able to “sink their teeth into reality” knowing how to change it in an effective way, so that Jesus Christ may be Lord over all, as is asked of us according to the specific end of our Institute.
It is my desire, by means of this circular letter, to call to mind some characteristics of our religious formation, which we should consider a fundamental requirement for evangelization. Primarily, in that which concerns our fidelity to the Incarnate Word and the intellectual formation of our members, for these elements are indispensables for obtaining that attitude—so very peculiar to our charism—which we call “sinking our teeth into reality.”
1. Configuration with Christ
Saint John Paul II said that “configuration with Christ should be the priority objective in the formation of any candidate for the priesthood.”
From here, we seek to make of our members an authentic “manifestation and image of the Good Shepherd.” For this reason, the Incarnate Word is the reality around which our religious are formed, so that He himself may be the light to illumine their ideals, the Truth which molds their intellects, the fire from which their hearts are enflamed and the nourishment which strengthens their souls.
As you all know, religious formation such as the Church understands it and as we embrace it, is “directed towards the whole person” given that its ambition is to reach “conformity to the Lord Jesus in his total self-giving,” and for this reason, is never ending. And so, each aspect of our human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation—closely and harmoniously united—point towards the same thing: conformity with Christ, for we are called to be precisely that: another Christ. And as the chapter fathers called to mind “if we do not form religious who are deeply convinced of this, we will not form religious of the Incarnate Word.”
This implies that our priests be masters in the art of arts, which, according to St. Gregory the Great, is the care of souls and so, all the aspects of our formation are ordered to this pastoral activity.
For this reason, we understand that “the seminary should be a school of priestly formation in its deepest sense” where the person is converted from the very depths of his being to the Incarnate Word, and where he learns the art of seeking out the signs of God in the realities of this world.
Also, in the last Chapter it was remembered that, how from the beginnings and with ongoing efforts over all these years, the formation of our members has always been one of the priorities on the part of the authorities of the Institute.
In fact—mentioning only the most important items carried out from the General Chapter of 2001—in December 2002, in San Rafael (Argentina) there was a meeting with all of the formators of the Institute. In 2003 there was an extraordinary meeting held by the General Council with all the Provincial Superiors of the Institute dedicated to the topic of formation, during which a final document was drawn up with specific indications. In 2006, there were visits made by the General Government to all of the Seminaries of the Institute, in preparation for the General Chapter of 2007. During that Chapter, various topics about formation were studied and dealt with, and our Ratio Institutionis was completely revised, a document which newly revised and approved in 2009. In September 2013, a meeting was held in Montefiascone with the General Council, all the Provincial Superiors, Rectors of Major Seminaries, and Masters of Novices, to deal extensively with this vast and important topic. Afterwards, the General Government carried out various consultations with the Priests who work with the formation of our members, and with the Holy See, working intensely with the material and the common establishments from the meeting. There was an encounter dedicated to this work and decision making regarding it in Conversano, Italy (October 31-November 14, 2013). As a fruit of this work, the document Directives for the work of formators in the Houses of Formation in the Institute of the Incarnate Word was sent by the General Superior on January 14, 2014. Together with this document, various subsidies for formation and the work formators were also sent, among which was sent out the document “Indications for Ongoing Intellectual Formation” for members of the Institute. In the most recent General Chapter (2016) an ample space was dedicated to the theme of formation of our members, looking to update our norms and documents according to the latest indications from the Authority of the Church. Currently, we are working towards adapting our ratio to the new Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis promulgated on December 8 of last year. Furthermore, it has been established as obligatory in each of our seminaries an annual formation course for formators at the beginning of the scholastic year, with a program which includes a quinquennial cycle of themes.
For being such a vital and priority topic, it has been worked on much, and continues to be worked on, with a growing interest and determined diligence, for it is true that, as in other cases, things can always improve. But, even more, because we are convinced that the vitality of our Religious Family, the quality and creativity of our apostolic service, and the efficacy of prophetic action depend in great measure on the formation of our candidates. More so, because we believe that “the renewal of the Church and of the world depend greatly on good priests.”
This has already been said by the great formator of missionaries, Blessed Paolo Manna: “All of the future of our missions passes here, in our Seminaries…souls will have tomorrow those apostles, those shepherds who we formed here.”
