Last week the Vatican issued a revised version of its “fundamentals of priestly formation”, which guide the training of clergy around the world. The text, known officially as the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, was last updated in 1985 – in the early days of St John Paul II’s pontificate.
Introducing the new document, Cardinal Beniamino Stella noted that “the historical, socio-cultural and ecclesiastical contexts have changed” since the 1980s. That is something of an understatement.
