Following is in excerpt from the sermon given by Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan of Atlanta at the dedication of the major seminary of St. Vincent de Paul, Boynton Beach, Florida in the diocese of Miami, Tuesday, January 25. Archbishop Egidio Bagnozzi, Apostolic Delegate to the United States, officiated.

Last Pentecost, bishops of the southeast joined in a pastoral letter. Probing into the 400 year missionary tradition of the southern colonies (and later states), the bishop saw “a second springtime of Catholicism in this warm and gracious land.”

“The Church is at home in the South. The majority of persons of other faiths share with us a genuine sense of God, a love for the Bible, a tradition of church membership, a courteous and gentle approach to others.”

Racial strife and religious disunity have in the past betrayed this religious sense. But there are signs today that the South has learned her lesson, that in the social and ecumenical ventures of our churches, the Catholic Church is “a hardy base on which Catholic laymen, side by side with those of other faiths, are raising a wiser, stronger, better society.” In this panorama of contemporary history, the dedication of a major Catholic Seminary is an event of the greatest importance. It is a bold apostolic move by Bishop Coleman Carroll. It is a tribute to the Vincentian Fathers who have always pioneered in seminary development. For the laymen’s formation, the priest is of essence, and for the training of the priest, the seminary is the indispensable instrument. It is a “family”, of students and teachers, “a closely-knit community” whose spirit and activity reflect the bishop’s fatherhood, and to all the priests it is “the heart of the diocese.” The renewal of the living Church is noted in every document of the Second Vatican Council. With it go the series of reforms -- liturgy, scriptural study, ecumenism, missions and the two fundamental reassessments, On the Church and On the Church in the World of Today. This renewal and reform is of the highest magisterium. Pope and Council Fathers acting in their role of lawmakers of the Church Universal.

But the documents will be nothing but paper texts unless we read them in their context, make the changes called for, and a new context for tomorrow’s Church. The content of Christ’s message and mission does not change, but the manner and approach must be adapted to the needs of today. One of the most urgent demands today is the complete priest. He should ask why his predecessors, the priest who first inspired his vocation, his pastors were the hard-working unselfish, loyal sons of the Church. He stands on their shoulders today not that he may lessen their stature, but that he might increase his own. Th new approaches and resources lead him now to deeper insights. The new knowledge points to a vision possible only through faith. The pressing needs of the poor and the oppressed, the ordinary people and the intellectual opens the young priest’s hands so that grace may flow through them. The complete priest does not resent change because it multiplies opportunities. Yet he loves the liturgy, the poor, the separated brethren too much to make hobbies of them. He sees each special service as a part of the priestly apostolate. His rule is pastoral, not particularized. He is first of all an apostle and only secondarily a specialist in prophecy, evangelism, or other roles enumerated by Saint Paul or added since.

The priest of today faces tremendous problems, matched with a shocking personal responsibility. Of all the reforms called for in the Decree on Priestly Training, the most urgent is to stop fragmentation. “You are one body with a single Spirit, each of you when he was called, called in the same hope; with the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism.” Instead the training of the priest has been split-up so that he himself lives on several levels. Karl Adam warned us of this separation 30 years ago. It has been echoed by contemporary theologians, like Karl Rahner and Yves Congar. And Archbishop Garrone of Toulouse summed it up:

“Living in a seminary, I have always been struck by the way in which the technical differentiation of scholastic disciplines is calculated to set up compartments in the mind of the young priest. These may well nullify in his ministry the simple power of the word that nourishes and saves.” At the root of all the words, dogmatic and moral, canonical and historical lies the Word itself: Christ incarnate in our flesh, in our manhood and mankind, and in the Church. Out of this unity, the young priest grows and matures. It is here that the Council has advice for the perplexed candidate and the world he has lived in, and will live in. The bridge between these two worlds must be carefully built. Formed of the Word of God, designed by His Spirit. It must be free enough not to be a rut, yet sure enough not to be a detour.

If a seminary training is truly integrated (in the dynamic not racial sense of the word), its graduates will find that “to the extent he loves the Church of Christ, to that extent does he possess the Holy Spirit,” in the words of Augustine.

