• What are the Redemptoris Mater Seminaries?

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The diocesan and missionary seminaries "Redemptoris Mater" are erected by the diocesan bishops, in agreement with the International Team responsible for the Way and are governed according to the norms in force for the formation and incardination of diocesan clerics and according to their own statutes, in implementation of the Ratio fundamentalis sacerdotalis.

In them, candidates for the priesthood find in participation in the Neocatechumenal Way a specific and basic element of the formation process and, at the same time, they are prepared for the "genuine priestly choice of service to the entire People of God, in the fraternal communion of the presbyterate" (Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, art. 18, § 3). The "Redemptoris Mater" seminaries are not seminaries of the Neocatechumenal Way but, as the statutes and the rule of life specify, true diocesan seminaries under the Bishop.

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• The Nature of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary: Diocesan and Missionary

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The first "juridical" peculiarity of this new type of seminary is that of combining two traditionally distinct elements: incardination into a local Church and universal apostolic zeal. “Christendom” – that is, the era of the Societas Christiana – had accustomed us to the clear distinction between secular and religious priests. The former represented the diocesan constitution of the Church, while the latter manifested its missionary nature. The Redemptoris Mater seminary proposes a new type of priest: at the same time incarnated in a diocese and intrinsically missionary. This corresponds to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council which put communion between bishops back at the center of ecclesiology and, seeing the individual Diocese as a concrete implementation of the universal Church, made it the primary subject of evangelization. Here are two concise conciliar references regarding the "universal" character of the episcopal and presbyteral mission:

"Bishops should strive to advance in holiness among their priests, religious and laity, according to the particular vocation of each one... They should lead the churches entrusted to them to holiness so that the sense of Christ's universal Church may shine forth in them. They should therefore seek to increase as much as possible priestly and religious vocations, especially missionary vocations" [1].

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"Priests should remember that they are responsible for the care of all the Churches... And where this is made necessary (because of the lack of clergy), not only a functional distribution of priests should be facilitated, but also the implementation of special initiatives in favor of certain regions or nations or even of the whole world. To this end, it may be useful to create international seminaries for the good of the whole Church according to norms to be established and respecting the rights of the local Ordinary" [2].

 

• An international and neocatechumenal seminary

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Since the Neocatechumenal Way is a service to the bishops and not a particular association, it has obviously considered the way of diocesan incardination as the most natural means for those who feel called to the priesthood. A condition for entering this type of seminary is therefore participation in the Neocatechumenal Way. Christian initiation tout court is preceded, or rather, is premised and thus placed side by side with priestly formation. Each seminarian comes from a Neocatechumenal community in which he began to know the Lord and his love, communion with his brothers and sisters, discernment about himself, the life of prayer and liturgy. This process, far from being suspended during the time of priestly formation, is considered an integral part of it. Thus, in addition to the life of prayer, discipline, study, and service, proper to each seminary, the members of Redemptoris Mater follow the "Way" in the local communities and return to their community of origin for the most important "stages".

By ordination, they do not become part of a particular congregation or fraternity but are incardinated in the presbyterate of a local church to serve the evangelizing mission of the Church.

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[1] Christus Dominus, 15c.

[2] Presbyterorum ordinis, 10; cf. Pastores Dabo Vobis 12b; 16c; 18a; 32; CCC 257 § 1.