Forming Servant-Leaders in a Synodal Church

At the Immaculate Conception Major Seminary in the Diocese of Malolos, Philippines, the formation of future priests is being reshaped around a single conviction: that synodality is not an added program but a way of inhabiting every dimension of seminary life. Under the guidance of the Rector, Fr. Emmanuel I. Cruz, the seminary has developed a set of synodal forms and models that already structure its day-to-day formation, while also pointing toward what still needs to mature.

Collaborative formation as a starting point

Formation begins with the formators themselves. Priests assigned to the seminary are trained to understand their ministry as teamwork, working under the Rector's leadership with a shared conviction that all areas of formation are inter-related. This collaborative spirit is mirrored among the seminarians: each is given the opportunity to hold positions of leadership across different areas and levels of formation, from community beadle to chairmanship of committees for liturgy, academics, spiritual enrichment, or social communication. The explicit goal is to train seminarians to cooperate with one another in a spirit of brotherhood and team play, eliminating from the outset any sense of seniority, superiority, or entitlement.

Dialogue and accompaniment

Dialogue runs through every level of formation. Not only spiritual directors but all formators remain available for it, and the results of peer evaluation are discussed with the Rector and the Prefects of Discipline. Before any final decision is reached on a seminarian's case, the formation team deliberates together and the seminarian concerned is informed and given the chance to explain his side. The seminary acknowledges that penalties — such as forced regency or dismissal — are not easy to accept, yet formators strive to engage seminarians in collective discernment within a friendly atmosphere, sustained by regular colloquia with the Rector and Prefects marked by transparency, sincerity, and openness.

Accompaniment is described as a key characteristic of the whole formation process. Through regular spiritual direction and interviews, formators monitor each seminarian's progress. The semestral evaluation culminates in an "Integrated Response to Formation Assessment" (IRFA), drawing on peer evaluation, external forum assessments from each department, and reports from Pastoral Field Education (PFE) supervisors and parish priests. Every area needing growth is addressed through what the seminary calls "AGAP" — a Filipino word meaning assistance or help, and simultaneously an acronym for Attention, Guidance, Accompaniment, and Pastoring. A formation itinerary with indicators for every stage further guides seminarians in evaluating themselves and one another.

Human formation as foundation

A significant share of the seminary's budget is dedicated to human formation: modules and sessions organized by class and department, professional psychological assessment through an external consultancy firm, and individual counselling. This investment responds to a concrete reality: many seminarians come from families marked by dysfunction, and some have experienced emotional, verbal, physical, or sexual abuse. The seminary insists that such wounds cannot simply be spiritualized; professional psychological processing and intervention are necessary if seminarians are to reach the wholeness required to become integrated and mature servant-leaders.

Pastoral formation rooted in Basic Ecclesial Communities

Pastoral formation, especially from the Configuration Stage onward, is deliberately located in parishes with active Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) or communities in the process of forming them. Twice-monthly Pastoral Field Education includes training in engaging BEC units not only through prayer and Bible sharing but through concrete, collective efforts of material and financial mutual aid. The diocesan Commission on Basic Ecclesial Communities conducts dedicated classes in skills and methodology.

This BEC logic shapes the seminary's own internal structure: seminarians live in small communities — called "Agapayan," or dormitory wings — where they actively share material goods, support one another emotionally, academically, and spiritually, practice fraternal correction, and pray together. Each group is guided by a formator, with monthly meetings and Masses to track its progress. In this way, the seminary describes itself as being turned into "a communion of communities."

Pastoral management against clericalism

In the final year of the Configuration Stage, a course on Pastoral Management combines theoretical and practical formation. Seminarians visit model parishes to observe, on site, how human, material, and financial resources are properly managed. The course places particular emphasis on stewardship, transparency, accountability, and shared or collaborative ministry — with brother priests and with the laity alike — precisely in order to address and prevent clericalism in all its forms. Lay professionals in management and collaboration are also invited to contribute their expertise.

Involving families and discerning charisms

Recognizing that parents, too, need to be formed for their role, the seminary has organized departmental parents' associations with their own officers, guided by assigned formators. These associations hold periodic meetings, biannual spiritual activities such as retreats and recollections, and a "parents-sons encounter" — an overnight activity designed for deep interaction between seminarians and their parents, often addressing family and personal issues. Parents are normally consulted and invited to co-discern with formators on matters concerning their sons, though this involvement remains limited where confidentiality and the internal forum are at stake.

Within spiritual direction, formators assist seminarians not only in vocational discernment but in discovering their charisms within the priesthood, evaluating their competencies so they can be appropriately trained for specific ministries. The seminary is candid that this effort still needs fine-tuning, and that formators themselves must be better trained and disposed to guide such discernment.

Mission exposure and the presence of women

Summer Pastoral Field Education, especially in the Configuration Stage, exposes seminarians to indigenous communities, the urban and rural poor, persons deprived of liberty, and people with mental disability, always under the supervision and assessment of assigned formators. During the two-month "Intensive Formation towards Configuration" (IFC, which has replaced the earlier Spiritual-Pastoral Formation Year), seminarians are sent to the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa in Palawan for mission exposure among remote fishing and farming communities, under the oversight of Bishop Socrates Mesiona, a missiologist who personally conducts follow-up and processing sessions. In the Vocational Synthesis stage, those preparing for diaconal ordination spend two months in mission exposure in the Diocese of Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, again accompanied by the local bishop.

Women, both lay and religious, already play a role in the seminary's daily life — as kitchen staff, librarian, academic registrar, accountant, cashier, professor in the Discipleship stage, and as human formation processors, psychologists, and counsellors. The seminary describes this involvement as admittedly limited, yet genuinely appreciated by the seminarians who are formed by it.

Proposals for a synodal, missionary priesthood

Looking ahead, the seminary identifies several priorities for preparing future priests for mission in a synodal Church. First is an intensification of the discernment of charisms: formators in both the external and internal forum — not spiritual directors alone — need proper training in the art and spirituality of discernment, so that seminarians can be encouraged toward the specific ministries, including missionary placements, to which they are called. This personal discernment, the seminary insists, should lead naturally to a co-discernment and appreciation of the charisms of lay people in the parishes.

Second, parishes and local communities must participate more fully in seminary formation, particularly in vocation promotion, with the whole presbyterium recognizing as a priority its contribution — including material support — to diocesan seminaries.

Third, collaboration with lay people must be seen by seminarians as a necessity and a commitment: they must be trained to co-discern and cooperate with formed and informed laity across the mission and ministries of the Church, so as to eliminate every trace of clericalism — and equally of "lay elitism."

Finally, the seminary points to collaboration with consecrated persons as an area still requiring conversion. In many Philippine dioceses, men and women religious administer schools, universities, charitable institutions, and mission parishes, yet often appear to work independently of the diocese and its clergy, or find themselves excluded from pastoral projects and plans. Diocesan priests and seminarians, the text insists, must recognize that all work for a common ecclesial mission; mutual enrichment and the exchange of resources and skills should become an ordinary mode of cooperation, with every trace of superiority, exclusivism, and insecurity set aside for the sake of a more effective and fruitful missionary endeavor.