Liturgical Formation In Seminaries: A Lesson From Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

Abstract

Few weeks after my ordination to the Catholic priesthood, the diocese of my incardination (Osogbo diocese) organised an orientation program for all the new priests to be involved in pastoral engagement within the diocese. The priest who anchored the liturgy session opened by saying: “you have to put aside what you have been taught in the seminary and learn how we do things in the diocese.” My first intuitive reaction was, why then do we have to spend nine years in the seminary if it is only to be ordained and put aside what we have learnt? He went further to say, “you have learnt theory in seminary and now you will be involved in the practical life of the liturgy.” I was a bit settled at that and was disposed to go through the orientation exercise which was however highly beneficial for my integration into the pastoral life in the diocese. However, after ten years of pastoral ministry and deeper studies in the liturgy, the question continues to pop up querying why the gap between theory and practice in seminary formation? Why what should was learned in seminary not adequately and sufficiently introduce the newly ordained into the ministry? Or in this particular case, why should what was learnt in seminary not be the ‘moulding of a liturgical minister?’