WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service
By Jerry Filteau
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Vatican-run apostolic visitation of U.S. Catholic seminaries and houses of priestly formation will begin late this September.
Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who will coordinate the visits, announced details of the plan Aug. 19.
Sparked by the sexual abuse crisis that hit the U.S. church in 2002, the visitations will pay special attention to areas such as the quality of the seminarians' human and spiritual formation for living chastely and of their intellectual formation for faithfulness to church teachings, especially in the area of moral theology.
The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education, which oversees seminary formation around the world, has appointed 117 bishops and seminary personnel as visitors. They are to visit each college- or theology-level institution, working in teams of three for smaller programs or four for the larger ones.