Msgr. Michael Heintz on the Formation of Future Priests

Who is forming our future priests, and how are they being formed? These are questions that have only grown in importance in recent years, especially in the wake of recent scandals in the Church. What has been going on in seminaries, and what should be going on in seminaries are topics of great interest and often of great speculation. So why don’t we talk to somebody who knows what’s what in seminary formation? Good news, I’ve got just the person! Msgr. Michael Heintz is a priest of the Diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend. He is the former pastor of St. Matthew’s Cathedral parish in South Bend, but now here serves full-time at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland where some 20 dioceses send their seminarians for their studies and formation as priests. Msgr. Heintz is associate professor of theology at Mount St. Mary’s, as well as spiritual director and academic dean. He offered a major address on the formation of seminarians and priests at the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Called & Co-Responsible conference. And today he joins me, Leonard DeLorenzo to answer our questions and give us a better grasp of who’s being formed in seminaries, how they’re being formed, and to what end