Indeed, it is our firm intention that our Seminaries always be that “spiritual environment,” that “true family,” where, following the same method that our Lord instructed his disciples, we—following his example—might dedicate our greatest energies and the most conducive and apt means to prepare with great solicitude the future priests of the Incarnate Word. How many of us can remember with satisfaction the “glorious years of the seminary” when with great familiarity, we went on learning “how to respond from the heart to Christ’s basic question: Do you love me?.” Such a spirit of family—which implies also order and discipline—should never fade or be lost, because it is that familiarity which permits an efficacious formation: “familiarity brings forth affection, and affection trust.” It is only in this spirit of trust between the subjects and the superiors, that the formative work is facilitated and the charism of our dear Institute is transmitted with all its force and genuineness, I would almost say, naturally.
However, in this process of configuration with Christ, it is a distinctive note of our formation that of paying “most special attention to the maturity in the experience of God, which is carried out through personal and community prayer and which reaches its perfection in the Eucharist” Inasmuch as the life of prayer during the seminary years is undoubtedly related with the mission with which one is to be entrusted in the future. For, “The priest is The man of God, the one who belongs to God and makes people think about God,” and souls await to encounter in him “a man who will help them to turn to God, to rise up to him.”
For this reason, we seek to form men who stand out for their intimate union with God for it is the Most Holy Trinity who molds in the depths of souls the alter Christus. Hence, as Saint John Paul II said “the daily celebration of the Eucharist and frequent Eucharistic adoration occupy a central place in priestly formation.” This is precisely what we have received and what we want to transmit, something which has been transformed in a concrete norm of our way of acting, as it could be no other way, and as is traced out in our proper law. Moreover, we look to put into practice all the means so that our seminarians participate in an active, conscious, and fruitful way of the Sacrifice of the Altar. This we do, making the effort so that the liturgy of our Masses “may be cathedral without formalisms, beautiful without affectations, solemn without being overwhelming, austere but full, faithful to the rubrics but creative, with the fullness of participation and developing all of the possibilities that the liturgy itself gives to the full extent, in a particular way in songs and in sacred music.”.
Regarding this, I would like to emphasize here the words on this matter that the Spiritual Father of our Religious Family dedicated to seminarians in 1993 and which I consider of great value to us: “It is necessary that seminarians participate daily in the Eucharistic celebration…in the redemptive mystery of Christ, renewed in the Eucharist, the sense of the missions is strengthened, the burning love for men. From the Eucharist, it is also understood that every participation in the priesthood of Christ has a universal dimension. With this perspective, one is called to educate one’s heart, so that we may live the drama of the peoples and of the multitudes who do not yet know Christ, and so that we may always be disposed to go to any part of the world, to announce him to all nations (cf Mt 28:19). This disposition…is today particularly necessary, before the immense horizons which are opened before the mission of the Church, and before the challenges of the new evangelization.” With this understood, how much strength and how much significance do the words that we have so often heard and read take on: “the seminary is the Mass!”
This is why it is our most diligent desire to do all that contributes to the achieving that our religious be religious priests who, by the superior light of faith which illumines the human realities, may be suited to “sink their teeth into reality” with valiance, which means, in absolute fidelity to Jesus Christ. With a “serious spirituality (not sentimental),” men who do not fall into poses, ostentation, in false mysticism, in exteriorities, in sentimentalities, in false piety, but who rather are capable of transcending the merely sensible and disposed to pass through the dark nights.
“To send out young members to the missions without familiarity with (mental prayer),” Blessed Paolo Manna would say, “is like sending unarmed soldiers into battle: it is to betray them and expose them to certain ruin.” This is why we strive for our dear seminarians to take full advantage of the strong moments of prayer; that they exercises themselves in discernment of spirits; that by faithful meditation on the Word of God they go on acquiring “basis for judging and evaluating persons and things, events and problems” ever more in accord with the Gospel; that they yearly make the authentically Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, and that they might experience from the time of the novitiate the service of charity to the least of their brethren.
