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9 

FAITH, FORMATION, AND VOCATION – 

ANY LINK? 
 

Amuluche-Greg. NNAMANI, Ph.D 
St. Peter’s Chaplaincy, 

University of Nigeria, Nsukka 
gregluche@gmail.com 

Abstract 
There is an apparent disconnection between formation processes and the 
acquisition of faith today. Looking at some candidates for formation in 
our seminaries and formation houses, and at some young priests and 
consecrated persons who have passed through our seminaries and 
formation houses in recent history, one would wonder whether 
formation impacts or impacted positively on their faith respectively. After 
years of formation, many still suffer from bouts of crises of faith. 
Ordinarily, formation is expected to improve candidates’ level of faith. 
After all, formation is majorly about faith formation. Unfortunately, 
however, many candidates enthusiastically embrace a feeling of vocation 
and go in for formation, but come out with less zest and overgrown self-
doubt. This raises questions. Does formation really increase faith? Or 
does it merely decrease it?  Are we just training in apologetic rhetoric and 
lifestyle, in acquisitive elitism and survival tactics? This paper seeks to 
enquire into the relationship between vocation, formation and faith and 
to explain the role of formation in the advancement of faith especially in 
the lives of priests and consecrated persons. Finally, it suggests what 
should be done to make formation lead to transformation. 
 
Introduction – Faith and Character Formation 
Human formation begins with faith formation. Faith or belief is the first 
character a child acquires. According to Eric Erikson, an American 
psychologist, basic trust is the first thing a child learns in life (Erikson, 
1950, 1963, p. 247ff). Faith, as basic trust forms the foundation of all later 
forms of faith, defines all stages of character formation and determines 
the development of the entire human person.  

By way of clarification, we must differentiate between natural faith 
and supernatural faith. As children, we begin to learn to trust and believe 



122 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

our parents and other people, based on what they say and do to us. 
Depending on what the child experiences from the people in close 
contact with it, it may begin to acquire basic trust and form basic belief 
about the people and environment. If the child is treated fairly, it learns 
to trust; if not, it acquires distrust. All this happens at the level of natural 
faith. Then as we grow and mature, and seek to understand the meaning 
of reality, we begin to believe what we are being told about God, and 
what we experience about him. This is religious or supernatural faith – 
belief at a spiritual supernatural level.  

Supernatural faith differs from natural faith, but both are 
mutually related (CCC 153ff). A sound natural faith is the stepping stone 
towards the acquisition of authentic religious faith.  So, crisis in natural 
faith can lead to crisis in religious faith. Faith has thus natural and 
supernatural dimensions. It is to the extent somebody trusts people that 
he or she can trust God and develop an authentic faith in Him. While 
natural faith can be learnt overtime across the length and breadth of the 
development of the human person, supernatural faith is a gift from God, 
a grace that we are called upon to embrace. 

Though every human being is a religious being, equipped to 
relate to God, not every person has the privilege to recognize God as the 
trustworthy author of life. Faith is a supernatural gift of God that enables 
us to trust Him completely. Faith in God occurs when one hears God’s 
call (either through direct personal experience or through the historical 
and biblical revelations) and then responds to it with total conviction and 
trust. When the trust cannot be totally because of certain distractions and 
personal interests, crisis of faith ensues. Essentially, faith is firm 
confidence in God and total self-surrender to him.  
 
Challenges to Faith in Modern Time 
All through history distractions to authentic Christian faith abound, 
paganism, persecutions etc. But the modern time seems to have a lion 
share of threats to faith. In addition to wrestling with the historical 
enemies of faith, the modern person has secularism/relativism, 
materialism/consumerism and globalization to contend with. As a result, 
the candidate for formation is hemmed in between the negative 
influences from the global world and from our own local environment. 
The modern person is a subject of the Western Cultural Revolution, 
which has not only practically edged God out of the stage of reality, but 
has also, in His place, declared science, technology, freedom and pleasure 
new gods. As the Western persons try to dethrone God and strip him of 
his absolute authority, they position “liberty” as the god everybody must 
now worship. For the Western mind, God has become a relative 
instance, and freedom an absolute reality, a dogma which supersedes 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    123 

every other value. This is pure relativism, which Joseph Ratzinger, Pope 
Benedict XVI, severally identified as the major crisis of faith and religion 
in the modern world (Ratzinger, 2006 p. 34 ff). 

