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CATALOG INDEX: click to skip to a specific item

• Handbook For Directors of Ongoing Formation of Priests
• Sabbatical Programs for Priest, Religious and Formation Ministers
• Priestly Relationships: Freedom Through Boundaries
• Expressed Needs And Attitudes Of Newly Ordained Priests
• 2006 Study of Recently Ordained Priests
  

HANDBOOK FOR DIRECTORS OF ONGOING FORMATION OF PRIESTS

“Programs, resources, and practices do not constitute ongoing formation. They are necessary instruments but always in service to the larger purpose and direction of formation. It is tempting, however, in an American context with its stress on practicality to identify formation with programs.”

“We can define ongoing formation in this way: It is the continuing integration of priestly identity with functions or service for the sake of mission and communion with Christ and the Church.” 

(The Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests, page 11)

As with Christian initiation, formation of the Church’s presbyters, bishops, and deacons is a lifelong journey of faith. Effective formation goes beyond programs to nurture ordained ministers’ unity in the paschal mystery of Christ, the one priest, who “for our sake…opened his arms on the cross,…put an end to death and revealed the resurrection (Eucharistic Prayer II, Preface).”

This is why the bishops of the United States, in The Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests, describe ongoing formation as “the deliberate cultivation of the unity of the priests and their bishop, a unity that responds to God’s grace and the mission entrusted to them (page 94).”

NOCERCC exists to support this cultivation of unity among priests, with the bishops, and in the communion of the whole Church. In 1994 NOCERCC published its first Handbook for the Continuing Formation of Priests, to provide a resource for directors of continuing education and ongoing formation of priests in dioceses and religious communities.

In 2001 the bishops published The Basic Plan as a guide for the ministry of ongoing formation over the next ten years. The Basic Plan is intended to complement and follow up on the Program of Priestly Formation, the authoritative standard established by the U.S. bishops for initial formation in seminaries.

NOCERCC offers this 2003 Handbook as a practical complement to the bishops’ Basic Plan. The centerpiece of this new Handbook is its diverse collection of real-life examples of the ministry of ongoing formation from across the United States.

NOCERCC asked member dioceses and religious communities to share policies, programs, and resources for each stage of priests’ life and ministry. The examples of pastoral practice in the Handbook represent the experience and wisdom of over one hundred dioceses and religious communities and can be used as starting-points in developing every aspect of the ongoing formation ministry. The Handbook presents these examples without any evaluation or endorsement so that the user can be the judge of what may be helpful in particular pastoral circumstances.

An index is included to assist users not only in referencing the policy and program examples in the Handbook but also in networking with other dioceses and religious communities that have experience with particular areas of ongoing formation. The Handbook also includes a series of reflections on the ongoing formation ministry as well as information about additional resources and the report from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University on the 2002 CARA Priest Poll, a telephone poll of over 1,200 priests in the United States. 

To place your order contact National Office at 333 N Michigan Ave Ste 1205, Chicago, IL 60601, Phone: 312.781.9450; Fax: 312.442.9709;  Email: nocercc@nocercc.org.

SABBATICAL PROGRAMS FOR PRIEST, RELIGIOUS AND FORMATION MINISTERS

A catalog of 50 sabbatical opportunities in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Israel and Australia, designed for, or inclusive of, priests, with location, history, degrees offered, purpose and goals, preferred participants, eligibility criteria, length of time, dates, content or program description, staff, room and board arrangements, costs, and contact information. All information, plus photos is on a CD-ROM included with the booklet.

To place your order contact National Office at 333 N Michigan Ave Ste 1205, Chicago, IL 60601, Phone: 312.781.9450; Fax: 312.442.9709;  Email: nocercc@nocercc.org.

PRIESTLY RELATIONSHIPS: FREEDOM THROUGH BOUNDARIES

A print and video resource to assist in understanding intimacy, sexuality, and boundary issues. This resource is meant to be practical and realistic in addressing aspects of healthy human development, to be formational as well as informational, and to highlight the positive gift of celibacy. It will help priests come to know and continue to deepen their knowledge of themselves in all their humanness.

These materials are a direct response to an educational need discerned among thousands of priests, bishops and seminarians. Within the framework of the relationships that form the context of the priest's life, these materials will help priests deepen their self-knowledge and assist them in these relationships. This resource is a tool to help priests talk with priests and others about how they handle the challenges of intimacy, sexuality, and boundary issues.

To place your order contact National Office at 333 N Michigan Ave Ste 1205, Chicago, IL 60601, Phone: 312.781.9450; Fax: 312.442.9709;  Email: nocercc@nocercc.org.

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EXPRESSED NEEDS AND ATTITUDES OF NEWLY ORDAINED PRIESTS

Prepared by Dr. Dean R. Hoge of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America, this study summarizes five recent surveys of newly ordained priests to assess the needs and attitudes of newly ordained priests entering the contemporary ministerial environment. This publication is a valuable tool to persons seeking more effective ways of addressing the needs of newly ordained priests. Directors of ongoing formation of priests as well as committees, presbyteral councils, priests’ support groups and recently ordained priests may find this to be an important resource in their work.

To place your order contact National Office at 333 N Michigan Ave Ste 1205, Chicago, IL 60601, Phone: 312.781.9450; Fax: 312.442.9709;  Email: nocercc@nocercc.org.

Dr. Dean Hoge, professor of sociology and director of The Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and recipient of NOCERCC’s 2005 President’s Distinguished Service Award, has produced a study of continuing formation needs of recently ordained priests, Experiences of Priests Ordained Five to Nine Years: A Study of Recently Ordained Catholic Priests.  The study was made possible with a grant from The Lilly Endowment in Indianapolis, Indiana and was sponsored by the Seminary Department of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) in Washington, DC (Br. Bernard F. Stratman, SM, executive director).  The book is scheduled for release in September 2006 from NCEA Publications.  

Experiences of Priests Ordained Five to Nine Years follows up on a 1990 study by Dean Hoge and Eugene Emmerich of priests ordained five to nine years.  This 1990 study, also sponsored by NCEA, is summarized by Dean Hoge in the 1999 NOCERCC publication Expressed Needs and Attitudes of Newly Ordained Priests.  

NOCERCC was represented on the 2006 study’s advisory committee by V. Rev. Frederick P. Annie, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, who contributed a response in Expressed Needs and Attitudes of Newly Ordained Priests; Dr. Christa R. Klein, president of In Trust, Inc. and a NOCERCC consultor; and James H. Alphen, NOCERCC executive director.

• A summary of major findings by Dean Hoge
• Foreword by Rev. Eugene Hemrick
• Commentaries by