Francis is summoning all the Spanish bishops to Rome on November 28 because of a "problematic" state of the seminaries following a February/March Apostolic Visitation carried out by two Uruguayan bishops.
VidaNuevaDigital.com (October 31) learned from the Dicastery for the Clergy that “very very few” seminaries will survive.
There are 974 seminarians in Spain. Ten years ago there were about 1,700. The 70 Spanish dioceses run 45 seminaries including the Opus Dei and the Neocatechumenal Way. The latter trains a quarter of the seminarians.
Betraying their anti-Catholic prejudices, the visitators alleged “notable deficiencies" in the accompaniment towards an "affective maturity" of the candidates, a certain "ideologisation" in theological and pastoral formation, and a "nostalgic [= Catholic] tendency" in some "pre-conciliar cases”. This means that the good and Catholic seminaries will be closed, while the most decadent and empty ones will continue.
Some months ago, bishops and rectors downplayed the visitation as “neither an audit nor a review, just a visit.”
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