History of the Diocese of San Carlos

32. History of the Diocese of San Carlos
REMINISCING THE PAST: THE HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF SAN CARLOS
By Fr. Lito de la Paz, Chancellor, Diocese of San Carlos
Way back during the Spanish era, the island of Negros was part of the then Diocese of Jaro when this was created in 1868. Negros stayed under the jurisdiction of the Jaro diocese until 1933, when the Diocese of Bacolod was created and the entire island of Negros was placed under its jurisdiction. When the Diocese of Dumaguete was created in 1955, it was separated from that of Bacolod.[1]
Thus, Negros Island was split into two-dioceses: the Diocese of Bacolod and the Diocese of Dumaguete. Although the creation of the Diocese of Dumaguete unburdened the Diocese of Bacolod of some of its responsibilities the area and the terrain made pastoral work and management of the dioceses difficult but despite this, evangelization progressed.
Thirty-two years later, to ease the pastoral responsibilities required for guiding the two dioceses, the Diocese of Bacolod and the Diocese of Dumaguete were further split into two other dioceses: the Diocese of Kabankalan and the Diocese of San Carlos. On March 30, 1987, the Papal Bull of Erection creating the Diocese of San Carlos was signed.
The areas taken from the Diocese of Bacolod, (from Manapla to Sagay) were predominantly Ilonggo while those taken from the Diocese of Dumaguete (from Escalante City to La Libertad) were predominantly Cebuano. After the formal erection of the Diocese of San Carlos on February 10, 1988, the bishop and clergy had to clarify policies regarding the arancel system which the new diocese would use. The Diocese of San Carlos being a merger of areas from two dioceses (and two ethno-linguistic areas) found itself with two arancel systerms and liturgical celebrations in two languages and different ways of understanding Church. The focus of unity was the celebration of the Eucharist and the bishop. It was agreed then that the parishes in the Diocese of San Carlos, would for the meantime use the arancel systems from their mother dioceses.
The clergy and the faithful also had to have a common understanding of the mission of the diocese. This was later clarified through the approval of the Diocesan Mission Statement. To implement the thrust of the Diocesan Mission, the WESTOY commissions were created. These would handle the Worship, Education, Service, Temporalities and Organizing apostolate and the needs of the Youth in the diocese. With the implementation of the WESTOY programs, the diocese also launched its Tithing Program which would help the diocese finance its work of evangelization and maintain its offices. Vocations to the priesthood were also encouraged through the establishment of a formation house, later St. John Mary Vianney Seminary. Later, a Diocesan Synod was organized to clarify issues concerning the pastoral needs of the diocese and to set up policies and guidelines for the management of the diocese and its parishes.
Under the guidance of its bishops and the clergy and with the cooperation of the laity, the Diocese of San Carlos began and is going on its journey towards the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.

Questions:
1. What strikes you as a meaningful event in the history of our Diocese of San Carlos?
2. Do you feel that you are part in the historical development of our diocese?


