During the summer season, young seminarians of the Legionaries of Christ take a break from their studies to spend a month doing social work in marginalized communities stated a press release of the Regnum Christi’s Communications Office on June 30.
“The objective is formative and consists in experiencing up close the needs of the people, what it means to earn one’s bread with the work of one’s hands and to sensitize the seminarians,” explained Father Carlos Proal, in charge of the Seminary of the Legionaries of Christ in Monterrey.
Father Proal said that this summer he is working with a group of 25 seminarians dedicated to agricultural work and social labor and that, for over 15 years, they have engaged in a service of promotion of values and reforestation. “There are very many needy communities in the highlands of Hidalgo. We saw the possibility to help there with social work and support of the area’s parish priest. People of a mining company that are in charge of the area of social responsibility, focus on the community’s most urgent needs and plan the aid. We add ourselves to that project with our work and talks that help in the formation of values.”
In Mexico’s different Seminaries, the major and minor seminarians collaborate in service to the community, give support in different parishes and undertake evangelization missions.
Seminarians in Mexico
A seminarian studies an average of nine years, a first introductory year, four years of Philosophy and four years of Theology. In some Congregations, they dedicate time to apostolic practices.
According to Yuliana Navarrete of the National Observatory of the Mexican Episcopate’s Conference (CEM), at present, there are approximately 6,546 seminarians candidates to the priesthood and 14,600 priests in the country’s 91 dioceses.
According to the 2018 Pontifical Yearbook, there has been a decrease of vocations in Central America. Mexico, however, showed a slight increase up to 2012, then a decrease to 2015. At the end of 2016, the number of seminarians was established approximately at 5,000.
