Vatican Criticizes Seminaries for Lapses : Catholics: Report says vocational schools for priests fail to promote strict teachings on issues ranging from artificial contraception to divorce.

Catholic seminaries are failing to promote the strict teachings of the church on matters ranging from artificial contraception to divorce, the Vatican said in a report this week.

That assessment of vocational schools--which form the bedrock of religious training for priests--points to the Vatican’s continuing frustration with what it perceives as growing tolerance of liberal views within the church.

Pope John Paul II has sternly disapproved of the trend among practicing Catholics to accept abortion, artificial birth control and divorce. The report suggests that such problems do not lie solely with adherents who have gone astray; it faults seminaries for their willingness to accept notions antithetical to church teaching.

The study was conducted by the Congregation for Catholic Education, which is charged with overseeing education efforts in the church. It concludes that the topic of marriage and family is inadequately taught in seminaries, interpretations of the Magisterium, or the church’s teaching authority, are often faulty, and a strong understanding of procreation, as articulated by the Second Vatican Council, is absent.

“We must conclude that this subject matter is not being treated with that accuracy and fullness which is necessary in order to provide the church with pastors who are well-prepared for this field of the apostolate,” the report said.

The report noted that seminaries need to do a better job of teaching priests that church doctrine prohibits sexual relations before marriage.

Quoting from the encyclical Hu-

manae Vitae, which articulated the church’s ban on artificial contraception, the report added that young pastors commonly fail in “setting forth without ambiguity the church’s teaching on marriage.”

The paper cited deficiencies among pastors in hearing confessions, or sacramental penance. Catholics “are looking for confessors and spiritual directors with strong moral criteria and expertise in the ways of evangelical perfection but they say that they experience some difficulty in finding them,” the report said.

The report blamed a shortage of skilled seminary teachers, a lack of supervision and poorly designed course work for the problems, and ordered local bishops to oversee improvements.