The problem of secularism and relativism is compounded by 
globalization, which now, empowered by Information Technology and 
all the sundry social networks, exposes the rest of the world to the 
negative impact of the Western Cultural Revolution. The entire world is 
now globalized and subsequently shrinking into a single global village 
with virtually no boundaries. Distances have become negligible, since the 
farthest part of the world can just be but a goggle search away from us. 
The repercussion is that good and bad ideas, tricks and fashion are 
pushed around across the globe influencing the rest negatively or 
positively. The ongoing covid-19 pandemic corroborates this point.  

The tragedy of globalization is that traditional and religious 
values, as well as indigenous cultures lose out in the encounter with the 
more dominant pop culture from the Western world. Traditional 
morality, sacredness of creation and sense of sin are now considered 
archaic in the face of rampaging consumerist, individualist and 
materialistic culture from the Western world. As a result of the 
overwhelming influence of the Western pop culture on our society, our 
values are now in flux and our taste almost insatiable; nothing (including 
products) seems to have lasting values anymore. We are out seeking “the 
latest (fashion, gadgets, mobile phones, and best things in the market), and 
quickly discarding ‘old’ ones even when they can still be used” (Chima, 
2010). This has much impact on the young people. 

Another major threat to faith, spirituality and morality is the so 
called new global ethic (Peters, 2007), which seeks to legitimize all sorts of 
consumerism and bestiality. This new ethic equally proposes a type of 
gender ideology that tends to determine the right to life based on human 
conscience and pleasure. For the proponents of this view, it is not God, 
but hedonism that decides who has the right to live. The aim of such a 
gender ideology coming from the Western feminists is to neutralize 
society, make it asexual, without masculinity and femininity, and make it 
open to irresponsible libido propagated by homosexual and lesbian 
interest groups. Men now marry men, women marry women; very soon 
people will begin to marry their dogs and pussies cats and demand the 
status of marriage. 

The combination of relativism and consumerism looks like a 
conspiracy against the spiritual dimension of the human life. Apparently, 
the faster technology moves, the more materialistic and consumerist we 
become, and the less spiritual and moral we become too. The major 
problem here is that the new ethic encourages technology without a 
sense of responsibility and sustainability (Ratzinger, 2006, p. 27). Since, 



124 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

technology is naturally poised towards achieving all that man can do, not 
what man ought to do, it follows then that if we do all we can do, then we 
will destroy ourselves one day, because we possess the power and skill to 
kill ourselves in the most sophisticated manner. Hence, globalization, 
relativism and consumerism are modern threats to faith emanating from 
the Western world and culture. 

There are also threats within our ranks, arising from our socio-
cultural context, African Traditional Religion and African brand of 
Pentecostalism. Under the influence of our own African socio-cultural 
context, the average African believer ends up living in ambivalence in 
matters of faith – adopting a half Christian, half pagan mentality. Our 
socio-cultural context exerts much pressure on the practice of faith and 
especially on the formation process of young men and women who feel 
called to consecrate themselves to the Lord. As the Archbishop Ignatius 
Kaigama, once rightly observed, “the environment in which the 
seminarian grows plays a determining factor in what he becomes later – a 
good priest or a bad priest” (Kaigama, 2005, 6). The Nigerian society, 
from where most candidates come for formation, has lots of socio-
cultural problems. Much corruption, cheating, duplicity, dishonesty and 
sundry crimes characterize our societal landscape. No matter the side 
you face in our society, dishonesty is the order of the day – in the family 
lives, in education, in business, in the government, and even in religion 
the story is the same. There is something like an erosion of values in our 
society, such that many people no longer know what is virtuous and 
what is vice. The candidates who come for formation have been under 
the influence of our corrupt society.  
In a 1995 publication, Fr. Emmanuel Obuna paints a gloomy image of 
the societal background of most of the seminarians and aspirants who 
come to us for formation. According to him, the candidate who comes 
for formation today  

