Good formation requires good formators

Well-trained priests don't fall from the sky. But we need them! The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome offers an excellent, holistic, and world-Church-minded formation. Candidates for the priesthood and priests from all over the world, as well as laypeople and religious, are personally, spiritually, and intellectually accompanied and supported. This allows them to develop a mature personality, find their vocation, and live it out fully. To support this formation, Priesterausbildungshilfe has been working closely with the university for 30 years already.

More a vocation than a profession

For Don Luis Navarro too, his work as rector and professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is more a vocation than a profession: “Teaching here is a service to the universal Church. Alongside their professional expertise, every one of our professors must also bring personal integrity and the capacity for spiritual fatherhood. For we want to help form the people entrusted to us as whole persons in Christ.”

Finding such people is currently a great challenge. After some 35 years, many long-serving professors are retiring. Their chairs need to be filled anew.

Don Luis has taught canon law here since 1986; for eight years he was dean of the faculty, and for seven years he served as spiritual director at the International Priestly Seminary affiliated with the university. He has lived in the university's priestly colleges for 20 years. Since 2016 he has served as rector. Like most of the roughly 120 permanent professors, he also obtained a civil degree. Don Luis explains just how important this civil-law training is when he describes how the formation at his university differs from that offered elsewhere:

“What matters is not only what is taught, but how education is imparted. This dual qualification has tested the formators through interaction with people in today's society and has kept them grounded, close to people's everyday reality. This enables them to enter into a fruitful dialogue with people, to understand their worries, and to help solve their pressing needs.” It is out of such friendly relationships that priests are best able to lead people into a relationship and friendship with Christ.

Learning in and through relationship

In an environment that is becoming increasingly disconnected, the university relies on learning in and through relationship: group work, personal accompaniment, and the living witness of formators closely bonded with the students, combined with high academic standards.

All of this helps the students to think further, to question, to develop their personalities, and to master the most varied challenges. The new pastors later bring this experience home to the people entrusted to their care. For Don Luis, the greatest joy lies in seeing the fruits of this formation blossom in countless countries around the world.

We ask you most warmly:

Join us in supporting Don Luis in ensuring the lasting, excellent quality of priestly formation at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross! Please pray for good formators and, if at all possible, help with a generous donation! The world needs well-trained priests. Thank you for your solidarity!

Personal – intellectual – spiritual

Formation at the University of the Holy Cross is multifaceted: alongside intellectual formation in the lecture hall, spiritual accompaniment and life together with fellow students, professors, and formators from all over the world lay a solid personal and spiritual foundation.

This life under one roof is what makes the formation so special. It allows the students to encounter the lived witness of many experienced priests. They can come to understand, ever more deeply, what it means to be a priest. For in order to become and remain a good shepherd, a priest must be entirely clear about his identity as a priest.

Thank you very much for your generous support of Don Luis Navarro!