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THE NEW RATIO

IN THE NEW NORMAL

Rev. Fr. Glenn Andrei B. Baes, OSJ

INTRODUCTION
N DECEMBER 2016, the Vatican promulgated the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (RFIS),
a document of the Congregation for the Clergy on The Gift of Priestly Vocation. It was a breakthrough
Ithat the Church came up with a new and updated document for the instruction of seminary formation
after the 1985 document of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The New Ratio has encouraged all
dioceses and religious congregations all over the world to revise their own respective formation programs
according to the signs of the times. Many conferences and dialogues were organized by the Church for the
purpose of responding to the challenges of the New Ratio. These initiatives have contributed significantly
in implementing the proposed developments in the different seminaries. Remarkably, seminary formation
is seen embarking on a new journey with a better perspective of the reality that seminarians and priests
alike are experiencing in the world.

As fruits of the RFIS, the discussions of different seminary formators have been slowly concretized through
implementing an improved seminary formation program for the year 2020. Unfortunately, the world was
hit by the COVID-19 pandemic which was described by the United Nations as the “greatest challenge we
have faced since WWII.” The disease has brought the world to a standstill as people remained at the safety
of their homes; the economy was immobilized; and travelling was made impossible. Seminaries also are
not spared from the danger the disease has caused. The health risks were too high that seminaries sent
the seminarians to their homes. Today, seminaries face the formation year 2020-2021 with the challenge
of forming seminarians who are at home without compromising the call of the RFIS for a better formation
program.

I. Seminary Formation at Home

Community life is the foundation of seminary formation because it fosters “sincere and open communication,
exchange, review of life, fraternal correction, and community programs” (RFIS, 90). In fact, the RFIS gives
emphasis on the importance of having “a true formative community” (ibid., 3). The pandemic turns out to
be a seemingly insurmountable hindrance to this goal because the seminarians are outside the seminary.
The unexpected spread of the virus pushed the seminary formators’ to find ways to achieve the desired
holistic formation of seminarians in a community while not being physically present in the seminary.
The objective is to create a program of formation, in response to the pandemic, which will allow the
seminarians to experience the four dimensions of seminary life: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral
(Pastores Dabo Vobis, 43-59).

In order for the seminary formation program to be successful, it is an imperative to seek the help of
technology and the social media which are also a part of the developments introduced by the RFIS to the
formation of the clergy. The RFIS even called this the “new agora” (RFIS, 97) because it is where people in the
modern age gather as a community. The document expressed further that it is necessary for seminarians
to use the social media and technology for they are beneficial in their formation and future ministry.
“Social networks, as part of seminary formation, must be experienced as a means to build interpersonal