PREFACE
The IMBISA Secretariat is pleased to present to the IMBISA region a manual on human formation to be used as a reference in the Region’s Seminaries. The Secretariat, on the other hand, has no intention of imposing it; it merely presents this manual as a proposal. The manual is based on and inspired by the text used in the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Seminaries (SACBC). The manual is also well suited to be adapted to local contexts. It still needs to be read together with the conciliar Decree Optatam
Totius, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis of Pope St. John Paul II and the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis of 2016, which remain basic documents for priestly formation.
In paragraph 11 of Optatam Totius, Decree on Priestly Formation, the Council Fathers of Vatican II state:
The norms of Christian education are to be religiously observed and properly complemented by the newer findings of sound psychology and pedagogy. Therefore, by a wisely planned training there is also to be developed in the students a due human maturity. This will be made especially evident in stability of mind, in an ability to make weighty decisions, and in a sound evaluation of human beings and events. The students should be accustomed to work properly at their own development. They are to be formed in strength of character, and, in general, they are to learn to esteem those virtues which are held in high regard by human beings and which recommend a minister of Christ. Such virtues are sincerity of mind, a constant concern for justice, fidelity to one’s promises, refinement in manners, modesty in speech coupled with charity.
The IMBISA Secretariat expresses its deep gratitude to all those who made this project possible, especially:
- Aid to the Church in Need and the Archdiocese of
- Freiburg for the financial support; v The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), for making available their documents on Human Formation;
- Fr. John Masilo Selemela, the facilitator of the workshop on Human Formation;
- Participants of the IMBISA Workshop on Human Formation, held in November 2021 in South Africa.; v The Staff at the IMBISA Secretariat.
Fr Rafael B. Sapato Coordinator of the Pastoral Department at IMBISA Secretariat
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