Formation Articles

Ecclesial diversity is not without controversy. This author looks at the drift away from Catholic identity in women’s communities, including New Age practices. It’s time to explore some basic questions, she says. Read more...

Combining the roles of vocation and formation director has been called “an ethical minefield.” I couldn’t agree more. Read more...

This author led a men’s community through a five-year process of evaluating its way of incorporating new members and creating a new way to meet that need. Read more...

Just because candidates are in their 20s or 30s and have met certain goals in life doesn’t mean they are healthy, mature adults, capable of living well in a religious community. What are the signs, then, of true human development? Read more...

Vocation ministers have much to assess when considering applicants. For many communities, a person’s capacity and openness to learning should be an important factor. Read more...

Any major life transition creates inner turmoil. Here is a glimpse of what happens within new members in the period between acceptance and entrance. Read more...

When vocation ministers engage in discernment with a serious candidate, to some extent they have already begun the formation process. An experienced formation minister shares his wisdom. Read more...

Distancing themselves from the Catholic Church is not good for religious communities—or for the church. Let’s claim our Catholic identity and rediscover the riches of our tradition, argues this writer Read more...

A NUMBER OF RECENT BOOKS examine the role of faith, church, religion and spirituality in the 20-and 30-something Americans that vocation ministers largely engage as future religious. David Kinnaman’s UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters (Baker Books, 2007) and Robert Wuthnow’s After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion (Princeton, 2007) both provide dense, though helpful, sociological assessments of this demographic. Read more...

The U.S. Catholic ministry world has changed a great deal. Here is what the church needs from pastoral ministers today and how vocation ministers can help discerners begin to prepare. Read more...

Father Pier Giordano Cabra successfully takes on the challenge of addressing consecrated life in his book "A Short Course on the Consecrated Life: Reflections on Theology and Spirituality" (2004, Institute on Religious Life). Read more...

A formator finds herself renewed in spirit after getting back to basics with men and women religious from around the world. Read more...