Mission and Spirit

The Mission

The Society of Saint Sulpice has one aim: to serve those who are ordained to the priestly ministry, priests and future priests. In order to remain close to those they serve, they chose to remain diocesan priests and remain incardinated to their original diocese. They make no special vows or promises. They are united by priestly charity and the will to carry out their ministry under the authority of their superiors with the help and obligations of a community life.

The constitutions of the Society bear this out :

Dedicated to Jesus Christ, the High Priest, the Society of St. Sulpice, born in the apostolate of Jean-Jacques Olier, its founder, is a community of diocesan priests whose vocation is the service of those ordained to the priestly ministry.

With this fundamental purpose in view, they devote themselves to the discernment of vocations, to the initial and ongoing formation of priests or to the exercise of other ministries. They fulfill this work with the desire to instruct others in the "interior life" and to form in them the "apostolic spirit.

The Society is a Society of Apostolic Life of pontifical right (art. 1).

Collaborating with the bishops, the Society wishes to share in the solicitude for the whole Church and to take part in the mutual aid among local churches. Consequently its members may be called upon to exercise their ministries in countries distant from their native lands. Wherever they find themselves, "they will organize their pastoral activity in such a way that it will serve to spread the gospel among non-Christians (art. 3).

This service, however varied in its expressions, has but one ultimate purpose, namely, to dispose candidates for the ministry to be deeply rooted in the Spirit of Christ, Teacher, Priest and Pastor, and "to become skilled in the ministry of teaching, sanctifying and ruling the people of God (art. 12).

Formation methods

The society's approach to formation is the fruit of long and thoughtful experience. It can be resumed in the guidelines enumerated in Art. 14 as follows :

1. The collegial exercise of responsibility which applies first to the formation faculty but which also calls for the collaboration of candidates for ministry, of the diocesan clergy and of other members of the Christian community
2. A genuine community life of faculty and candidates so as to constitute a "formation community" which prepares for co-responsibility and which allows for necessary confrontation and a better discernment of vocations.
3. A progressive initiation into a personal spiritual life, which is achieved most especially through regular spiritual direction.
4. A great concern for the spiritual freedom of the candidates, emphasized by a clear distinction between the responsibility of the Council and that of the spiritual director.
5. The constant search for union with Christ in whom priests discover the unity of their lives... (art. 14).

The Sulpician approach to formation is based on a shared, common life with seminarians :

Convinced that sharing of their priestly life is the most profound and the most effective teaching, the Priests of Saint Sulpice will live in a closely-knit community with the candidates for the ministry. They will open the way to a true dialogue which will enable every one to feel responsible for the community (art. 25).

Spirituality

Pentecost from Charles Le Brun, ordered for the chapel of the Séminaire Saint-Sulpice by Jean-Jacques Olier. This painting is presently found at the Chapel of the Maison sulpicienne of 6, Rue du Regard in Paris

In their service to priests and future priests, the Priests of St. Sulpice draw energy from the spirituality of the French school, especially as it was lived and formulated by Father Olier. It goes without saying that in no way do they intend to impose upon diocesan priests of the future the spirituality of a particular school; as a matter of fact, in diverse times and places, Sulpicians themselves have leaned heavily on other traditions of spirituality. However, they have found in Father Olier's writings a spirituality most useful in their lives as diocesan priests and in their service to the priesthood of the Church.

The spirituality is completely centered on union with Jesus Christ, on communion with His mysteries, on His dispositions, on His interior attitudes, and especially on His filial love towards God, His Father. To live wholly for God in Christ Jesus is what is proposed at the outset of Father Olier's Pietas Seminarii, the summary of this spirituality written at the very beginning of the Seminary of St. Sulpice.

This union with Jesus Christ involves a great docility to the Holy Spirit. Father Olier, time and again, used the expression Abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit, to express the constant attitude one had to have. The interior life is none other than union with Jesus Christ in docility to the Spirit, leading to true spiritual freedom.

This spiritual life is sustained by the Eucharist and by the Word of God. It includes a theologically sound and filial devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Process of Admissions and Formation

The Society admits ordained priests who have obtained the permission of their bishop to enter. It does not maintain separate houses set up for its own candidates formation before their ordination. But after ordination, it provides theological, professional and spiritual formation in order to prepare them for their ministry and to introduce them to its spirit. It provides also a lengthy period of community living to enable them to become rooted in the spiritual tradition of St. Sulpice.

Admission into the Society happens in stages. First, the Society begins to take responsibility for formation of the candidate, always with the explicit agreement of his bishop. In the Canadian Province this is done only after the candidate has served two years in his own diocese. Then, as a start, he makes an experience of the community life in one of the Sulpician teams.

Then, he joins in the Sulpician Month which usually takes place in Paris during the month of July; the candidates of the three Provinces of France, the United States and Canada gather in this session. It has three aims :

• getting to know each candidate and his country and his own diocese,
• knowing the history and traditions of Saint Sulpice,
• visiting the original locations of Saint Sulpice in France.

After that Month, the candidates of Canada and France follow a 4 month program of formation. For example, From August till December 2001, the Sulpician house of Oka hosted the Franco-Canadian Solitude, consisting of 6 candidates from the Province of France (2 Frenchmen, 1 Vietnamese and 5 Africans) and 8 from the Canadian Province (4 Canadians and 4 from Latin-America).

After a period of experience and formation, temporary admission is granted to the candidate, which confers upon the candidate the rights and obligations attached to membership. Definitive membership is usually granted a few years later. Even after definitive admission, Sulpicians remain incardinated in their own dioceses. Bound by neither canonical vows nor special promises, they may withdraw from the Society provided they inform the Provincial Superior. If they leave or if they be lawfully dismissed, they return to their own dioceses.