An edition of The training of a priest
(1899)
The training of a priest (our seminaries) an essay on clerical training
(our seminaries) an essay on clerical training
by John Talbot Smith
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The training of a priest: an essay on clerical education : with a reply to the critics
1990, Longmans, Green
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in English
0790570807 9780790570808
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Table of Contents
CONTENTS.
PART I.- THE STANDARD.
CHAPTER I.
AN EXPLANATION.
The essay an inquiry into means, methods, and standards. Clerical training of fifty years ago now out of date. Danger that the new seminaries may continue it. The American boy is not a European. He must be trained from his own starting-point, 8
CHAPTER II.
A PRACTICAL STANDARD.
The religious and the secular clergy. Increasing power of the secular priesthood. Its training should not be inferior. Students are trained without strict reference to their environment. The religious and political convictions of the American nation. The priesthood has neglected it. The racial composition of the Catholic American body. The seminaries should provide the mission with a priest who is an educated gentleman, of sound constitution, fitted for public life, acquainted and in sympathy with bis environment, and imbued with the missionary spirit, 8
CHAPTER III.
THE COLLEGES.
Our colleges and seminaries have no common understanding. The colleges stick to ancient methods. Charges brought against the colleges. Barnum methods of advertising. Poor entrance examinations. Excuses for deficiencies. The college course does not exhaust student's capacity. New methods should be introduced, 24
CHAPTER IV.
THE WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY.
The Military School and the seminary have similar aims. Requirements for entrance. Physical training is perfect. The study of good manners and deportment. The thoroughness of the examinations and of the marking system. The results, mental, physical, in relation to the aims of the Academy. The course can be easily followed by a youth of average intellect with something more than average application. What the Academy proves. We should have a seminary system as complete and fruitful, 87
PART II.— HEALTH, STRENGTH, AND MANNERS.
CHAPTER V.
DIOCESAN SEMINARIES.
Our tendency toward diocesan seminaries is a misfortune. The central seminary better suited to the country. Diocesan institutions are small in every way. The Catholic body too fond of shutting itself up in corners. The exclusiveness of religious orders, and of different races. The Paulist and Marist communities at Washington. Cardinal Vaughan and his seminary, 58
CHAPTER VI.
THE STUDENT AND HIS TENEMENTS.
School, college, seminary, and his own body. False asceticism. True asceticism. True and false athleticism. The physical training of the average American boy. His unhappy condition in the seminary. He receives no physical development. The results are disastrous. Interdependence of health, virility, mentality, and natural chastity. The seminarian has a right to proper physical training, 60
CHAPTER VII.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.
The gymnasium. Physical examination of students. The duties of a physical instructor. The gymnasium and the ecclesiastical spirit. National games in the seminary. The poor condition of seminary kitchens and refectories Reading at meals ought to be abolished. More time allowed for each meal. Need of well-managed infirmaries. Two forms of mental disease peculiar to seminaries. Better physicians required, 71
CHAPTER VIII.
A SEMINARIAN'S MANNERS.
Perfect manners rare among the clergy. Deportment not taught in college or seminary. A system of training suggested. Care of person, of dress, of speech. Special treatment for the vulgarian, the tough, and the girl-boy. The code of honor at West Point. Lack of honor in students. The professors must set the example 86
PART III.— CERTAIN ARTS OF EXPRESSION.
CHAPTER IX.
SINGING.
The priest in his public offices. Poor singers, readers, and preachers among the clergy. The seminary gives no training in necessary arts of expression. How to teach singing well. All who can speak can sing. No student should leave the seminary unable to sing well, 105
CHAPTER X.
READING.
How the clergy mangle pulpit announcements, public documents, and the gospel. The seminary does not train readers. A graded system described. Splendid effects from proper reading of the Sunday gospel. Example from the gospel of the tribute-money, 113
CHAPTER XI.
PREACHING.
The art of trying it on the dog. Interesting preachers the exception. A plan for sound training. Physical training. Taste for reading. Skill in English composition. Forming a true style. Study of one's own qualities. The mechanism of essay-writing. The art of bookmaking. How a book is written and published. Why a seminarian might learn it. How little students know of their country. They must be taught to study it. A necessity of the capable preacher, 120
CHAPTER XII.
THE SERMON.
Importance of the reading-room. It should be ft department of seminary training. Details of its management. Necessary to preacher, writer, and missionary. The preacher antiquated without proper use of the press. At ordination the student ought to be a capable and interesting preacher. Absurd practice of preaching in refectories. Art of constructing a sermon. The method illustrated in a sermon on the Epiphany, 141
PART IV.— THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
CHAPTER XIII.
TAKING THINGS FOR GRANTED.
Abuses in clerical life. Common methods of spiritual training. The human nature of the student put out of sight. College spirituals. The seminary only accents them. Human nature warred upon, when it should be made the ally of the soul. 165
CHAPTER XIV.
UNION WITH CHRIST.
Christ is the model. The only way of making the student understand it. Constant appeal to the human sense of proportion. Certainty of the student's intimacy with Christ. Teaching the art of meditation. Slip-shod methods, or indifference. Amusing routine of meditation in most institutions. The old-fashioned order to say one's prayers. The seminaries adopt it. Poor explanation of the use and beauty of prayer. The maw and the office, 171
CHAPTER XV.
THE MIRROR AND THE BOOK.
How to interest the student in self-examination. Examples of deterioration in life. Failure of the seminaries to found a spiritual literature. Barbarous spiritual reading. A course of spiritual reading for the clerical student. Training the student to write spiritual books. Great need of a new method in writing the lives of the saints, 184
CHAPTER XVI.
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE.
