Union of Catholic Asian News（http://www.ucanews.com）
SINGAPORE 'The World Is Looking For Witnesses, Not So Much Teachers', 20 October 2008
SINGAPORE (UCAN) -- When Malaysia stopped allowing foreign students to study at College General 25 years ago, Singapore archdiocese rose to the occasion and set up St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary.
Since the archdiocesan major seminary began in 1983, 119 diocesan seminarians have graduated from it, according Father William Goh, the rector. As for the number of non-resident students who have attended the academic program, he considers it a safe estimate that the seminary has hosted at least 500.
Father William Goh, rector since 2005 at St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary in Singapore. He has held various positions in the seminary since 1992.
Father Goh, 51, spoke with UCA News about how the seminary has grown and developed over the past 25 years, from a local seminary for Singaporean priesthood candidates to a regional seminary not just hosting but also sponsoring seminarians from East Asia and South Asia.
The priest was one of the seminarians who began his priestly formation at College General in Penang in 1979, when it still served as the regional seminary for Malaysia and Singapore, but graduated from St. Francis Xavier, in 1984. In 1992, he earned a Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Meanwhile, he was a member of the former Theological Advisory Commission of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences 1995-1999.In addition to his responsibilities as seminary rector, Father Goh currently serves as spiritual director of the Archdiocesan Catholic Spirituality Centre and of the Singapore Archdiocesan Catholic Charismatic Renewal Experience. He is also chairman of the Archdiocesan Vocation Team.
The interview follows:
UCA NEWS: How significant is the major seminary for the archdiocese?
FATHER WILLIAM GOH: It is said that the seminary is the heart of [a] diocese, an indication of the spiritual and evangelical state of [a] diocese. When the People of God are spirit-filled and growing in holiness, vocations abound, since God calls his priests from within the community of faith. This explains why Jesus asks us to pray for vocations rather than organizing vocation campaigns. Conversely, the lack of vocations could reflect that the faith life of the community is weak.
What would you consider major milestones in its development over the years?
Although the seminary has always been receiving students from overseas for its academic program, it was never proactive in accepting full-time seminarians from abroad. However, from 1995 onwards, the door was open to receive seminarians from East Asia and Southeast Asia.
From 2000 onwards, we started to sponsor seminarians from Myanmar and Vietnam to study in our seminary. In 2004, the theologate [theological studies portion of seminary training] from College General was moved to our seminary due to limited resources and manpower.
The most recent milestone was in 2007, when the seminary received its affiliation from Urbania Pontifical University in Rome, enabling us to conduct the baccalaureate exam for our theology students.
How much has formation at St. Francis Xavier's changed over the years?
As seminarians tend to be much older by the time they are admitted to the seminary, as most of them are in their 30s and some even in their 40s, they are treated as mature adults. There is less emphasis on external observance of rules but on personal discipline and self-formation. Seminarians today are given more leeway to exercise their freedom in managing their timetable and activities.
Today, greater emphasis is given to personalized formation. This entails much dialogue with the seminarians. They are invited for regular dialogue sessions with the various formators in charge of their specific area of formation. Through listening and regular exchanges between seminarians and formators, the work of formation is one of guidance and mentoring.
Unlike in the past, where emphasis was given mostly to academic and spiritual formation, today what is sought is an integral formation that includes human, academic, spiritual and pastoral formation.
However, human formation has a higher priority because of the secular, materialistic, permissive and individualistic environment from which our seminarians are coming. Since the Church is communion and the Church's mission is communion, today's seminarians are formed to live in community and collaborate together in team ministry.
What are the benefits of having a cosmopolitan seminary community?
In the past 25 years, we have had resident seminarians, along with non-resident students from China, East Timor, Macao, Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, East and West Malaysia.
The seminary was meant to be a local seminary for Singaporeans. It was by providence that it has evolved into a cosmopolitan seminary. Initially, we were apprehensive that having seminarians from different cultures, languages and countries might result in a divisive community because of the tendency of minorities to form cliques.
Contrary to our fears, the cosmopolitan composition of the community has added color and joy to community life. Through interaction and celebration of different cultural festivities, we gain awareness and appreciation of each other's culture.
Seeing how fellow seminarians from different countries help each other out in their studies and activities has promoted the spirit of communion in community life. I am proud to say that the seminary truly lives out the catholic dimension of the Church in a real way.
What is your vision for the coming years?
We will definitely see increasing numbers of local seminarians, but we will not see non-resident students increasing, as our contract with the Education Ministry does not allow us to accept lay students without full scholarship.
I envision that there will be more priestly vocations to the seminary as a consequence of our active outreach to young people by the seminarians themselves. With the recent appointment of a full-time vocation director for the diocese, I expect more young people will become aware of their priestly calling and also be attracted to the diocesan priesthood.
Most probably, we can expect to have at least a few candidates entering the seminary every year by 2010. These are the fruits of our aggressive vocation promotion over the last few years.