“is most likely to have passed through a primary school where 
teachers come to school once or twice a week and spend the remaining 
days of the week attending private businesses at home, in the farm, or 
in their shops – buying and selling; where pupils in primary schools 
are pressurized into paying illegal levies to their teachers in order to be 
allowed to stay in class; where teachers who are also parents bring in 
outsiders to sit the final examination for their own son or daughter 
who is not intelligent enough to pass, etc.” 
“Having passed out of this primary school (of primary corruption), 
our candidate then goes on to secondary school (of secondary 
corruption) where question papers are on sale a week or two before 
the final exams; where students themselves collect levies to pay off 
principals, teachers, invigilators and even the policemen sent to 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    125 

maintain law and order during the examination; where some 
teachers make …(almost the equivalent of their annual salary) from 
bribes paid by students on the spot to persuade them to solve questions 
in the examination hall. 
“From this secondary school of corruption our candidate now moves 
up to the University for a Bachelor’s Degree in corruption. If the 
testimony of our undergraduates is anything to go by…the situation 
in our universities today is such that you can personally negotiate 
with the lecturer for any grade you want in any 
examination…depending on how much you are able to pay in cash 
or kind.”(Obuna, 1995,58-59) 

What this suggests is that the environment from where 
candidates come is saturated with corruption – a corrupt environment 
produces corrupt candidates. Such candidates are likely to be problematic 
in the process of formation; they may even wriggle safe through the 
entire system and get ordained or professed. With such a background, it 
should not be surprising when a large number of formandi do not show 
signs of authentic faith. 

Similarly, many candidates for formation come into the 
formation houses with a backload of many elements of the African 
Traditional Religion. Many of them have the traditionalist’s values, 
expectations and tenets stored in their subconscious, irrespective of the 
fact that most of them are not new converts, but children of the first and 
second generation Christians. At points of deep emotions of sadness and 
joy, challenges and leisure, most Africans act out pagan fears and fancies. 
The one obvious effect is unintended syncretism – the subtle mixture of 
Christian values and the African traditional habits. A candidate with such 
a background may find it difficult to internalize the culture of Christ, 
such as total trust in God and dependence on him, sacrificial love and 
acceptance of one’s daily cross. In that case, formation may become an 
impossible task. 

The impact of African Traditional Religion on some candidates 
for formation shows up in the type of Pentecostalism they aspire to 
practice. Many candidates have gone Pentecostal and Charismatic, and 
are frantically in search of miracles. They have become so gullible that 
they suspect the devil in everything and practice a magico-religious type 
of spirituality. Even the materialistic tendency evident in the African 
Traditional Religious worldview, with all its this-worldly eschatology, is 
imbibed and allowed to flourish in the consciousness of a number of 
candidates. This certainly makes them focus attention on worldly, rather 
than transcendent values. Rather than encouraging a good, moral and 
sacrificial life, prosperity is preached as the only type of God’s blessing. 
Moreover, some of them come into the seminary in a triumphal mood, 



126 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

believing either that they have already gotten all it takes to be successful 
priests or that they know it better than the seminary authorities. The 
result is that they close themselves to formation, disregarding what is 
delivered in the lecture halls, but rather organizing their own private 
group classes on the homiletics of influential Pentecostal pastors. These 
candidates buy their books and listen to their videos and disregard 
classical Catholic spirituality and theology. By implication, candidates 
who had been under the influence of modern Pentecostalism before 
entering the formation houses are often closed to formation processes; 
they are very likely going to be stubborn with regard to respecting 
authorities, rules and regulations.  

