Archbishop Edwin O'Brien (CNS)

The findings of the Vatican’s apostolic visitations of U.S. seminaries have been made public by the Vatican.

The seminary visitations were ordered by Pope John Paul II in 2002 as part of the Church’s response to the sexual abuse scandals involving Catholic clergy in the United States. They were conducted under the leadership of Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore, a former rector of both the Pontifical North American College in Rome and of New York’s archdiocesan seminary.

Here is Catholic News Service’s report on the findings, and the complete report has been posted at the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Jack Smith, editor of The Catholic Key, the newspaper of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., has posted an informative analysis of the key findings of Rome’s investigation of U.S. seminaries.

The release of the Vatican document coincides with National Vocations Awareness Week. And while Rome’s findings highlight some problem areas such as the state of some of the seminaries for religious orders, they also provide reason for optimism about the overall quality of the men who currently are discerning vocations in the nation’s Catholic seminaries.

“The most encouraging part of the report is its discussion of the quality of today’s seminarians — one that I’d heartily confirm from anecdotal evidence,” writes Smith, who cites this passage from the visitations report:

“Almost universally, the candidates — both diocesan and religious — received great praise from the Apostolic Visitors. The candidates are generous, intelligent, full of zeal, pious, and faithful to prayer. They are demonstrably loyal to the Church’s Magisterium. They are signs of great hope for the Church in the U.S.”

— Tom McFeely