When Carter Anderson started seminary formation two years ago, he likely knew that hitting the books would be on the agenda.
But what the Diocese of Helena, Montana, seminarian might not have known at the time was that, in addition to sacred Scripture and theological texts, works of fiction would also play an important part in his preparation for the priesthood.
In particular, Anderson cites the impact of reading Georges Bernanos’ The Diary of a Country Priest in his first year of formation at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Even though the novel is set in a different century and continent, the Montana seminarian found that its depiction of a 20th-century French priest embracing his weakness and depending more deeply on God amidst the difficulties of parochial ministry helped him do the same as he began his formation for the priesthood.
“It was a deep insight into the heart of the spiritual life,” Anderson told the Register.
The Montana seminarian’s literary encounter wasn’t an accident. Instead, it was the product of an intentional focus on reading literature in the first year of formation at the St. Paul’s Seminary, where Anderson is set to begin his third year as a seminarian this fall.
More broadly, it illustrates the important role reading fiction can play in the formation of future priests, with seminary faculty, seminarians and even Pope Francis noting the ability of quality literature to bolster empathy, increase a desire for goodness, and offer a refreshing alternative to screen time.
The Pope addressed the topic in a July 17 letter, writing that reading novels and poems should be an essential part of preparation for ministry and that their absence “can lead to serious intellectual and spiritual impoverishment of future priests.”
“The task of believers, and of priests in particular, is precisely to ‘touch’ the hearts of others, so that they may be opened to the messages of the Lord Jesus,” wrote Pope Francis. “In this great task, the contribution that literature and poetry can offer is of incomparable value.”
Pope Francis lamented that “a sufficient grounding in literature” is not a standard part of priestly formation. But some seminaries in the U.S. and abroad seem to be bucking that trend.
In particular, some houses of formation appear to be using a new period of seminary formation called the “propaedeutic stage” — which comes from a Greek word meaning “to teach beforehand” — as time for intentional engagement with literature. The propaedeutic stage is an initial phase of seminary formation that focuses on forming good habits and growing in freedom from unhealthy attachments.
At the St. Paul Seminary, for instance, men in this initial phase of formation take part in a yearlong reading group, which is where Anderson first read Bernanos. Other texts include Paul Claudel’s The Tidings Brought to Mary, Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory, and short stories by Flannery O’Connor.
Described as somewhere in between a book club and an academic class, the course aims to help new seminarians rediscover a sense of wonder and God’s activity in daily life, before exploring specific themes like love and friendship, death and hope, and, finally, priestly ministry.
Seminarians read in their free time and then come together twice a week to talk about the texts, with seminary professor Father Pietro Rossotti guiding discussion.
“It’s a deep dive into the human person and God’s grace,” explained Peter Flynn, a seminarian from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis who participated in the course two years ago.
Although the seminarians in the course read other materials, like Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical on hope or Aristotle’s treatise on friendship, the syllabus is heavy with works of fiction.
Father Rossotti explained that the idea isn’t to provide a distraction from truths about God and the human person articulated in academic or ecclesial texts, but rather to come at them in a way that brings them to life for the reader.
“Literature gives you an entry point into the human experience that philosophy and theology don’t,” explained Father Rossotti, a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo. “Reading literature is like encountering the person through experience.”
In this way, reading literature can be good preparation for encountering others in ministry, said Father Rossotti.
“I want my students to see that everyone is waiting for Jesus,” explained the priest. “But we need to be able to detect that desire.”
Father Rossotti’s emphasis on the evangelical relevance of literature is unsurprising, given his belonging to the St. Charles Borromeo Missionaries. The priestly fraternity is connected to the lay movement Communion and Liberation, which stresses literature as a place where the deepest desires of the human heart are often unveiled.
In fact, the St. Charles Borromeo Missionaries’ seminary in Rome includes a small library dedicated entirely to works of literature. A list of more than 100 recommended texts provided to the seminarians includes Catholic authors like Robert Hugh Benson (author The Lord of the World, a papal favorite) and Divine Comedy scribe Dante Algieri, but also such non-Catholic Christians as Wendell Berry, ancient pagans like Homer, and even atheist existentialists like Albert Camus.
The seminary’s rector, Father Donato Contuzzi, told the Register that their literary emphasis is inspired by Communion and Liberation’s founder, Servant of God Luigi Giussani, who “always educated us to be positively open to everything that is human, that which speaks of man and to man.”
“Through literature, you can get to know a people; and for us missionaries, this is very important,” explained Father Contuzzi. “You get to know the human soul and human history, which is also fundamental for facing the present and the people to whom we are sent.”
The value of literature is also embraced at more ordinary diocesan seminaries in the United States.
At Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, seminarians in the propaedeutic stage are encouraged to read literature as a way of “forming their sentiments and sympathies,” explained Father Daniel Hanley.
“Good art can form the desires toward an ordered good,” said Father Hanley, who coordinates the propaedeutic stage at the Mount and said that literature is part of the educative process of teaching “someone what they ought to love.”
Additional benefits of reading literature, he said, include helping the seminarian grow in the “imaginative capacity to express himself,” which is important for effective preaching, and also to become culturally educated.
The Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, priest explained that good fiction need not be “explicitly theocentric,” nor does it necessarily need to be written by Catholics.
“Good literature can form the sentiments because it is grounded in the truth about the human person, creation in the cosmos, and the basic truth about God and his goodness,” Father Hanley told the Register.
For instance, Father Hanley said that Charles Dickens’ stories help the reader “like the things you ought to like and not like the things you shouldn’t,” while Jane Austen’s novels are “essentially about people discovering a properly ordered attraction.”
Unlike at St. Paul’s, the Mount doesn’t require seminarians in the propaedeutic stage to do required readings as part of a course. Instead, the approach is more individualized.
“Each man comes to an understanding of where he needs to grow, and then we try to figure out a book for him to read,” explained Father Hanley, although the seminarians generally form reading groups amongst themselves.
The priest also noted that, consistent with Pope Francis’ recent reflections, the goal isn’t to make seminarians slog through a text they dislike, but instead to connect them with something they truly enjoy.
During the propaedeutic stage, “we try to drill down and help men grow in true recreation,” he said. “Literature is a part of how we do that well.”
National sources could not confirm that a literary focus is necessarily being implemented at all U.S. seminaries as part of the propaedeutic stage, which became a requirement starting last year.
But the current edition of the “Program for Priestly Formation,” a text from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that guides seminary formation in the United States, states that this initial period can “help to make up for anything that is missing in a seminarian’s general education,” with a familiarity with “the Catholic intellectual tradition,” including literature and the arts, described more generally as an important area of competence for future priests.
Seminarians who have engaged with literature as part of their formation at places like St. Paul Seminary underscore how it’s aided their preparation for ministry.
Flynn said that his first year’s focus on literature has affirmed that reading helps him experience refreshment in way that scrolling on a smartphone does not.
“It does seem that literature can heal us in some way,” said Flynn, who is currently reading and discussing J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings with other seminarians. ”It puts us into contact with something very human and life-giving and joyful.”
And two years removed from the course and his encounter with Bernanos’ country priest, Anderson says that he has maintained a daily habit of reading literature, which “continues to be instrumental in my relationship to Our Lord and others.”
Describing reading literature as “akin to true listening,” Anderson said that the practice helps him be open to life experiences that he’s never gone through himself.
“Being attentive to the plight of another, be that a character or the person in front of me, I recognize a response within a gateway to empathy and compassion,” he told the Register.
It’s an ability that will help him now as a member of the seminary community and, God-willing, in his future ministry as a priest.
