From Fr. Z comes word that the long awaited report is out on the 2005-2006 visitation of all US seminaries. The visitation was one result of the public outrage over priestly molestation of young people (85% were boys). The word is that the situation in the seminaries has improved, something all of us know, but that there are still problems such as:

"an atmosphere that discourages traditional acts of Catholic piety – which begs the question as to whether the faculty’s ideas of spirituality are consonant with Church teaching and tradition.”

And:

"Other points of Church teaching, such as ordination being restricted to men alone, are also questioned. Such a lack of sentire cum Ecclesia is often not overt, but the students receive the message clearly nevertheless. In a few seminaries, and particularly in some some schools of theology run by religious, dissent is widespread.”

Both of these statements should not surprise Catholics who have followed Church stuff over the past couple of decades. The good thing is that as the situation improves, the increase in vocations can be seen, which then has the effect of encouraging more vocations. Fidelity to Church teachings means growth and success, heterodoxy means decline and death. This simple lesson was lost on many over the past 25 years, and even today there are those who dispute it.