Our formation is directed towards forming men capable of facing reality with a supernatural and priestly vision, so as to transform it according to the spirit of the Incarnate Word and after the way of the Incarnation, which means assuming the cultures which should be evangelized. Faithful to the mystery of the Incarnate Word we face evangelization without watering down the faith in that which is reasonable, without converting that which is sacred into something profane, without falling into insubstantial spiritualities, without accepting any dualistic and Manichean vision of reality, neither the vision which considers that reality has a unidimensional character. Rather, considering the order of grace and the order of nature as twofold and distinct, but hierarchically united, which means a unity of order. In such a way that the supernatural has primacy over the natural, and so God has primacy over man, the Church over the world, theology over philosophy, that which is eternal over that which is temporal, etc.
How evident and how utterly necessary is it than that we have a righteous consideration of the mystery of the Incarnate Word and a fidelity it, without which all pastoral work would inevitably fall into absolute failure. In other words, it is in the serene and fruitful contemplation of the sacred mystery of the Incarnation, in the light of faith an in its fullest and most just consideration that we are permitted to “sink our teeth into reality” and to arrive at having a great intervention in the work of evangelization.
We are convinced—as experience has thus shown us—that it is familiarity with the Incarnate Word—strengthened and fostered in the life of prayer—that gives us “that Christian common sense,” that special capacity to interpret the signs of the times free from any worldly pretenses. It is this familiarity with the Incarnate Word which gives us a particular “sensibility” of the cultural changes of the age, of the specific needs of the missions, of the problems of the current world and its currents of thought, and which makes us capable of opening up fruitful dialogue with cultures which we are called to evangelize, knowing how to give a positive response in the light of the Gospel; knowing how to esteem and value the diverse ways by which God seeks to communicate himself with men, and ultimately, efficaciously insert ourselves into the places where we are carrying out apostolic works, because it will always be true that “true inculturation is from within: it consists, ultimately, of a renewal of life under the influence of grace.” Not as modernism does things, seeking to embrace, without merit, current culture, while refusing to impregnate it with the Gospel.
This aspect is, without a doubt, one of the essential components of what we intend as “sinking our teeth into reality” and that which gives our priestly ministry a distinctive note which we are proud of.
Even more, this spiritual life which we strive to impress in our religious is the “ is the core which unifies and gives life to his being a priest and his acting as a priest” and as such is the foundation of our pastoral life. In fact, in how many of our missions is this spirit of prayer praised in our parishes, whether it be for the times of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, for the worthy celebration of the Holy Mass, for the preaching which shines forth the perennial message of the Cross, for the very witness of the religious who awakens in others the longing for the supernatural, for the prodigality of the sacramental life. And without even going any further, how many Bishops request us to work in their dioceses precisely for this reason.
In the end, it is absolutely indispensable for us to form men who live by faith, seminarians—future priests—who live by faith. Who have in mind the truths of the faith, who have very clear the five preambular fidei, because if they do not have the preambles of the faith clear, that faith at some point later on, will not have a strong base on which to build itself up. Men who, for their very faith, remain faithful, even “without being able to have a tabernacle and an image of the Blessed Virgin,” who for that very faith are consistent and who are disposed to lay down their life for the sheep. Without that faith, nobody would voluntarily sacrifice themselves in the missions. It is for faith, for the deep convictions and the great love for the Incarnate Word that the heroisms of the Cross are carried out.
2. Intellectual Formation
All that has been said until now puts in an even greater light the importance of study, which is oriented towards our specific end of evangelizing cultures, and which “demands from us a spirituality with unusual nuances, a faith on the part of responsible Christians that is illumined by continual reflection when confronted with the sources of the Church’s message, and a continual spiritual discernment pursued in prayer.”
Saint John Paul II said that if our evangelizing activity “depends on the intensity of our interior life, then it should also equally find support in ongoing study.”
That is why we understand that the intellectual formation of our priests is presented as something urgent and as a priority before the new evangelization and modern approaches. As such, it can never be permitted to improvise, neglect, or “take away the strength” which has always characterized our formation.
As you well know, one of the non-negotiable elements which belongs to the charism of our beloved Institute, which means that it forms part of that which distinguishes us apart from the world, and which has allowed us to present a living Christianity being a faithful source of vocations and of supernatural blessings is, without any doubt, “the clear intention to follow Saint Thomas Aquinas, as the Church commands, and in this vein, the best thomists, especially Fr. Cornelio Fabro.”
