To respond to the need for clergy reform and formation, Eugene was about to send Father Charles-Dominique Albini to the major seminary of Marseille as professor and formator. He wrote about this to Fr. Honorat<\/p>\n
\nBe well aware that were he to fall ill again and I am unable to employ him in the post which I have in mind for him, it would be a frightful mess, one which would be of major consequence!<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Letter to Jean Baptiste Honorat. 23 August 1827, EO VII n 275<\/em><\/p>\n
Yvon Beaudoin explains the background.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe diocese of Marseilles had a flourishing seminary which the Lazarist Fathers directed from 1648 to 1791. The French Revolution suppressed the diocese and closed the seminary. When Bishop Fortun\u00e9 de Mazenod, the first bishop of the re-established diocese, arrived in 1823, he was greeted by 24 seminarians who were receiving their training at Aix. In December of the same year he transferred them to Marseilles where an interim seminary was opened, first on the Rue Rouge, then at St-Just; it was under the direction of diocesan priests.<\/p>\n
After Father Fran\u00e7ois de Paule Henry Tempier had been appointed Vicar General in 1823, he was put in charge of constructing a new seminary building on the rue Rouge. This building housed the seminary from 1827 to 1862; it was afterwards torn down to free the areas around the new cathedral. Once the seminary had been located in these new quarters, the Bishop also wanted to provide it with a new team of directors. His preference was to put religious priests in charge of it, for he felt that this would ensure greater unity of doctrine and formation. He approached the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, then the Sulpicians and the Lazarists, but without any success. In the end he entrusted the direction of his seminary to his diocesan missionaries, namely, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.<\/p>\n
For several years Father de Mazenod had been readying himself to accept an apostolic work like this\u2026 In the new edition of the Rule (1825-1826), clergy reform remained one of the ends of the Congregation, though the direction of seminary was not explicitly mentioned. However, in Father de Mazenod\u2019s December 8, 1825 petition to the Holy Father and in the papal Brief\u00a0Si tempus umquam<\/em>\u00a0by which Leo XII approved the Rule on March 21, 1826, the direction of seminaries was mentioned as a secondary aim of the Institute.”<\/p>\n
Beaudoin, \u201cMarseilles, Major Seminary (1827-1862)\u201d in the Oblate Historical Dictionary<\/em>, http:\/\/www.omiworld.org\/dictionary.asp?v=5&vol=1&let=M&ID=814<\/a><\/p>\n
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\u201cSpiritual formation in a Christian tradition answers a specific human question: ‘What kind of person am I going to be?’ It is the process of establishing the character of Christ in the person. That’s all it is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Dallas Willard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To respond to the need for clergy reform and formation, Eugene was about to send Father Charles-Dominique Albini to the major seminary of Marseille as professor and formator. He wrote about this to Fr. Honorat Be well aware that were … Continue reading