President's Message

Dear Staff and Students,
Ratio Fundamentalis…(2017) puts the emphasis in the Seminary Formation on Integral Formation which envelops specially of four dimensions: spiritual, human, intellectual and pastoral. Although at JDV we put emphasis on academics we consciously integrate it with other dimensions, so as not to “overemphasize academics” which would leave seminarians lesser formed emotionally and personally. Our focus is on forming priests and religious who are ready to effectively serve the people with well behavior. When the vacuum within the head, heart and hand (behavior) is not addressed and filled up, space opens for disordered living that has made headlines in our hierarchical Church in recent months. Examination of our individual and collective ways of life especially during this Lent 2019 is paramount importance for better formation and mission. On January 26, 2019, Pope Francis met 30 Jesuits including the novices at the Nunciature in Panama. At that time, highlighting the importance of transparency, he said to the novices: “look, if you don’t get used to being transparent now, it’d be best you leave, because things will go badly. Falling short of transparency, even for something small, is something that can happen in every process of growth. But be careful, for if you do not recover quickly, there will come a time when the Society won’t know what to do with that person, because the bond of fraternity is broken, our being companions in the Lord. At that point the person will go on by deceit, by excuses, by sickness. Anything that will let him do what he wants.”Read More