Sorry it has been a while since I have posted here. I had a retreat for seminarians from the Diocese of La Crosse last weekend, then came back to a very busy time at work.
I was asked after my last post if I could post the forms that I had to fill out for the initial application process that I talked about in my last post. I don't feel that it would be prudent to do that, since it isn't my work. I am trying to keep this blog as my thoughts and my experiences… I'm not really sure what the rules would be if I started to put up whole forms like that. I do think however, that I could include a couple of the questions that were on the forms to give you an idea since there is an interest. So here they are.
When did you begin to think seriously of the priesthood?
Describe the process you have gone through in decision making from the time you began
to think of priesthood until the present time. How have your ideas developed or changed?
How would you define prayer? What part does prayer play in your life? How do you pray?
What is your view of ministry? As you look to the future and envision yourself as a priest,
what are you doing? Parish ministry? Teaching? Organizing people for social action?
If your interest in the priesthood could not be realized what vocation would you choose?
What is your attitude toward celibacy?
What qualities will you bring to the priesthood?
I think that gives a pretty good idea of the questions that were on there. The above were pretty much short answer sentences or paragraphs. In addition, as I said, there was the need to write an auto biography of my faith life and all aspects of life until this point. It covered a lot about family background, life experiences, and hopes in life. That sounds like a lot, but I do feel that it could have gotten into a bit more. I was asked to give 6 or 7 pages in the autobiography. I ended up giving both, for a total of 13. Sorry, bad joke.
After these documents were received by the vocation director, Fr. Hirsch, I scheduled an interview with him and my psychological evaluation.
The interview with Fr. Hirsch was a lot more than I had expected. I had thought that maybe it would be an hour of pointed questions repeating what I had already given them. There was a little of repeating the answers to those written questions, but to a great extent it was deeper than that.
Father Hirsch and I sat and talked for about two and a half hours. We talked about what I had written, expanded on it. He answered questions that I had about the process and the priesthood. Although I had most of the questions about the priesthood answered by numerous other priests it is always nice to get another perspective.
In addition to that Father Hirsch had some questions that the Church requires a vocation director to ask, and me to sign a form validating my answers. These questions were about the "impediments to Ordination." An impediment to Ordination is something that is in a man's personality or past that could make the sacrament of Ordination invalid. If you have these they need to be addressed early to see if Ordination is even possible. Some of the questions are pretty straight forward such as: Have I ever participated willfully in a homicide or abortion? Have I ever denied the Church's teachings or pronounced a creed in a non-Christian faith? Have I fathered a child? (Ordination wouldn't be possible until the child reaches the age of maturity in their society)
Others of the impediments to Ordination questions I was surprised by. I don't have any issues with them, but they did cause me to wonder about the details behind them. One of these was: Have you ever performed an act reserved for those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders (Ordination)? I wondered about that because many children "play Mass" growing up… that isn't what this is talking about. It is talking about someone who has attempted to deceive others into thinking that they were receiving a valid sacrament through their actions. Such as someone "hearing confessions" when they aren't really a priest and putting on that they are absolving the person's sins.
The other question that I was somewhat surprised about was: Do you have deep homosexual tendencies? This isn't a problem for me, but I had always understood that homosexuals were allowed into the priesthood as long as they simply followed the same promise/vow of celibate chastity as a heterosexual man. Or that a man who has "experimented" with it is in the same case as a straight man who has been sexually active. Again, I have never had any issues with this at all, but what I have since found out is that a man who has occasional homosexual attractions isn't a problem, it is a man who has deep seated tendencies to act out the homosexual attractions that it can be an impediment to Ordination for. Not passing or short term thoughts or actions.
I will end here since this has gotten long, in my next post I will talk about the psychological evaluation.
Peace,
Adam
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