Vatican City - “The path of synodality is precisely the path that God expects from the Church of the third millennium.” The Final Report of Study Group No. 4 starts from this premise and applies it directly to formation for the ordained ministry, arguing that the conversion required by the synodal journey must also shape the criteria, settings and formative processes. The stated aim is to make the formation of future priests more consistent with a Church described in terms of “communion, participation and mission”.
Mandate of the Group and the choice of a “Guiding Document”
The text, published today, reconstructs the mandate entrusted to the Group: to proceed “with an evaluation of formation for the ordained ministry and a revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis from the perspective of the synodal missionary Church, at the service of the Episcopal Conferences”. Drawing on its analysis of the Ratio Fundamentalis (2016) and the indications of the Final Document of the Synodal Assembly, the Report says it reached a twofold conclusion: on the one hand, the 2016 Ratio contains insights deemed useful and is still in the process of reception; on the other, the synodal process calls for “further steps”. For this reason, the preferred route is indicated not as a rewriting of the base text, but the preparation of a preliminary document (later adopted as a Guiding Document) capable of outlining the relational identity of ordained ministers and offering “principles and criteria for the implementation of the Ratio Fundamentalis and the Ratio Nationalis” in a synodal and missionary key.
Why not a new Ratio
The Report explicitly recalls the decision not to proceed with a “reworking” of the Ratio, citing a passage attributed to Pope Francis’ address of 6 June 2024 to the Dicastery for the Clergy: “The Ratio Fundamentalis has been made: there is no need to make another one. Let us move forward with this one.” The revision requested by the Synod’s Final Document is therefore treated as a need for implementation and conversion of formation processes, rather than a normative rewriting of the 2016 text. Operationally, an internal source reports that the Group no longer has the full “green light” it had benefited from under Francis, and that this has scaled back expectations and demands. This also because decisions would be set by a restricted circle tasked with steering choices that affect everyone, whereas synodality, by definition, implies broader involvement, which these groups do not have.
Structure of the Report
The document is organised into four blocks: an ecclesiological-pastoral Preamble structured around “prospects for conversion”; a section of Guidelines also described as “operational pathways”; an Appendix of Best Practices; and finally a Corollary setting out an Implementation and Monitoring Process. This architecture is proposed as an instrument to guide the application of the Ratio and the national Ratio within the framework of missionary synodality.
Conversion of relationships
In the Preamble, conversion is described as change involving heart, mind, relationships and processes, and requiring a community and structural dimension as well. In the same framework, synodal texts are cited presenting the Church as a “network of relationships” and insisting that “care for relationships” cannot be reduced to an organisational technique: “We must once again learn from the Gospel that attending to relationships is not merely a strategy…”
The People of God as the subject of mission
The Report links priestly formation to a vision in which mission is entrusted to the whole People of God. Referring to the Second Vatican Council, it states that all the baptised “enjoy equal dignity” and are involved in the “common mission”. In this perspective, the encounter with the Risen Christ is described as a dynamic principle of transformation and sending: “All disciples who encounter the Risen One are called to allow themselves to be constantly transformed by the Word of God…”
Charisms and ministries in the circularity of gifts
On the ecclesiological side, the Report insists on the circularity of gifts, presenting the variety of charisms and ministriesas constitutive of ecclesial life and mission. The concise formula is explicit: “In the Church, no one person does everything, but different gifts are integrated with one another in the common mission.” In this scheme, Pastors are assigned the task of ensuring harmony and promoting charisms in a missionary perspective; ordained ministers are linked to the idea of a service of communion within living and differentiated communities.
Ministerial identity in a relational key
The Report treats the identity of priests in relational terms, situating ministry within the community fabric and in reference to the presbyterate. In a programmatic passage, it states that the conversion required aims “to realign the priestly ministry… at the feet of the brothers and sisters of the People of God”, in order to avoid placing the priest in an “isolated” or “sacralised” position and to present him as a brother within a community that lives the common baptismal dignity and the distinction of ministries.
Consultation, discernment, deliberation
In the chapter devoted to the synodal style, the Report describes the need to learn practices and skills of ecclesial discernment. In particular, it recalls the “proper articulation” between consultation and deliberation, specifying that an orientation that emerges from a consultative process, as the outcome of discernment, “may not be ignored”.
Not only Seminary: more formative places and times
According to the Report, conversion also reshapes the very idea of formation. The text states that formation “is not only Seminary” and proposes “alongside” the seminarian place-time “other formative places and times”, citing “complementary” experiences more immersed in ordinary ecclesial life. This line is also linked to the need to avoid conditions of “separation” between the candidate’s path and the real life of the communities in which ministry will be exercised.
Operational guidelines: shared formation immersed in daily life
Part II translates the framework of the Preamble into practical indications for a rereading and implementation of the Ratio Fundamentalis and the Ratio Nationalis in a synodal and missionary key. The first axis concerns formation that is more “homogeneous” with the candidates’ future life: the itinerary should not generate “artificial environments” detached from the ordinary life of the faithful, but take place in close contact with the daily life of the People of God. Among the required elements, the text indicates: a real experience of Christian life before embarking on specific paths; moments of shared formation with lay people, consecrated persons and ordained ministers from the propaedeutic stage onwards; and the immersion of formation in the life of the community also in subsequent stages.
Contents and transversal priorities: women, ecumenism, digital, safeguarding
In the same section, the Report lists priorities deemed necessary in paths of discernment and formation: a “significant presence of female figures”, insertion into the daily life of communities, education for ecclesial collaboration, training in discernment (including Conversation in the Spirit), the ecumenical dimension, passion for mission ad gentes, consideration of the impact of digital culture, and specific formation in the culture of safeguarding for the prevention and protection of minors and vulnerable adults.
“Best Practices” as examples, not models
The Appendix gathers experiences reported by Episcopal Conferences, the General Secretariat of the Synod and participants in these experiences. The text clarifies its intention: “These are not models, but simply examples… which can serve as inspiration” according to local culture and the situation of seminaries or formation centres. Among the cases cited are, for example, a reorganisation of the propaedeutic year in a diocese in Russia with a team that also involves families and religious sisters, and practices adopted in dioceses in the United States with attention to interiority, accompaniment and small formative groups.
Corollary: implementation and monitoring in three phases
The Report finally sets out an implementation itinerary in three steps.
Phase 1 concerns the launch of the Guiding Document and the start of the process: Episcopal Conferences, in particular through the Commission for the Clergy, are asked to prepare a presentation of the text, establish a working group and define methods and criteria for implementation in seminaries and formative settings.
Phase 2 concerns implementation in individual seminaries and sharing at the level of the Ecclesiastical Province, with coordination entrusted to persons and bodies identified at diocesan/territorial level.
Phase 3 provides for evaluation: at the end of the three-year period, each Commission for the Clergy should produce a report and send it to the competent Dicastery; the text also mentions the drafting of an overall report and the possibility of further operational inputs for a subsequent three-year period, based on what emerges from the reporting.