In an open society, whether it be the Athens of Plato, the university of the high Middle Ages, or the affluent society of our western world today, only the Complete Man can make his way. He need not be brilliant, but he must have good sound judgement. He need not be a crusader, but he must insist on justice. Taken from among men, today’s priest must measure up to a dimension unheard of in the time of Leo XIII, John Henry Newman, Cardinal Gibbons. These three stood out because they were mature. Today every priest must have that dimension. Is today’s candidate ready for the rugged, complex life ahead? Is today’s seminary prepared to get him ready?

The 2nd Vatican Council provided the texts. It is now our task to fashion the context in which they will be heard and read. The job can be broken down into three questions:

First, how much does it mean to the candidate to be honored and popular, to be financially secure and socially accepted? The Decree gives him a criterion for this: “...a simple way of life, a spirit of self denial...” Does a priest or bishop, guaranteed his keep and his good name, really need more? The Church and her servants must be the Church of the Poor. But who is to be the judge of poverty? Which priest, for example, serves the Church better, the one who uses whatever he is doing good, as the Master did? Or, rather, the one who gazes coldly at the first, and criticizes him bitterly for his possessions. His is the charge made by the Pharisee in the Temple. In the context of money and prestige, poverty can be a mean trap - we seldom judge others as we judge ourselves.

The second context to be formed for priestly training is the development (in charity) of the proper tension between freedom and authority. The Church here has an almost impossible job to do, produce priests who can think for themselves, and simultaneously obey their bishop or live with a domineering pastor. Following the rules of the Second Vatican Council, seminaries all over the world, and bishops and pastors too, are examining their own conscience, not hesitating to offer reasons for regulations, and not multiplying the phrase “God’s Will” to describe every rule, every bell, every command. Out of all this is coming a human, humble, reasonable approach. Since obedience is a two way street, I would presume that thousands of seminarians are examining their conscience too. They are trying to see what the common good means, what duties go with the freedom of responsibility, what great good (both personal and social) is possible when the root lies in a true motive of conscience. The Council points the way to a context in which the crisis of obedience is eased because the tension is made to flow on both sides.

And finally, a new context is needed for the privileged state of life through which a young man is called by a precious gift of God, and to which he responds by his free and mature vow of celibacy. There are many practical reasons why the unmarried life better suits the priesthood in our western society, the best one is named by the Decree, that “perfect charity whereby they can become all things to all men.” And there are many forms of personal fulfillment, one the union of husband and wife, another “the undivided love with which man can embrace the Lord.” The priest who finds fulfillment in his work, teaching a child, a 3 a.m. sick call, a talk on racial justice, the endless ministry of the sacraments and the Eucharist, this priest is not likely to start thinking that conjugal love is the only fulfillment. Most priests are enriched, not deprived, by celibacy. After all an adult, free choice made in the form of a vow can hardly be flicked aside like the dream-wish of a child.

The text’s for the updating of Christ’s Church are available. It is the new context into which they must fit that needs immediate care. One of your own seminary leaders, the Vincentian teacher, Father Stafford Poole, summed up the burden ahead:

“All this means that everything in the seminary must have a real, but not necessarily immediate, relevance to the priesthood.

It must lead to the priesthood, and it must help in some way to form the student for the particular work in the Church that he going to be charged with.”

It adds up to a great task, one vital to the very life of God’s people. It is a task worthy of a family, and here is the family: Archbishop Bagnozzi, representative of the Holy Father, Bishop Carroll, successor of the Apostles in the Diocese of Miami, other distinguished prelates, and your administration and faculty, and you the students. You can be sure that the bishops present are at work in this urgent and noble field, the training of priests. What I invite you to, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, is the harmony and unity of seminarians and priests as they pray and study, discuss and experiment the shaping of this new context, finally reaching a true commitment which in turn may need to be revised from time to time.

No priest was ever built by a piece of paper. Many have been formed by a good priest they knew in their youth. But every priest is ultimately made of mind and will and heart, by the imposition of a bishop’s hands, and the grace of God that is sufficient for us.