 

The Tasks of Formation 
Simply put, formation is about subjecting candidates to training and 
discipline that would help them acquire the basic values of Jesus Christ, 
his culture, which consists essentially of the disposition for self-emptying 
love. Like clay in the hands of a potter, candidates are to be molded in 
the formation houses to become water-tight personalities, able to 
transmit the message of Jesus Christ without adulteration and 
misrepresentation. Apart from the primordial selfishness, which begins 
from the cradle, persons accumulate lots of harmful habits as they grow 
up in dysfunctional families and societies. The project of formation is to 
prune such personalities and purify their intentions, to make them 
worthy Disciples of Christ. In the post-Synodal Exhortation, Vita 
Consecrata, dedicated to the issues of religious life, the object of formation 
has been defined as “the preparation for total consecration of oneself to 
God in the footsteps of Christ, at the service of the mission” (John Paul 
II, 1996, 65-71) In other words, formation is all about getting ready to 
place one’s entire self at the service of God in the style of Jesus. 

The consecration of oneself to God demands complete 
submission of all our human faculties to him. To that effect, authentic 
formation is a holistic venture, which tries to engage all aspects of our 
being; it is not done with partial or cosmetic changes, but with a total 
remolding of one’s entire personality. The body, the spirit, the intellect 
and one’s commitment to service are subjected to formation. Attractions, 
sentiments, emotions, dreams, strength, weaknesses, feelings, needs and 
desires are submitted for purification, integration and transformation in 
the houses of formation.  

The Apostolic Exhortation, Vita Consecrata, understands 
formation primarily as preparation and insists therefore that “Preparation 
has to be human, cultural, spiritual and pastoral, paying special attention 
to integrating the various aspects” (John Paul II, 1996, 65). Earlier, the 
post-Synod Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992), outlined 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    127 

four various forms of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral. 
For want of space, it may not be necessary to elaborate on each of these 
forms of formation here. It suffices to say, not just that all the four areas 
of formation are intertwined, but also that the successes of the spiritual, 
intellectual and pastoral formations depend on the accomplishment of 
the human formation. The goal of all forms of formation is to effect 
growth in faith, intimacy with God and Jesus Christ. Formation involves 
changes, but not all changes imply formation.  

We can only begin to talk about effective formation, when the 
changes effected in our lives lead to growth in faith. Growth of authentic 
and informed faith, balanced in act and content, is the measure of true 
formation. In other words, true formation must lead to growth in 
virtues, in intimacy with Jesus Christ, in the understanding of divine 
wisdom, and in the effective application of our faith in the day to day 
interaction with people. Formation must be holistic, ensuring growth in 
the human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral spheres of the candidate’s 
life. Growth is to be understood here, not just as the unfolding of our life 
and personality, but primarily as the break with our negative past, and the 
onward consolidation and integration of the positive values we have been 
able to pick from our past experiences. 

This is akin to what Bernard Lonergan calls conversion, the 
process that removes blockages in our life (Lonergan, 1972, 237ff, & 
Mueller, 1984, 13ff). Consequently, formation works on our past 
experiences. According to A. Cencini, it touches upon the past, the 
present and the future of both the person and the institution (Cencini, 
1999, 9). Formation can succeed or fail, depending on what we carry 
along from our past experiences and environment. If the candidate 
comes to the house of formation with a genuine desire, openness to the 
truth and with some level of flexibility, suppleness and adaptability, there 
is the chance that he or she can experience conversion – a movement 
from an enthusiastic but less informed faith to a more reasoned and 
internalized faith. If however, the candidate is hardened and closed up, 
he or she remains impervious to the impact of formation. When we 
encounter consecrated persons or priests who do not measure up to the 
demands of discipleship, one begins to wonder what went wrong in the 
formation program, the method or the candidate. 
 

How successful is the Formation Process in Nigeria Today? 
Without intending to sound as an alarmist, the quality of life lived by 
many priests and consecrated persons passing out of our seminaries and 
formation houses today leaves much to be desired. People are beginning 
to wonder whether formation has any positive impact on the priests and 
religious of our contemporary time, whether formation increases or 



128 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

decreases faith of the candidates. Those who argue that it decreases faith 
give instances of people who went into the seminary very pious and 
apparently very innocent, coming out later as priests and religious who 
have lost all sense of the sacred and the horror of sin. 

