杏MAP导航

By Amedeo Lomonaco

The Dicastery for the Clergy manifests and implements the solicitude of the Apostolic See with regard to the formation of candidates for Holy Orders. The Dicastery assists diocesan Bishops in ensuring that vocational pastoral care is provided in their Churches and that seminarians are adequately educated with a solid human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation. The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy is Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung sik, and the Secretary is Monsignor Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira.

Historical notes

The history of this Congregation goes back to the Sacra Congregatio Cardinalium Concilii Tridentini interpretum, instituted by Pius IV in the Apostolic Constitution Alias Nos dated Aug. 2, 1564, to ensure a correct interpretation and the practical observance of the norms issued by the Council of Trent. This body retained its historical name of “Sacred Congregation of the Council” until 31 December 1967, when it was given the name “Congregation for the Clergy.” With the promulgation of , its name was changed to the Dicastery for the Clergy.

Competence

As emphasised in the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, the Dicastery for the Clergy is called to oversee a crucial area: its effort and task are to ensure that community life and the governance of seminaries are in conformity with the requirements of priestly formation. It must also ensure that superiors and educators contribute as much as possible, through example and sound doctrine, to the formation of the personality of future ordained ministers.

The Dicastery is responsible for promoting everything related to the formation of future clerics through specific norms such as the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis and the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis diaconorum permanentium, as well as other documents relating to ongoing formation. It is also the responsibility of the Dicastery for the Clergy to confirm the Ratio institutionis sacerdotalis nationalis issued by the Episcopal Conferences, as well as to confirm the establishment of inter-diocesan seminaries and their statutes.

Offices of the Dicastery

The Dicastery is divided into four offices: Clergy, Dispensations (cf. art. 116 §2), Administration (of ecclesiastical goods), Initial and Ongoing Formation (previously called the “Seminaries Office”). These offices are entrusted to the coordination of four Heads of Office or Coordinators, who supervise the work of the Officials and collaborate with the Superiors in the handling of matters entrusted to them.

Since 2022, the Dicastery has undertaken a project to implement the Communication and Events service, establishing an internal coordination team aimed at developing a new communication strategy that seeks to promote a network of support and exchange with particular Churches.

In addition, the Clergy and Formation offices collect, suggest, and promote initiatives for the holiness and intellectual and pastoral updating of the clergy (diocesan priests and deacons).

The Formation office is responsible for all seminaries, except those dependent on the Dicasteries for the Oriental Churches and for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The specific area of responsibility of the Administrative Office concerns the organisation and administration of ecclesiastical property belonging to public legal entities.

The Office for Dispensations is responsible for dealing, in accordance with the law, with dispensations from the obligations assumed through sacred ordination to the diaconate and priesthood by diocesan and religious clerics of the Latin Church and the Eastern Churches.

Chapel of the Dicastery for the Clergy

In the footsteps of the Good Samaritan and the Curé d'Ars

The path of priestly formation encompasses various aspects of the life of a minister of God. The scope of the Dicastery for the Clergy is to serve the Church so that it may be animated by minds and arms capable of reviving, everywhere in the world, the figure of the Good Samaritan. It is a matter of making God's mercy, evangelical love, shine forth.

St John Mary Vianney, patron saint of the clergy, refers to the priestly ministry in these words: “If we understood well what a priest is on earth, we would die: not of fear, but of love”.

According to Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung sik, the Holy Curé d'Ars was an example of a holiness that “comes from prayer, the Eucharist, and Confession, not from prestige”—a holiness that is forged by the ability to listen, love, and guide people “with the heart of a shepherd”.

Today, more than ever, he remains a model for all priests.