Dangers of the spiritual life. Scrupulosity and melancholy. Injurious exaggeration of teachers and writers. The tragedy rather than the joy of Christ's life presented. The penances, not the virtues, of great saints described. Harmful emphasis put on death, judgment, and hell. This earth is not a vale of tears. The ascetics were poets. Their books to be replaced by adaptations. Proper and only mortifications for seminarians are those attached to their duties. A good system of spiritual training yet to be invented, 104
PART V.— THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT DESCRIBED.
Seen at its best in the apostles and in all apostolic men. It is an outgrowth of vocation. Its source neither in high spirituality nor mentality. Saints and scholars have often been failures as missionaries. Routine is the deadly enemy of the missionary spirit. Peculiar mental relation of the average clerical student to his future career. All is rose-color to him. Three places where students suffer no illusions. The missionary spirit should have a department of its own in the seminary, 207
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PARTICULAR DIOCESE.
The student should know his own diocese. Two dioceses described by way of illustration. A bit of personal experience. A diocese of the wilderness. What the student can be taught to expect from it. A diocese of unequal conditions like New York. Places where the priest finds nothing to do I Missionary work in the city. Dangers of routine, 216
CHAPTER XIX.
LOVE OF THE PEOPLE.
Teachers rather than books must communicate the missionary spirit. The student taught that his first duty is to know his people. Perfect courtesy in dealing with them. Despicable character of the parish autocrat. Red-tape administration. The care of the children, and young men and women. Encouragement of the married in a time which shirks marriage. The care of the sick, and the treatment of sinners, 224
CHAPTER XX.
CARE OF CHURCH PROPERTY.
Few seminaries prepare the student for the actual work of the mission. He should learn something of parish management. Bookkeeping a requirement of examination. How to build churches, houses, schools, to decorate them, to select church vestments and ornaments. Execrable taste in these matters. How to discover the sources of parish revenue, to increase them, to desist when the limit of taxation is reached. Student taught how to raise money without denunciation and clamor. Study of the social conditions. Popular lectures for the students on experiences of the mission. Use of the library, 230
PART VI.— THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE ENTRANCE EXAMINATION.
The seminaries do not graduate men of general culture. The colleges to blame. Crude condition of the young priest. What the best seminaries should achieve. No real co-operation between college and seminary. The bishops hold the key of the situation. They could order severe entrance examinations. Their happy effect on the colleges, 249
CHAPTER XXII.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE SEMINARY.
What language is dominant in our seminaries? Sad state of both Latin and English. Latin as used is a hindrance to culture. A plea for the better use of the vernacular. American priests should know three languages. The great need of acquaintance with English, Latin, and French, German, or Spanish. Fine patronage awaits the college which will provide them. English should be the seminary language, 258
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE RANK OF THE STUDIES.
Moral theology a usurper in its present position. The Scriptures should have the first place. Philosophy rightly holds the second place. The third place belongs to dogmatic theology. The study of general literature should have the fourth place. Moral theology is entitled to fifth place. Moral philosophy has recently earned the sixth place. Pope Leo's encyclical De Operariis. Reasons for giving science a high place in the curriculum. History the handmaid of each study, the atmosphere of all. Its poor condition at present, 266
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE SCRIPTURES AND PHILOSOPHY.
The average student and the average text-book. Strictures on the latter. The historic Christ is never seen in them. Charm of Geikie, Farrar, Renan. Demand for the works of Didon, Fouard, and Vigoroux. The student should be brought face to face with the historic Christ. Six precise recommendations for the teaching of the Scriptures. The practical method of studying and teaching philosophy The Stonyhurst manuals, and their excellence. Unfortunate condition of the history of philosophy. Philosophy should be taught for the present in English.. Its professors should be men of the time, 277
CHAPTER XXV.
THE TEACHING OF DOGMA.
This science has a low value with most students. Its influence is scarcely felt in current Catholic literature. It is mostly taught on insufficient or inefficient methods. The text- books of Schouppe and Hurter. The common method in teaching described. The utter absence of vitality in it. Blustrations from the dogmas of the Eucharist, the Immaculate Conception, and Infallibility. The method said to have been employed by Cardinal Franzelin. The history of dogma, 289
CHAPTER XXVI.
GENERAL LITERATURE AND MORAL THEOLOGY.
Reasons for giving literature high rank among the studies. It is not yet studied in seminaries. Poor condition in colleges. The eas with which it can be introduced into the curriculum. Its aid to the study of dogma. Danger of the literary spirit when separated from faith. Ballerini's service to moral theology. His influence not yet felt in America. Three recommendations. The need of new text-books, and of professors acquainted with the American situation, 298
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE REMAINING STUDIES.
The new importance of moral philosophy. The new duties, imposed upon the priest by modern social changes. Instance where his influence would be useful. At present he does not use it. The study of science not necessary to culture. Why the priest should study it. Division of labor between seminary and college. Canon law, and certain of its professors. Its cultivation an antidote for clerical absolutism. History ought to have a very high place in the seminary. Contention among professors as to method of teaching it. Candor or whitewash? Honesty and courage in exposing the hypocrites, 305
CHAPTER XXVIII.
FORMATION OF THE FACULTY.
The teacher alone essential to the system. Can we get capable faculties for seminaries? We must get them. The secular priest cannot give up this work wholly to religious. Every phase and variety of spiritual work should be familiar to him. How be has been shut out from certain fields of labor. Qualifications of a seminary professor. The first is manliness. Knowledge of the student. Accurate knowledge of the country. Ability to teach with power and point. Perfect acquaintance with scheme of training herein described. Limit of service in teaching. Final review of preceding chapters, 315
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