1. http://www.cbcponline.net/jurisdictions/san_carlos.html

30. Vocation Animation and Recruitment

30. Vocation Animation and Recruitment

VOCATION ANIMATION AND RECRUITMENT

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life”(Jn 3:16). His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to follow him to have this eternal life just as he challenged a young man, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”(Mt 19:21). Through our baptism, all of us are called to be part of the saving mission of Christ which he entrusted to his Church (Apostolicam Actuositatem [AA], 30) and this vocation can either be towards married life or a celibate life dedicated to service and ministry in the Church that we are exhorted to promote this (Perfectae Caritatis [PC], 24). Parents, who are the first to communicate the faith to their children and to educate them “should prudently help them in the choice of their vocation and carefully promote any religious calling which they many discern in them.” (AA,11). The family, being the cradle of vocation to the priesthood and the religious life, has a great task of fostering this and “families which are alive with the spirit of faith, love, and reverence and which serve as a kind of introductory seminary”(AA, 2) have an outstanding contribution in vocation animation. At this time when we have shortage of priests and crisis of vocation to religious life (Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, “Assessing the Shortage of Priests: Nonclerical Alternatives to Ordained Ministry” in Shepherds Speak, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1986, pp.34-38), “priests and Catholic teachers should make serious efforts on behalf of religious vocations, so that a new supply may be at hand for meeting the Church’s needs adequately” (PC, 24). This should include understanding the young people today and their aspirations (John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, N.Y.: A.A Knopf, 1994, pp.118-122), role-modeling and life-witnessing of the clergy and vocation awareness and a vocation program covering recruitment, formation and follow-up evaluation (PCP II Decree, article 73, #2 & 3). Young people today are facing obstacles and problems in embracing priestly vocation due to the lure of consumer society, perverted outlook on human sexuality, distorted sense of freedom and erosion of ethical principles (John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis [PDV], 8). In spite of this, young people have vigor and vitality in involving themselves in voluntary social services towards the forsaken of society, to be open and sympathetic to the poor, the thirst for freedom, the search for a just world and a commitment to peace are ideals that inspire them to opt for priestly vocation (PDV, 9). All programs and activities of vocation animation and recruitment shall take this into account as well as to consider the “complex situation of the present day” (PDV, 10). To have a more effective and systematic vocation animation and recruitment, it is suggested to have a clear directional goal, realizable objectives, orientational principles, operational activities, effective deployment of Diocesan Vocation Director and Vocation Animators, organization and mobilization of Vocation Committees in parishes, organization of Love Our Seminarians Movement and Vocation Clubs, Vocation Sunday, conducting Vocation Seminars and Search-ins, clear funding, proper use of mass media and involvement of schools and other institutions and a good program for vocation promotion and recruitment.

Questions for small group discussions:
How do you promote or animate priestly and religious vocation in your parish?
How can families foster and animate vocations to the priesthood and religious life?
Are there seminarians or formandi to the religious life who are from your parish? How do you support them? Do they inspire young people in your parish to follow priestly and religious vocation?
Are there programs and activities in your parish related to vocation promotion and animation? How are you involved in these? Are there many parishioners who are also involved in this? Why?