This is so, not only because the Church and Canon Law prescribe it, and because the Holy Pontiffs recommend it, but in addition, our Constitutions wisely order it saying that we seek to “be formed under his magisterium” for “his knowledge is of undeniable and fundamental importance for the right interpretation of Sacred Scripture, so as to transcend the sensory and achieve union with God, and to build the edifice of Sacred Theology upon the solid base provided by a profound knowledge of the philosophy of being.”
It is not fitting for us to “put a nominalist sticker on reality” simply because that does not help evangelize. We are striving towards making the Gospel inform the cultures of all men. Thus, it is a realist, rather than a nominalist formation which helps us to “not shadowbox” but which allows us a full and global openness towards the whole reality, providing us with the “crucial keys to the interpretation of the human condition today and to the choice of the priorities,” giving us the opportunity to place ourselves in the problematic of the modern culture and to offer an effective contribution towards evangelization.
I want to note that “the choice of Saint Thomas does not have a personal or confessional character, but rather a universal and transcendental one ‘for it wants to be the most vigorous expression of the possibilities of reason in its foundational task regarding science.’ And because it is the ‘natural metaphysics of human understanding.’” Therefore, all that which in any way—subtly or evidently—tends towards distancing us, diluting, creating obstacles or dissuading us from this non-negotiable element, should be rejected as something foreign to our charism. Rather, we should enter in in the deepening and diffusion of an essential Thomism—opposed to a formalist and fossilized Thomism—as our proper law demands of us, and which the Acts of the last Chapter remind us of. This is our endeavor and for it we dedicate ourselves to the sublime work of forming religious missionaries.
Consequently it is also our determination—and it has always been such—to devote ourselves to help our members in formation to learn a Thomistic philosophy, not as a catechism or something completely disconnected with life but knowing how to transcend the difficulties in the same Thomistic school and the deficiencies of the formalist scholasticism, they learn how to think according to reality—starting from Saint Thomas himself, entering into dialogue and controversy with the problems and contemporary thinkers —going on to make it known to others as is due.
This is a task which takes on an imperative nature in our times, considering the progressivism which devastates the Church “for lack of critique and discernment in the face of modern philosophies and the assimilation of the principle of immanence.”
This is why the chapter fathers in the last General Chapter said that our intellectual formation does not only refer to a passing on of content, but it is a complementary part of our vocation which helps the person mature in his search for truth, it strengthens him in its possession, and it fills him with joy upon contemplating it. They similarly pointed out that our formation, if it is serious, should also educate regarding study habits, in methods of investigation, and in inspiring the desire for ongoing formation always keeping in light where to look for and find the truth, and how to access it.
Nothing is more strongly opposed to our formation that “an encyclopedist instruction.” We recognize that intellectual formation is a formation in habits and methods which will become tools for one’s entire life. For without this discipline and habit of study, our priests will not be able to exhort whether it is convenient or inconvenient with the Word of God, nor convince others of the truth which frees them from error. If we say that we are called to be teachers of the faith, then we should be capable of giving reasons for the faith which we preach and teach.
Our Directory clearly says this: “We must form priests who are convinced of the existence and the transcendence of God; convinced with the strength of intellect to demonstrate the existence of God, foundation of any supernatural edifice;convinced that only Jesus Christ—God and man—in the Church, can bring definitive salvation to man; and that without God, man is destructive of self. They should be formed in such a way that they can, in all truth and charity, give an adequate response to the men of our times who are ‘full of doubt and uncertainty, [who] will not accept a priest’s teaching authority easily and without reaction; nor are they going to believe and hold uncritically and without prejudice the doctrine which the priest tries, ex officio, to teach them.’”
Our Constitutions further establish—as it could be no other way—that our specific end of evangelization of cultures should be done “in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church.” From here springs forth another non-negotiable element which is “fidelity to the living Magisterium of the Church of all times.”