St. Francis Xavier Major Seminary in Singapore established in 1983 and officially opened in 1988. The seminary is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
We will also have more mature candidates entering the seminary in terms of age and experience. Many of them would have attained a tertiary-level education and would have also had working experience. As most of them are entering in their 30s, they will be more independent, focused and self-motivated as a consequence of their personal encounter with the Lord.
Such a rich background will prepare them to minister more effectively to an increasingly sophisticated people.
What are the challenges today?
Firstly, we have to find more candidates to the priesthood. However since our intensive vocation promotion campaigns are already bearing fruits, this should no longer be a daunting challenge.
The second difficulty is to find good, exemplary, competent and holy formators who are not only teachers but witnesses to the life and ministry of a diocesan priest. They must be good models and be able to inspire our seminarians in their faith and lifestyle. Above all, they must also be able to work and collaborate together as a team in fraternal love.
Another challenge is on the level of formation, because of the varied milieu from which our seminarians are coming from. Being older and more mature also means that often their mindsets, character and even values are already fixed.
This is especially so for our local seminarians, who are coming into the seminary from an affluent and secular background. Evangelical values such as celibacy, poverty and obedience, or virtues such as humility and docility would be more difficult to cultivate because such values are in contrast to the individuality, freedom, public image, indulgence, materialism and an obsession with the body that the world promotes.
How can Singapore's lay Catholics share in the mission and work of the local seminary?
Formation of future priests is no longer confined to the seminary grounds. Seminarians are sent to parishes for their pastoral exposure, and it is important that our lay faithful not only give them moral or financial support but engage them in ministry.
As we are forming pastors, priests-to-be must be familiar with Church organizations and ministries in the parishes. They must also be involved in the new movements in the diocese.
Our lay faithful should share with our seminarians the spirit of their organizations and most of all their passion, enthusiasm and love for Christ, which would help inspire our seminarians and help them to feel with the pulse of the local Church.
What does the seminary do to make itself known?
We have an official website http://www.sfxms.org.sg. Our Singaporean seminarians currently also have a blog http://kampungpunggol.blogspot.com and they serve as the "seminarians online," whereby they share and answer queries from young people who are interested in the diocesan vocation.
We work in collaboration with the Serra Club of Singapore and the Diocesan Vocation Team to promote vocations by holding vocation recollections, days of prayer for vocations, vocation retreats, road shows to parishes and regular open houses.
We also publish our annual magazine called The Journey, which contains articles contributed by the seminarians and the staff.
Are you training future priests to deal with aggressive evangelization by fundamentalist Christians?
The Catholic Church has stood for more than 2,000 years because she is founded on the apostolic faith and the rich heritage of over 2,000 years of tradition in doctrines, spirituality and institution. As such, I do not think we should be overly reactive or fearful of the aggressive and unconventional approach of the fundamentalist churches. At any rate, they are not our competitors. In spite of our differences in doctrines, we share a common mission of bringing non-believers to Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
This does not imply that we are rigid in responding to the challenges of the Third Millennium. On the contrary, the Church is calling us to a "new evangelization," which entails the re-evangelization of Catholics who are weak in their faith and also making prudent use of the modern means of communication afforded by modern technology. Our current seminarians are computer-savvy, and most of them are already employing modern technology in their pastoral ministry.
Admittedly, we still have much to learn in the area of marketing techniques, as we do not wish to reduce the proclamation of the Gospel to mere marketing strategies as employed by the corporate world.
Saint Paul reminds us [in the First Letter to the Corinthians]: "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. ... My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."
I would caution against being too easily impressed by a theatrical presentation of the faith. We must avoid transforming the proclamation of the Gospel to a matter of showmanship as seen in some Christian evangelical groups.
It is good that we remind ourselves that Jesus proclaimed the message of the Kingdom of God in human lowliness and poverty. We must avoid the temptation of employing a triumphal manifestation of the faith that avoids the cross or uses the popular craving for the extraordinary and the spectacular.
What would you emphasize for evangelization?
The new evangelization is not reducible to simply using modern methods of communication; it concerns the style and approaches that are employed as well. Today, evangelization entails proclamation, witness, dialogue and service. Hence, seminarians are being grounded in philosophy, the social sciences and theology so that they could render an account for their faith and hope.
For this reason even though the seminary pays much emphasis to human formation, there is no question of lowering the standards of academic and spiritual formation. Otherwise, they will not be competent to engage in theological and moral dialogue with adherents of other religious traditions and with the world.
Without discounting the importance of the employment of the media and of modern technology, what we really need are not techniques and equipment but holy and humble priests filled with faith and love for the Lord and his Church; fired with evangelical and missionary zeal for the house of God and, most importantly, who live out the evangelical counsels of poverty, celibacy and obedience both in fact and in spirit.
The world is looking for witnesses, not so much teachers. Ultimately, the best advertisement for the Gospel is living witnesses of the Good News.
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