29. Seminary Formation

29. Seminary Formation

THE DIOCESAN SEMINARY FORMATION PROGRAM

God “loved us first” (I Jn 4:19) and called us to participate in the communion of the Trinity. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we recognize His call and we journey towards Him in the light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus and in dialogue with the signs of the times, transforming our very selves in the process and allowing a new self to shine forth and to cooperate with God in transforming the world so that His Kingdom may come (Cfr. Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II], 565). This journey is our formation in our life in the light of our vocation to serve God and to undergo a gradual and progressive conversion to be conformed and be configured to Christ by the action of the Spirit, to follow Jesus Christ more faithfully and to be in union with God through a comprehensive and integral seminary formation program ( Optatam Totius [OT], 2-3; Cfr. Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Seminaries, The Updated Philippine Program of Priestly Formation, 2006 [UPPPF], pp. 6-7).
Formation is a lifelong process which involves individuals at every level and a radical re-orientation and progressive transformation of persons-under-formation and gradual change of their relationships with others and with God as they respond to God’s call to holiness and discipleship appropriate to the demands of specific times and places (UPPPF, pp. 2-3) and to “serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion” (Rom 12:11).
In the spirit of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II] which focused on the renewal of the local Church for the sake of the renewal of the Philippine society, the Diocesan Seminary Formation Program is designed for a contextualized and comprehensive education program. It is focused on forming “servant leaders” for a “Church with a Mission of renewed integral evangelization” as “Church of the poor” and as “Community of Disciples of Christ” (UPPPF, pp.5, 6-7) to be “ministers of Christ Jesus among the people” (Presbyterorum Ordinis [PO], 2). Through the Seminary, the Church helps in the discernment of vocations and to accompany the seminarians in inspiring and sustaining their priestly vocation through a preparatory formation whereby this pastoral care of vocations shall facilitate in “bringing to the priesthood only those who have been called, and to bring them adequately trained, namely, with a conscious and free response of adherence and involvement of their whole person with Jesus Christ who calls them to intimacy of life with him and to share in his mission of salvation”(John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis [PDV], 42). While everyone has the task of promoting and sustaining priestly vocation, the families which are alive with the spirit of faith, love and reverence, and priests with their exemplary lives as well as parishes, in whose pulsing vitality young people themselves have a part, have an outstanding contribution to the integral formation of seminarians (OT, 2; PCP II, 566-567). The seminary should give attention to the spiritual, intellectual, psychological, disciplinary and pastoral aspects of the formation of seminarians and in making seminary education relevant by contextualizing it in the present Philippine situation and updated with the new trends in in the society and the Church ( Cfr. PCP II, 568).
Diocesan Seminary Formation in the Philippines has four objectives: (UPPPF, pp.11-13)
“Human Formation. The seminary aims at forming men of virtue, of human excellence and goodness of character, founded on psycho-emotional integration, and modeled on Christ’s example of authentic humanity.
Spiritual Formation. The seminary aims at forming men whose lives find their center in personal and transformative communion with God in Christ, and who seek to unite themselves with God’s saving will in all aspects of their lives, especially through participation in the mission of Christ as an ordained minister of the Church.
Intellectual Formation. Seminary Formation aims at forming men with a deep understanding of the mysteries of the faith, a capacity for ongoing theological reflection, and pastoral skills and competence, in the context of Church and society in the Philippines and Asia, for the sake of the mission of evangelization.
Pastoral Formation. The seminary aims at forming men with a deep commitment to and competence for pastoral leadership and service, especially of the poor and suffering, in union with Christ, the Good Shepherd, and the shepherds in the Church, towards the building up of the local Church in communion and mission.”

The Diocese of San Carlos has as its institution, where seminarians are formed, the St. John Mary Vianney Seminary [SJMVS] which was established in 1992 with Rev. Fr. Lito dela Paz as its Rector. In June 1993 when Bishop Nicholas Mondejar was the Rector of the seminary, the academic formation was done in consortium with Colegio de Sta. Rita, a college in San Carlos City which is owned and managed by Augustinian Recollect Sisters. In January 1996 the seminary community transferred to its new Seminary building. At present with Fr. Patrick Daniel Parcon as Rector, SJMVS aims to have a Christo-centric spiritual formation, relevant and comprehensive academic formation, authentic community life, human development program and realistic pastoral program. It’s vision is to “form an active, discerning and liberating spirituality, academically competent and psycho-emotionally mature individuals committed to respond to the call of God and the signs of the times to build His kingdom of justice, peace and love”(2007 St. John Mary Vianney Seminary Handbook , p.6). Vocation to the priestly ministry looks promising in our diocese and given the proper support it will usher the fuller development of a vocation configured in Jesus Christ the priest, prophet and king towards forming the seminarians to become true pastors of the people of God (Cfr. O.T., 4).

Questions for small group discussions:
How should our Diocesan Seminary be and how should seminarians be formed so they will be good priests and ministers of the Church in the future?
How can we support our Diocesan Seminary, St. John Mary Vianney Seminary?
Are there groups in your parish, like “Love Our Seminarians Movement”(LOSM), that directly support the formation of seminarians? If they are not existing, are you willing to organize a group that can support seminarians and/or our seminary?