Many of our seminaries and formation houses paint an ugly 
picture of the conduct of candidates in formation, who are now capable 
of committing worse crimes than their counterparts in the tertiary 
institutions. Lack of openness to formation, growing signs of deep-seated 
dishonesty, dubious motivations abound; a conformist attitude to the 
rules and the seeming focus on being seen to be doing the right thing 
with the sole purpose of avoiding sanctions are on the increase. The 
simple fact is that dishonesty, pretenses, aggression and even theft are on 
the increase in houses of formation today. Some go as far as forming 
cliques, shielding partners in crime, to subvert the authorities and 
regulations 

The situation becomes even more worrisome, when we look at 
the conduct of many religious men and women trained in our seminaries 
and vocation houses. There have been cases where priests and even male 
and female religious resorted to physical violence in order to settle their 
differences. Some others have been caught stealing or misappropriating 
funds meant for projects. Some flout every regulation in their diocese or 
congregations and break all the vows of evangelical counsels with 
impunity. There is a noticeable increase in the chase for money and 
wealth, even among the religious who have vowed poverty. Materialism 
has become the order of the day for many priests; they use sacraments 
and sacramentals, prayer houses and ministries to accumulate wealth for 
themselves. Pentecostalism and the prosperity Gospel have special appeal 
for many priests and religious, who have an insatiable appetite for 
miracles and cross-less Christianity that denies the salvific dimension of 
suffering in our lives. Added to this is the sexual indiscretion that is today 
common among priests and religious, seminarians and other candidates 
in formation. 

Evidently, these are all signs of grave loss of faith, rooted in 
selfishness – the lack of readiness for selfless service, self-renunciation 
and total surrender to the will of God on which radical discipleship can 
be built. Where radical surrender is lacking, the vow of poverty, chastity 
and obedience turn to empty promises – a sure sign of hypocrisy. It is 
evident that selfishness and self-seeking abound amongst the clergy and 
religious today. This raises doubts about the effectiveness of our 
formation programs.  
 
 
 
 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    129 

Possible Reasons for Failures in the Formation Programs Today 
The fact that the products of our seminaries and formation houses are 
not up to the standard expected suggests that something is wrong 
somewhere. Something is wrong, not just with the formation method, 
but also with the formators and formandi. Let us first consider the 
candidates for formation 
The Formandi: The young men and women pursing vocation today in 
our formation houses are definitely different from their counterparts 
about seventy years ago. Then it was clear that the candidates were 
already groomed in faith before entering the seminary and had lesser 
distractions from the society. But the candidates of today are under 
pressure from the demands of modern time, ranging from technological 
and liberal cultures, materialism, secularism to Pentecostalism. Many 
come from a socio-cultural background saturated with corruption and 
consumerism, from dysfunctional families and societies prone to 
competitive life-style. People from such backgrounds are likely to have 
problem discerning their vocations and might even seek formation for a 
very wrong motivation.  
 In fact, many candidates have other motives, different from what 
they gave as reasons for seeking admission into the religious houses or 
seminaries. Some may consciously hide their real motivation and declare 
as reason that they wish “to serve God and humanity”, when, in truth, 
they have come for the benefits and privileges attached to religious 
vocation, and would want to be served rather than serve. Some others 
may be unconscious of what motivates them to enter the seminary. They 
may honestly desire to serve God and humanity, but deep within them 
they are driven by some undisclosed desires about making life better for 
themselves. Both groups of persons may be excellent seminarians or 
novices in the formation houses, ready to comply to the rules and 
identify with the authorities in order to remain in formation, but they are 
rarely able to internalize their experiences in the formation houses. 
However, as soon as they get ordained or professed, they begin to show 
their true colours. It has often been humorously said that some 
seminarians fear God while they are in the seminary; but when they 
become priests God begins to fear them. This is particularly true of 
persons with mixed or falsified motivations, whether male or female. 
One would certainly need a more rigorous formation program, other 
than the conventional one, in order to be able to access such candidates, 
to unlock their pretenses and help them discern their vocation early 
enough. 
 Another obstacle to formation with regard (Akubeze, 2010,1) to 
candidates is the issue of number. While in the Western World there is a 
record of decline in religious vocations, here in Nigeria, we experience 



