The archbishop published a seven-page document outlining the changes.

The document noted the number of new entrants to priestly formation in the archdiocese has dropped from 150 to six over the past ten years.

"I would like to inform this particular assembly that I have approved, on a trial basis for a three-year period, a reconfiguration of the seminary path, according to what has been prepared by the seminary formators and discussed with the Milanese episcopal council," he told archdiocesan clergy, referring to the new document.

The changes will be introduced in a three-year trial starting in September this year.

The formation period consists of two years focused on spirituality and four years dedicated to theology.

Under the new plan, seminarians will study at a single location rather than separate sites for the two-year and four-year periods.

As part of the reforms, seminarians will spend their third year living in small groups in parishes while attending daily classes at the seminary.

They will also be connected with families that will offer them support.

In addition, seminarians in the Milan archdiocese previously wore clerical dress from the start of their third year.

Now, they will wear it from their ordination as deacons at the beginning of their sixth and final year.

Reduced number of admissions

The Archdiocese of Milan dates back to the 4th century and has its own liturgical rite.

The archdiocese has around 2,000 diocesan priests, 800 male religious, and more than 6,000 female religious. Its 1,107 parishes serve an overall population of more than 5.4 million people.

The new document states there were a total of 150 seminarians in the year 2013-14, 139 in 2017-18, and 78 in 2022-23. However, there were only 24 new admissions in 2017, 19 in 2018, 18 in 2019, 16 in 2020, 11 in 2021, and six in 2022.

According to seminary rector Fr Enrico Castagna, the primary motivation for the changes was the "reduced number of admissions compared to the past."

"To the primary and compelling reason are added others: experiences lived in recent years (including during the pandemic), various perplexities in the face of some steps of the path, opinions that emerged in diverse meetings with priests and laity convinced us of the need for a broader rethink," he said.

"Moreover, it seems to us that, in this way, it is possible to make evangelically propitious (and not just live as ‘a retreat') the situation providentially placed before us," Castagna said.

Archbishop Delpini stressed that "the main motivation guiding any choice referring to the seminary is and will remain to foster, accompany and instruct some young people in the archdiocese in discernment and docility to the Spirit."

Sources

The Pillar

CathNews New Zealand

To cope with a doubling in the number of requests for help over the past 15 years, the archdiocese has also doubled to 12 the number of priests authorised to act as exorcists.

Auxiliary Bishop Angelo Mascheroni, the archdiocese's chief exorcist since 1995, said he knew of one exorcist who had been seeing up to 120 people a day.

"But with so little time per client he was only able to offer a quick blessing. That's not enough," he said. "There should be two to four appointments a day, no more, otherwise it's too much."

Bishop Mascheroni did not know why the number of cases had risen so sharply, but he said part of the increase might be explained by the rising numbers of parents having difficulty controlling disobedient teenagers.

"Usually the parents call [because they are] concerned about a child who won't go to school or who's taking drugs or rebelling. In reality it's not a demon, but when they're 18 years old young people don't want to be told what to do."

All who sought help were welcomed, he said. "When they come to me, I say the Our Father, the most beautiful prayer that Jesus taught us, and that is the first real exorcism because we say, ‘Deliver us from evil'."

But, he added, real diabolical phenomena were very rare in his experience and mental and psychiatric disorders were often to blame for unusual behaviour.

Sources:

The Independent

ChiesadiMilano

Image: Archdiocese of Palermo