Religious Congregations

29. Religious Congregations

RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS

Christ Jesus calls all of us to holiness: “You must be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”(Mt. 5:48). Thus St. Paul wrote, “It is God’s will that you grow in holiness.”(I Thes. 4:3) In pursuit of this holiness and perfect charity and influenced by the Holy Spirit, since the infancy of the church, “men and women strove to follow Christ more freely and imitate Him more nearly by the practice of the evangelical counsels”(Perfectae Caritatis [PC], 1) of chastity, poverty and obedience which become the essence of their consecrated life and founded religious congregations (PC, 8). These evangelical counsels which they professed in the church in imitation of Christ, the virgin and poor man (Cf. Mt. 8:20) and who is obedient to God the Father even unto death (Cf. Phil. 2:8), does not set them apart from other Christians but it is to express “with greater fullness” (Evangelica testificacio [ET], 4) the baptismal consecration to “the service of God”(ET, 7), a self-surrender to “achieve a greater good for the Church” (PC, 1) and like all Christians, “to serve the world and the church, to be immersed in the world even as they live as signs of the coming kingdom.” (Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II], 454). As a sign within the church as a sign and witnessing to the Gospel beatitudes (Mt 5:1ff.), religious life has a radical and distinct form of discipleship “whereby persons consecrate themselves to living Christ’s life radically, publicly and in community, in order thereby to devote themselves exclusively to the mission of Christ” (PCP II, 449). To fulfill the mission of Christ, religious congregations, like the Augustinians, Benedictines, Brigittines, Carmelites, Carthusians, Columbans, Dominicans, Franciscans, Handmaids, Jesuits, Redemptorists, Trappists, etc., are not only involved in parishes, schools, retreat centers, mass media, health centers and socio-pastoral agencies but they are also involved in new ministries and missions but with a prophetic character. Consequently, religious life as “prophecy in the manner of Christ’s own prophetic life has to be an urgent dimension in the light of our evangelizing task as a Church and in the context of our history.”(PCP II, 451).
Like all Christian groups, religious congregations are undergoing a renewal to be attuned to the times. Vatican II delineates that the “appropriate renewal of religious life involves two simultaneous processes: (1) a continuous return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind a given community and (2) an adjustment of the community to the changed conditions of the times.”(PC,2). The cloistered nuns and contemplative hermits or monks who are “totally dedicated to contemplation give themselves to God alone in solitude and silence and through constant prayer and ready penance.”(PC, 7) The friars, religious brothers, missionaries and religious clergy as well as religious women who are involved in active apostolate “have contributions to make which are as various as the graces given them” (PC, 8) echoing what is said in the letter to the Corinthians, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (I Cor. 12:4). Considering their valuable endowment and contribution to the Church, religious congregations and communities “should faithfully maintain and fulfill their proper activities. Yet, they should make adjustments in them according to the needs of time and place and in favor of what will benefit the universal Church and individual dioceses.”(PC, 20). In our Diocese of San Carlos we need not only the revitalization of the ARMWID (Association of Religious Men and Women in the Diocese) but also more religious congregations to spread the good news of Christ and make manifest their witness to their faith and love of God.

Questions for small group discussions:
Are you aware of the existence of Religious Congregations and missionaries in our Diocese of San Carlos? If you do, who are they and what do you think are their contribution to the Church?
Would you want to have more religious congregations in our diocese? If yes, why?; if no, why not?

