Sydney, Australia, Oct 3, 2019 / 10:00 am
A Catholic bishop in Australia has dismissed media reports that Church leaders are considering a radical overhaul of priestly formation.
Last week, reports appeared in several national newspapers suggesting that the bishops were considering a complete break with the traditional system for training seminarians in response to the sexual abuse crisis.
Calling seminaries "exclusive" and "male-dominated," The Age reported on Sept. 26 that the bishops were "discussing dismantling the seminary system altogether in favour of a broader model of priest apprenticeships with more interaction with the community."
In a response issued in the Oct. 8 edition of The Catholic Weekly, the official paper of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Bishop Tony Randazzo called the reports "not only false, but based on a dangerous misunderstanding" of how men are currently trained for the priesthood in Australia.