Priestly Vocation And The Expertise Of Psychiatry And Psychology

For the purpose of this assignment I am going to present a brief summary of the article: “The Discernment of a Priestly Vocation and the Expertise of Psychiatry and Psychology” written by Sister Marysia Weber in the Seminary Journal. Psychology is always a helpful tool for every process that is related to the human person. It helps us to understand ourselves and shows us important areas that we should reflect on; especially when we are looking for the priesthood. The theological reflection could also be enlightened by other sciences such is Psychology.

Sister Marysia states that the Church documents on priestly formation have addressed the importance of carefully fostering vocations to the priesthood. It is the responsibility of bishops, religious superiors, vocations directors and seminary personnel in the Catholic Church to discern the

Second, she describes the process of maturation that seminarians experience during priestly formation. Third, she provides criteria to engage the expertise of psychiatrists and psychologists in the selection and formation of seminarians. Fourth, she describes how the goals of psychotherapy differ from those of spiritual direction and formation. Fifth, she proposes what consultation with psychiatric and psychological experts can offer to seminary formators. Sixth She offers suggestions that augment the benefit of psychiatric and psychological evaluations for vocation directors, seminary formators and bishops. And seventh, she makes recommendations for processes and structures that help to clarify expectations and to eliminate ambiguity in the formation process and establish appropriate lines of responsibility for bishops, religious superiors, vocation directors, seminary formation faculty, psychiatrists, psychologists and