30. Vocation Animation and Recruitment

30. Vocation Animation and Recruitment

VOCATION ANIMATION AND RECRUITMENT

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life”(Jn 3:16). His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to follow him to have this eternal life just as he challenged a young man, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”(Mt 19:21). Through our baptism, all of us are called to be part of the saving mission of Christ which he entrusted to his Church (Apostolicam Actuositatem [AA], 30) and this vocation can either be towards married life or a celibate life dedicated to service and ministry in the Church that we are exhorted to promote this (Perfectae Caritatis [PC], 24). Parents, who are the first to communicate the faith to their children and to educate them “should prudently help them in the choice of their vocation and carefully promote any religious calling which they many discern in them.” (AA, 11). At this time when we have shortage of priests and crisis of vocation to religious life (Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, “Assessing the Shortage of Priests: Nonclerical Alternatives to Ordained Ministry” in Shepherds Speak, N.Y.: Crossroad, 1986, pp.34-38), “Priests and Catholic teachers should make serious efforts on behalf of religious vocations, so that a new supply may be at hand for meeting the Church’s needs adequately” (PC, 24). This should include understanding the young people today and their aspirations (John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, N.Y.: A.A Knopf, 1994, pp.118-122), role-modeling and life-witnessing of the clergy and vocation awareness and a vocation program covering recruitment, formation and follow-up evaluation (PCP II Decree, article 73, #2 & 3). Young people today are facing obstacles and problems in embracing priestly vocation due to the lure of consumer society, perverted outlook on human sexuality, distorted sense of freedom and erosion of ethical principles (John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis [PDV], 8). In spite of this, young people have vigor and vitality in involving themselves in voluntary social services towards the forsaken of society, to be open and sympathetic to the poor, the thirst for freedom, the search for a just world and a commitment to peace are ideals that inspire them to opt for priestly vocation (PDV, 9). All programs and activities of vocation animation and recruitment shall take this into account as well as to consider the “complex situation of the present day” (PDV, 10). To have a more effective and systematic vocation animation and recruitment, it is suggested to have a clear directional goal, realizable objectives, orientational principles, operational activities, effective deployment of Diocesan Vocation Director and Vocation Animators, organization and mobilization of Vocation Committees in parishes, organization of Love Your Seminarians Movement and Vocation Clubs, Vocation Sunday, conducting Vocation Seminars and Search-ins, clear funding, proper use of mass media and involvement of schools and other institutions and a good program for vocation promotion and recruitment.

Questions for small group discussions:
How do you promote or animate priestly and religious vocation in your parish?
Are there seminarians or formandi to the religious life who are from your parish? How do you support them? Do they inspire young people in your parish to follow priestly and religious vocation?
Are there programs and activities in your parish related to vocation promotion and animation? How are you involved in these? Are there many parishioners who are also involved in this? Why?

29. Religious Congregations

29. Religious Congregations

RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS

Christ Jesus calls all of us to holiness: “You must be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”(Mt. 5:48). Thus St. Paul wrote, “It is God’s will that you grow in holiness.”(I Thes. 4:3) In pursuit of this holiness and perfect charity and influenced by the Holy Spirit, since the infancy of the church, “men and women strove to follow Christ more freely and imitate Him more nearly by the practice of the evangelical counsels”(Perfectae Caritatis [PC], 1) of chastity, poverty and obedience which become the essence of their consecrated life and founded religious congregations (PC, 8). These evangelical counsels which they professed in the church in imitation of Christ, the virgin and poor man (Cf. Mt. 8:20) and who is obedient to God the Father even unto death (Cf. Phil. 2:8), does not set them apart from other Christians but it is to express “with greater fullness” (Evangelica testificacio [ET], 4) the baptismal consecration to “the service of God”(ET, 7), a self-surrender to “achieve a greater good for the Church” (PC, 1) and like all Christians, “to serve the world and the church, to be immersed in the world even as they live as signs of the coming kingdom.” (Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II], 454). As a sign within the church as a sign and witnessing to the Gospel beatitudes (Mt 5:1ff.), religious life has a radical and distinct form of discipleship “whereby persons consecrate themselves to living Christ’s life radically, publicly and in community, in order thereby to devote themselves exclusively to the mission of Christ” (PCP II, 449). To fulfill the mission of Christ, religious congregations, like the Augustinians, Benedictines, Brigittines, Carmelites, Carthusians, Columbans, Dominicans, Franciscans, Handmaids, Jesuits, Redemptorists, Trappists, etc., are not only involved in parishes, schools, retreat centers, mass media, health centers and socio-pastoral agencies but they are also involved in new ministries and missions but with a prophetic character. Consequently, religious life as “prophecy in the manner of Christ’s own prophetic life has to be an urgent dimension in the light of our evangelizing task as a Church and in the context of our history.”(PCP II, 451).
Like all Christian groups, religious congregations are undergoing a renewal to be attuned to the times. Vatican II delineates that the “appropriate renewal of religious life involves two simultaneous processes: (1) a continuous return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind a given community and (2) an adjustment of the community to the changed conditions of the times.”(PC,2). The cloistered nuns and contemplative hermits or monks who are “totally dedicated to contemplation give themselves to God alone in solitude and silence and through constant prayer and ready penance.”(PC, 7) The friars, religious brothers, missionaries and religious clergy as well as religious women who are involved in active apostolate “have contributions to make which are as various as the graces given them” (PC, 8) echoing what is said in the letter to the Corinthians, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (I Cor. 12:4). Considering their valuable endowment and contribution to the Church, religious congregations and communities “should faithfully maintain and fulfill their proper activities. Yet, they should make adjustments in them according to the needs of time and place and in favor of what will benefit the universal Church and individual dioceses.”(PC, 20). In our Diocese of San Carlos we need not only the revitalization of the ARMWID (Association of Religious Men and Women in the Diocese) but also more religious congregations to spread the good news of Christ and make manifest their witness to their faith and love of God.