130 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

surplus number of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. 
Since about the past sixty years, there has been a steady increase in 
vocations and a multiplication of seminaries and religious houses. 
Nobody seems to know the exact number of young men and women 
being formed in our seminaries and houses of formation. Many of these 
institutes are merely coping with, what has often been termed, the 
“tyranny of number”. As a result, many formandi live in anonymity till 
they pass out of the seminaries and houses of formation. If this situation 
is to be arrested, not only must the population of the formandi be 
drastically scaled down to a manageable size, but also that a more 
rigorous selection and discernment program must be put in place. 
 
The Formators: The high failure rate of formation process in Nigeria has 
often been correctly attributed to the insufficiency of the number of 
formators in the formation houses and also to the incompetence of the 
available ones (Okeke, 2011, 26). There is hardly any seminary in Eastern 
Nigeria, for instance, that is not understaffed in terms of the number of 
formators on the ground. The few available ones are intelligent teachers 
and lecturers, but no formators, who are noted for their didactic 
presentation of materials, but not for mentoring. Spiritual directors are 
often too few and poorly empowered to take adequate care of the 
candidates. A good number of the so called formators have neither 
pastoral experience to their credit, nor good enough signs of faith in their 
lifestyle and utterances that would make them stand as models to the 
formandi. Some simply parrot off their lessons without any sign of 
internalization, others merely treat Church views and Roman documents 
with disdain in the attempt to sound academic. As a result the candidates 
receive lots of confusing signals (Okeke, 2011, 26; this leaves them 
undecided as to what to believe. 
 Moreover, bishops and religious superiors have a penchant for 
appointing young and inexperienced priests and sisters as formators and 
vocation directors. To compound the problem, a number of them have 
never had any training or formation as formators (Iperu, 1995, 58). Many 
have not been able to manage themselves, and as such cannot really 
contribute much in the formation of the candidates. Such ones are 
terribly ill-equipped to take into their own hands, the formation of the 
contemporary candidates as described above. This is contrary to the 
specifications of the Synod Fathers, echoed by Pope John Paul II in 
Pastores Dabo Vobis:  
The Task of formation of candidates for the priesthood requires not only 
a certain special preparation of those to whom this work is entrusted, one 
that is professional, pedagogical, spiritual, human and theological… For 
this ministry, priests of exemplary life should be chosen, men with a 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    131 

number of qualities: human and spiritual, maturity, pastoral experience, 
professional competence, stability in their own vocation, a capacity to 
work with others, serious preparation in those human sciences 
(psychology especially) which relate to their office, a knowledge of how 
to work in groups (John Paul II, 1992, 66). 
 Similar things are required for formators in the formation houses. 
To make the matter worse, despite the much talked about ongoing 
formation and formation of the formators (Nwabeke, sine datum), not 
much is being done in this regard. In the view of the challenges facing 
formation today, it is grossly inadequate for somebody to act as a 
formator without any formal training. Again due to poor funding of the 
seminaries and formation houses, poor remuneration of the formators, 
many able priests and sisters who would otherwise have liked to be 
absorbed into the formation apostolate, refuse to get involved. 
 
