Ministerial formation (or simply formation) is the personal preparation that the Catholic Church offers to people with a defined mission, such as the priesthood or membership of a religious order such as the Society of Jesus. Such formation involves a program of spiritual and academic training. In the case of priestly formation, the typical location concerned is the seminary either operated by a diocese for the purposes of training diocesan/secular clergy or operated by a religious order for the purpose of preparing its members for priestly ordination. [1]
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the "priesthood", a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. A priest may have the duty to hear confessions periodically, give marriage counseling, provide prenuptial counseling, give spiritual direction, teach catechism, or visit those confined indoors, such as the sick in hospitals and nursing homes.
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the terms used for individual clergy are clergyman, clergywoman, clergyperson, churchman, cleric, ecclesiastic, and vicegerent while clerk in holy orders has a long history but is rarely used.
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions.
Spiritual is the adjective for the noun "spirit".
A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, in academics, or mostly in Christian ministry.
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is a traditionalist Catholic society of apostolic life for priests and seminarians. It is in communion with the Holy See. It was founded in 1988 by 12 former members of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) who left following the Écône consecrations, which resulted in the SSPX bishops being excommunicated by the Holy See.
The Congregation of the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo, commonly called the Scalabrinian Missionaries, is a Catholic religious institute of brothers and priests founded by Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy, in 1887. The members of the congregation add the nominal letters CS after their names to indicate their membership in the Congregation. Its mission is to "maintain Catholic faith and practice among Italian emigrants in the New World." Today, they and their sister organizations, the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo and the Secular Institute of the Scalabrinian Missionary Women minister to migrants, refugees and displaced persons.
The Carmelites of Mary Immaculate abbreviated CMI, formerly also known as the Servants of Mary Immaculate, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and is the largest such congregation in the Syro-Malabar Church.
A society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose and live fraternally. It is regarded as a form of consecrated life.
In the Catholic Church, a canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view to maintaining faith and discipline and of correcting abuses. A person delegated to carry out such a visitation is called a visitor. When, in exceptional circumstances, the Holy See delegates an apostolic visitor "to evaluate an ecclesiastical institute such as a seminary, diocese, or religious institute [...] to assist the institute in question to improve the way in which it carries out its function in the life of the Church," this is known as an apostolic visitation.
The Third Order of Saint Dominic, also referred to as the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic or Lay Dominicans since 1972, is a Catholic third order which is part of the Dominican Order.
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms priest refers only to presbyters and pastors. The church's doctrine also sometimes refers to all baptised (lay) members as the "common priesthood", which can be confused with the ministerial priesthood of the consecrated clergy.
Theological College is the national Catholic diocesan seminary for the Latin Church in the United States. The school was founded in 1917 and is located in Washington, D.C. It is affiliated with the Catholic University of America and is owned and administered by priests of the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice.
Palackal Thoma Malpan was an Indian Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar Church based in India. He was the senior priest and founder who envisaged the formation of the first native religious institution in India, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate also known as C.M.I., and the founder of the first seminary for Syro-Malabar Catholics.
The Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary Immaculate, best known as the French Oratory or Oratory of Jesus, is a society of apostolic life of Catholic priests founded in 1611 in Paris, France, by Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629), who later became a cardinal. Members are known as Bérullians or Oratorians.
The Rachol Seminary, also known as Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol, is the diocesan major seminary of the Primatial Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman in Rachol, Goa, India.
The Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas is a Catholic educational institution providing an international community and formation for lay ecclesial ministers and other lay students at the Pontifical Universities, Athenae, and Institutes in Rome, Italy. It is international in character and composition, and welcomes ecumenical students from other Christian churches and ecclesial communities, as well as those from non-Christian religions.
Allen Hall Seminary, often abbreviated to Allen Hall, is the Roman Catholic seminary and theological college of the Province of Westminster at 28 Beaufort Street in Chelsea, London, in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is situated on the site of the house that was once occupied by St Thomas More. Though nothing of the house remains, parts of the 16th-century garden wall exist today.
St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary located in Boynton Beach, Florida for the education and formation of seminarians to the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Saint Philip's Seminary is an apostolate of the Toronto Oratory, a Catholic society of apostolic life. It has been authorized to grant degrees by the province of Ontario. It accepts students for the priesthood who are sponsored by their diocese or by their religious order.