Do Catholic Seminarians Lose their Vocation in Hospitals ( Clinical Pastoral Education)

Who knew such evil things were occurring in hospitals!!!

Domine, da mihi hanc aquam! that is always one of the more fun Priests blogs to read has a heck of a post here that starts out with This post is intended to incite a rebellion. See Seminarians: do NOT be bullied!

It appears looking at the comments this is not just a Catholic problem either. Father says:

I want to encourage and embolden any seminarian--diocesan or religious--who is being forced to complete a course in Clinical Pastoral Education to decide here and now to resist the indoctrination and ideological brainwashing that the Liberal Prot CPE process encourages.You will be required to complete one summer of this ridiculous zombification. You have no choice. Go in fighting. Wear your habit. Wear your clerical garb. Insist on being authentically, fully, faithfully Catholic. Don't let the moonbat sisters or the Prot "ministers" or the "social justice" priests warp your dedication to the Church's mission to teach and preach the gospel...........

Let's be absolutely clear here: Clinical Pastoral Education is nothing more than a systematic "weeding out" of orthodox seminarians through a process of enforced radical leftist indoctrination. I survived b/c I was 37 years old and had years of working in mental health institutions under my belt. I was able to manipulate the system using the rhetoric and strategy of victimization that seemed to garner the attention of the administration. In other words, I knew how to position myself as the underdog in a system dominated by radical leftist queer/liberationists supervisors. They didn't dare push me into a corner. I knew the system too well. In fact, at the end of my ordeal, I received an apology from the director of chaplaincy services and a glowing CPE report. Anything less would have resulted in a lengthy and detailed report from me to Archbishop Rigali.

To the seminarians who are embarking on CPE: do NOT let these people intimidate you or in any way dissuade you from being fully, authentically Catholic. Listen. Learn. Take what you will. But DEMAND that your Catholic identity be respected. DEMAND that your understanding of your priestly vocation be respected. Do NOT let these people bully you. If they try, call them out. Tell them to stop bullying you. Report them to your bishop. Keep detailed records. Names, dates, times, quotes. I wish I had done this. Do not hesitate to bring bullying incidents to your supervisor and your bishop.These people have power over you and they will use it to derail your vocation if you dare to oppose them. Document, document, document!

And Father is just getting started. As Catholics that already have such a short of supply of seminarians perhaps we should be asking what is going on.

I mean look at just at afew of these comments:
Anonymous said...
CPE taught me how to lie. It taught me to get the group to turn on someone else so that I didn't get to be "it" in IPR. It taught me to avoid rolling my eyes when obvious manipulation and game playing was going on. Fortunately the head chaplain wasn't too ideological. As a priest I advise seminarians to avoid CPE. I helped on seminarian to do some good. He worked in an infant critical care unit and I taught him how to baptize in danger of death. He baptized 5 babies before they died. Also he read a lot of JPII on the nature of suffering. But he learned in spite of the program rather then because of it. How did CPE make me feel? Bad, really really bad.

and
Truer words never spoken. I (a Prot minister) survived mine. The value was the 'sink or swim' aspect of being with and working with people in acute and chronic situations. But the programmed aspect of it -- reading crappy books, interpersonal relations (IPR), verbatims, etc etc -- was useless. Preach it, brother!