Formation Method: Most seminaries and formation houses are still using 
the traditional formation method, whose justification has been overtaken 
by the demand of contemporary modern culture. The culture of 
establishing seminaries and formation houses took a centre stage in the 
period between the 17th and 20th centuries when the primary concern of 
the Church was to train men and women who would be able to give an 
apologetic response to the threat of Reformation and Modernism. 
Seminaries and formation houses concentrated on apologetics, 
emphasizing academic ability and the capacity to study and store 
information. The passing of examinations and collection of certificates 
counted more than strength of character.  Moreover, due to the emphasis 
on the hierarchical nature of the Church, “Unquestioning obedience and 
compliance with the orders of the day were the primary obligations of 
priests and religious. They were not expected to think and reflect much 
beyond this. They did not have to make many choices for themselves and 
develop their initiative … Discipline, not maturity, was what counted 
here.” (Iperu, 1995, 13) The method of formation then was more of 
lectures and conferences, and of course ongoing supervision of the 
candidates to see whether they comply with the rules and regulations. As 
a result, students learn how to comply and identify, even when they are 
not convinced, all in the attempt to avoid expulsion. The internalization 
of the program is hardly achieved. 
 This traditional model paid more attention to intellectual formation, 
which mainly took the form of passing information about doctrines and 
morals. It had little or no provision for the human development. People 
grew dissatisfied with the traditional method, particularly because it was 
one-dimensional and devoid of holistic integration. The Second Vatican 
Council, Decree on the Training of Priests, OptatamTotius, specifically 



132 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

called for a radical change. It emphasized Spiritual and Pastoral training 
(Vat II, nos 8-16,19-21). Then, in 1988, the entire Catholic world 
together with Pope John Paul II deliberated on new methods of 
formation. The result is what we find in the Apostolic Exhortation, 
PastoresDaboVobis, which not only identifies the four main forms of 
formation, but also pleaded for a holistic integral formation. 
 For some seminaries and formation houses, these recommendations 
remain mere theories. Their formation method is still business as usual: 
study, lectures or spiritual conferences, and little or no exercises in 
human development. Given the numerous challenges to formation 
today, the traditional model can hardly meet the demands of the 
contemporary time. Didactic approach is grossly inadequate; one must 
supplement it with something near “therapeutic” approach, so that the 
candidates can be helped to attain maturity. We dare not forget, as the 
Iperu Formation Team puts it, that “The general stance of the Church in 
its relationship to the modern world and to other religions has shifted 
from that of defensive vigilance and suspicion to that of openness and 
dialogue.” (Iperu, 1995,13) 
 
The Shift We Must Make If Formation Should Succeed 
Though the Church has made a lot of recommendations with regard to 
changing our formation method to the better, bishops and major 
superiors, seminaries and formation houses continue, in practice, to pay 
more attention to academic qualifications rather than maturation 
processes; as a result intellectually bright but psychologically weak 
candidates and formators are chosen for the formation process. (Iperu, 
1995,13) The major concern of formation houses today should be how 
to achieve human maturity, not just on the part of the candidate, but also 
on the side of the formators, because, as PastoresDaboVobis affirms, the 
success of every form of formation depends on the proper formation of 
the human personality.  

We need to focus on human maturity, as that aspect of human 
beings that ensures the harmony of elements and the integration of all 
tendencies and values in the human person. The Sacred Congregation 
for the Catholic Education recognizes the role human maturity plays in a 
healthy spirituality and appreciates its complexity and 
comprehensiveness in the following words:  
Maturity is a complex reality which cannot be easily or fully defined. In 
general, however, one can judge a man mature when he has brought to 
reality his vocation as a man; in other words, a person who has acquired a 
ready and habitual capacity to act freely; a man who has integrated his 
developed human potential with habits of virtue; a man who has 
acquired an easy and habitual emotional self-control by integrating his 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    133 

emotional drives and placing them at the service of his reason; a man 
who enjoys community living because of his willingness to give himself 
to serve others; one who devotes himself to his profession steadily and 
calmly; one whose conduct obviously follows his conscience; a man who 
uses freedom to explore, investigate, and develop; who can mould events 
and bring them to future fruition; finally, a man who has succeeded in 
bringing all his specifically human possibilities and potentialities to their 
due development. (The Sacred Congregation, 2002,18) 