Therefore, it is clear that we cannot conceive “sinking our teeth into reality” without a fidelity to the Magisterium of Peter and to the Bishops united with him. This is clearly seen in the countless citations of magisterial texts within our proper law. For the “Magisterium is not, then, something extrinsic to Christian truth nor is it set above the faith. It arises directly from the economy of the faith itself, inasmuch as the Magisterium is, in its service to the Word of God, an institution positively willed by Christ as a constitutive element of His Church.” We should then, flee from those who, according to Blessed Paul Vi, “seem to ignore the living tradition of the Church…and interpret in their own way the doctrine of the Church.”
If our intellectual formation has as its object the study of truth and if we want to live in its fullness the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, it is thus, in the living Magisterium of the Church where we will find the fount to quench our thirst for the truth for—as our proper law says—“the Magisterium ‘can give utterance to that truth which is Christ himself.’” Indeed, our formation is carried out in full consciousness and ecclesial solicitude, in full obedience to the successor of Peter, with sincere respect for his magisterium and in fidelity to the Holy See. All of which has always been a distinctive sign of our Religious Family.
Far from our intellectual formation those empty slogans, passing ideologies, debatable opinions, “‘eagerness for novelties’ and the contempt for the guide of the Magisterium which has characterized all of those who have shipwrecked in the faith.” Rather, we seek in the treasure of the Magisterium of the Church the solidity, the purity and the proximate norm of faith which is required by the sublime task of evangelization.
Regarding this, during the VII General Chapter, it was reaffirmed the need to be able to count on “professors and formators with doctrinal certainty, which is fidelity to the principles of the sciences and to the authentic Magisterium; doctrinal unity, which is consequential to the aforementioned.” This manifests a constant and real commitment of what we profess.
And so, in vain do those argue who say that our love and fidelity to the Vicar of Christ is fictitious or merely ‘lip-service.’ For, not only proper law, but the formation which is imparted, the vehement intention of “the attainment of a Roman spirit” by sending several of our priests to study and to work in the pontifical universities in Rome, the spreading of the teaching of the Magisterium and Tradition of the Church (by way of publications, conferences, websites, etc); the authentic and sacrificed collaboration with dozens of Bishops throughout the world. More so, the boldness and enthusiasm of our missionaries who, on all five continents, preach and defend authentic Catholic doctrine, “without ambiguity, distinguishing it from mere human opinions,” make evident our faith, veneration, and love for the Sweet Christ on earth as a continuous reality of our Institute and of each of its members.
Ultimately, our formation which is directed towards the sublime knowledge of the Incarnate Word, can only be “made with faith, ‘in the Church,’ in strict fidelity to her Magisterium.”
Dear Brothers: in this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart I invite you to deepen in that which the Saint Cure of Ars said: “A good shepherd, a pastor after God’s heart, is the greatest treasure which the good Lord can grant to a parish, and one of the most precious gifts of divine mercy.”
It is necessary to carry the Incarnate Word firmly planted in our heart, in our soul, and in our intellect. We must be intimate with the Crucified. Without this, we will have doctors, theologians, and philosophers who crush with their science, but the missionaries will disappear. And so, paraphrasing Saint Julian Eymard we can say: “I cannot understand how a religious of the Incarnate Word would want to stand out in any science other than the Incarnate Word. Without this, we are not in the fullness of our grace.”
We must be conscious that we are called to set aflame the ends of the earth with the burning firebrand of the truth of the Incarnate Word which burns within us. May we always maintain ourselves in a permanent state of formation and renewal, as the specific end of our Institute demands of us. Being faithful in this, the new generations will follow after us and—God willing—we will greatly contribute to the work of evangelization.
I cannot conclude without expressing my sincerest gratitude and recognition of those who, with great toil, dedicate themselves to the noble and magnificent work of the formation of our religious, with a praiseworthy dedication, in deep fidelity to our charism and to the Magisterium, accompanying their teachings with their witness of life.
To all who are being prepared in our houses of formation, I repeat to you the advice of St. John Paul II: “there are three ‘a lot’s’ which are rewarded by another three: a lot of study, a lot of knowledge; a lot of reflection, a lot of wisdom; a lot of virtue, a lot of peace. Animo!”
May we always be grateful to God for the great gift that he has given us, having cemented us in the magnificent principles which give foundation to, which rule, and which sustain our formation.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, help us to form within ourselves the image of her Son and to serve him all the days of our lives.
In the Incarnate Word,
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
