한국 상황에서 사제 양성 ‘예비 과정’의 적용과 실천

Abstract

The formation of priests representing Jesus Christ as a shepherd for the people of God is an essential act of the life of the Catholic Church. This importance is revealed in the persistent efforts to reform the priestly formation throughout the history of the Church. After the Second Vatican Council, the Church promulgated the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis to revise the formation of priests, and then in 2016, the Congregation for the Clergy issued a new guideline, The Gift of Priestly Vocation. In accordance with the document, the Catholic Church in Korea announced the The Program for Priestly Formation of the Catholic Church in Korea (Revised Draft) as the 2023 national guidelines (Ratio Nationnalis). The most striking feature of these two guidelines is that they consider initial and ongoing formation as a single and integrated formation, and emphasize the importance of the ‘propaedeutic stage’ as an essential process and beginning of the overall priestly formation. Therefore, this paper aims to understand the importance of ‘propaedeutic stage’ in priestly formation by examining the history and characteristics of this stage, and based on this, to suggest ways to establish and realize this stage in priestly formation of the Korean Catholic Church. The purpose of the ‘propaedeutic stage’ is to realize that the source and foundation of priestly formation aims to find the identity of the priest, and to this end, the main content must be human and spiritual formation with an understanding of the human mystery in mind. The difficulty this process faces in applying the universal guidelines to the Korean Church lies in the educational structure of Korean society, which is different from that of Western Europe, and the living environment of priestly candidates, which does not allow them to become immersed in the Christian faith before entering seminary. That is why the implementation of a ‘propaedeutic stage’ within the Korean Church is all the more important. Applying the ‘propaedeutic stage’ for priestly formation within the Korean Church, that was decided upon by considering and cohering the various situations of the world church, is an urgent and immediate issue that the Korean Church must consider as it faces a situation of rapid decline in the number of priestly vocations. In particular, I would like to examine the history of the ‘propaedeutic stage’ and the replacement of the Pre-Seminarians’ Gatherings mentioned in the The Program for Priestly Formation of the Catholic Church in Korea (Revised Draft) with the ‘propaedeutic stage’, and suggest three directions for the application of this ‘stage’ in the Korean Church. The three directions presented in light of the history and reality of the priestly formation in the Korean Church each have their own pros and cons. Therefore, in order to apply and practice the ‘propaedeutic stage’ in the Korean Church, a consultative body involving all dioceses and seminaries in Korean responsible for the priestly formation is requested.