If the crisis of faith is to be avoided in the lives of the candidates, 
the future priests and consecrated persons should be made to grow in 
vocational maturity. This means that there should be a shift from the 
didactic and defensive approach – which merely transmits information – 
to the therapeutic, dialogue and more comprehensive approach – which 
aims at transformation and growth in maturity. Only the latter approach 
can handle the complex issue of formation in the contemporary world. 
Ultimately, the task of formation is not just to in-form, but primarily to 
trans-form, so that the candidates can per-form better in their vocation. In 
other words, the project of formation, should not just aim at delivering 
information, but basically on effecting transformation in the candidate, 
so that he or she should be able to put up a nice performance in the 
ministry, in the discipleship. 
The drive towards maturity is a motivation towards transformation and 
“conversion of heart” (CCC 1206). As St Paul was telling the Ephesians, 
it is only at a high level of human maturity that we can attain the “unity 
of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God” and form the community 
necessary for the body of Christ (Eph. 4:13). Similarly, only with 
maturity can the formators create a formation community, provide the 
accompaniment on the road to discipleship, so that the candidate 
themselves can grow in vocational maturity. 

If the candidates are to acquire vocational maturity, they need 
training in the three areas of the psyche – the cognitive, the affective, and 
the volitional.  
 Formation should aim at making candidates develop cognitive maturity, 

that is, the ability to grasp truth in a more dynamic way. This would 
entail, not just gaining knowledge of things, but also knowledge of 
the truth about themselves, the knowing subjects – about the 
development of their minds and moral conscience. Much could be 
learnt from the advancements in human science, especially from Jean 
Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg, who have proven beyond doubt that 
moral reasoning is not a static possession, but something that must 
be acquired through a developmental procedure. 

 Formation should equally lead candidates to the growth in emotional 
maturity. This should make them be aware of their feelings and how 



134 Formation of the Human Person in the 21st Century 

these feelings, whether conscious or unconscious, influence their 
actions. The regular pious admonitions from lectures and conference 
would certainly not be enough. It would rather require the 
involvement of a competent formator and a huge investment of time 
and energy both on the part of the candidate and the formator, for 
one to grow in awareness of what type of feelings and how such 
feelings motivate one’s actions. It should be an attempt to expose the 
defense mechanisms and replace them with much more mature and 
purposeful skills in rechanneling emotions to positive use.  

 Candidates should equally learn how to grow in volitional maturity, i.e. 
the ability to delay or deny the gratification of certain desires 
inconsistent with the core values of one’s vocation. This would entail 
teaching them how to engage in responsible freedom: allowing them 
to be free in making their choices, but at the same time take 
responsibility for the result of their choice or actions. 

When all these are in place, candidates would be better prepared 
to attain competence in ministry; live a life that is an expression of 
authentic faith, rather than disbelief. With a mature personality, the 
religious or priest becomes a bridge that connects people to Jesus 
Christ. And when all these rigorous formation processes are in place, 
it will become easy for the formators to identify those candidates 
who do not qualify for the ministry, and redirect them elsewhere 
before ordination or profession.  

 
Conclusion 
In the contemporary time, secularism and atheistic culture exert a lot of 
influence on life. This has its root in the Western Cultural Revolution, 
which propagates relativism – the trend of thought that denies God and the 
Supernatural absolute authority in the interpretation of reality – and makes 
human right to freedom and pleasure the criteria for moral judgment. This, 
no doubt, introduces crises in Religion and in the life of faith, which, with 
the help of globalization, is tossed around in the world.  
The youth, more than any other group, is exposed to the current wave of 
religious and faith crises, which is compounded by other negative influences 
from the contemporary Nigeria society saturated with materialism, 
corruption, superstition and sundry vices. As a result, candidates coming for 
formation today have a troubled background, which compromises their 
faith, and places much pressure on the traditional methods of formation.  

Though formation should transform the candidates, it is being observed 
that many pass through the formation houses, and come out with lesser 
signs of authentic faith. The thrust of this reflection has been that if 
formation is to help in confronting and solving the problem of crises of 
faith, a more holistic and integral form of formation must be followed, not 



Section 1: Ecclesiastical/Theological Perspectives And Seminary Formation    135 

just in principle, but in practice, aiming not just at information, but at 
transformation. 
 
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