Questions for small group discussions:
Are you aware of the existence of Religious Congregations and missionaries in our Diocese of San Carlos? If you do, who are they and what do you think are their contribution to the Church?
Would you want to have more religious congregations in our diocese? If yes, why?; if no, why not?

27. Seminary Formation

27. Seminary Formation

THE DIOCESAN SEMINARY FORMATION PROGRAM

God “loved us first” (I Jn 4:19) and called us to participate in the communion of the Trinity. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we recognize His call and we journey towards Him in the light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus and in dialogue with the signs of the times, transforming our very selves in the process and allowing a new self to shine forth and to cooperate with God in transforming the world so that His Kingdom may come (Cfr. Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II], 565). This journey is our formation in our life in the light of our vocation to serve God and to undergo a gradual and progressive conversion to be conformed and be configured to Christ by the action of the Spirit, to follow Jesus Christ more faithfully and to be in union with God through a comprehensive and integral seminary formation program ( Optatam Totius [OT], 2-3; Cfr. Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Seminaries, The Updated Philippine Program of Priestly Formation, 2006 [UPPPF], pp. 6-7).
Formation is a lifelong process which involves individuals at every level and a radical re-orientation and progressive transformation of persons-under-formation and gradual change of their relationships with others and with God as they respond to God’s call to holiness and discipleship appropriate to the demands of specific times and places (UPPPF, pp. 2-3) and to “serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion” (Rom 12:11).
In the spirit of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II] which focused on the renewal of the local Church for the sake of the renewal of the Philippine society, the Diocesan Seminary Formation Program is designed for a contextualized and comprehensive education program. It is focused on forming “servant leaders” for a “Church with a Mission of renewed integral evangelization” as “Church of the poor” and as “Community of Disciples of Christ” (UPPPF, pp.5, 6-7) to be “ministers of Christ Jesus among the people” (Presbyterorum Ordinis [PO], 2). Through the Seminary, the Church helps in the discernment of vocations and to accompany the seminarians in inspiring and sustaining their priestly vocation through a preparatory formation whereby this pastoral care of vocations shall facilitate in “bringing to the priesthood only those who have been called, and to bring them adequately trained, namely, with a conscious and free response of adherence and involvement of their whole person with Jesus Christ who calls them to intimacy of life with him and to share in his mission of salvation”(John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis [PDV], 42). While everyone has the task of promoting and sustaining priestly vocation, the families which are alive with the spirit of faith, love and reverence, and priests with their exemplary lives as well as parishes, in whose pulsing vitality young people themselves have a part, have an outstanding contribution to the integral formation of seminarians (OT, 2; PCP II, 566-567). The seminary should give attention to the spiritual, intellectual, psychological, disciplinary and pastoral aspects of the formation of seminarians and in making seminary education relevant by contextualizing it in the present Philippine situation and updated with the new trends in in the society and the Church ( Cfr. PCP II, 568).
Diocesan Seminary Formation in the Philippines has four objectives: (UPPPF, pp.11-13)
“Human Formation. The seminary aims at forming men of virtue, of human excellence and goodness of character, founded on psycho-emotional integration, and modeled on Christ’s example of authentic humanity.
Spiritual Formation. The seminary aims at forming men whose lives find their center in personal and transformative communion with God in Christ, and who seek to unite themselves with God’s saving will in all aspects of their lives, especially through participation in the mission of Christ as an ordained minister of the Church.
Intellectual Formation. Seminary Formation aims at forming men with a deep understanding of the mysteries of the faith, a capacity for ongoing theological reflection, and pastoral skills and competence, in the context of Church and society in the Philippines and Asia, for the sake of the mission of evangelization.
Pastoral Formation. The seminary aims at forming men with a deep commitment to and competence for pastoral leadership and service, especially of the poor and suffering, in union with Christ, the Good Shepherd, and the shepherds in the Church, towards the building up of the local Church in communion and mission.”

Since 1992 when it started as a Formation House under Rev. Fr. Lito dela Paz as its Rector, St. John Mary Vianney Seminary [SJMVS] was formally established as a Diocesan Seminary in June 1993 with Bishop Nicholas Mondejar as Rector. The academic formation is done in consortium with Colegio de Sta. Rita, a college in San Carlos City which is owned and managed by Augustinian Recollect Sisters. In January 1996 the seminary community transferred to its new Seminary building. At present with Bishop Jose Advincula as Rector, SJMVS aims to have a Christo-centric spiritual formation, relevant and comprehensive academic formation, authentic community life, human development program and realistic pastoral program. It’s vision is to “form an active, discerning and liberating spirituality, academically competent and psycho-emotionally mature individuals committed to respond to the call of God and the signs of the times to build His kingdom of justice, peace and love”(2007 St. John Mary Vianney Seminary Handbook , p.6). Vocation to the priestly ministry looks promising in our diocese and given the proper support it will usher the fuller development of a vocation configured in Jesus Christ the priest, prophet and king towards forming the seminarians to become true pastors of the people of God (Cfr. O.T., 4).

Questions for small group discussions:
How should our Diocesan Seminary be and how should seminarians be formed so they will be good priests and ministers of the Church in the future?
How can we support our Diocesan Seminary, St. John Mary Vianney Seminary?
Are there groups in your parish like “Love Your Seminarians Movement”(LYSM) that directly support the formation of seminarians? If it is not existing, are you willing to organize a group that can support seminarians and/or our seminary?

Mini-Synod Culmination

FORMAT OF THE MINI-SYNOD CULMINATION

I. DAY BEFORE THE CULMINATION
Day of Prayer and Reflection
Suggested Theme: Integral Faith Formation,
Life of Fullness or any topic

II. CULMINATION DAY
1. Solemn Procession
2. Holy Eucharist.
The Recessional Hymn shall be the “Synod Hymn”.
3. Final Presentation of the Resolutions.
After the Eucharist, the Parish Priest will officially announce the culmination of the Mini-Synod. Two members of the Parish Synod Team will take turns in reading the Resolutions of the Mini-Synod. It is suggested that they are clustered according to their respective Lineamenta. The reading of the resolutions may have a background of instrumental mellow or meditative music but it can be done without any background music. At the end of the reading, the Parish Priest shall say: “These are our resolutions for the Diocesan Synod. Let us praise and thank the Lord for His Guidance and His Love!”
All shall sing, “Thank you Lord” or “Salamat Dios..” or simply answer, “Thanks be to God.”
4. Cultural Program.
The contents of the Program shall depend on the Parish Priest and his parish leaders. At the end of the program, the parish priest shall thank all the delegates and the staff who made the mini-synod a success. A plaque or certificate of appreciation may be given to the Synod Team. The Parish Pastoral Council may also give the Parish Priest a plaque or certificate of appreciation.
5. Salo-salo.

III. EVALUATION.
This is done after the Mini-synod Culmination.
1. Content : Strength, Weaknesses & Recommendations
2. Process: Strength, Weaknesses & Recommendations
3. Technicalities and Other Matters: Strength, Weaknesses & Recommendations