The Intellectual Formation of Clerical Brothers

What was said above in numbers 76-83 about the importance of study and its sources should be taken very seriously by the student brothers and put into practice. They must be aware that the study they undertake is an essential part of the life they have, by profession, bound themselves to lead.

Studies are governed by the following:

1. the Ratio Studiorum Generalis which lays down what is needed for the overall planning of studies and the doctrinal unity of the Order;
2. the particular Rationes Studiorum suited to the needs of specific times and places.

It is for the Master of the Order, principally:

1. to establish centres of institutional studies;
2. to appoint regents of studies;
3. to draw up the Ratio Studiorum Generalis, promulgate and suitably modify it as changing circumstances demand;
4. to approve individual Rationes Studiorum Particulares.

It is for the prior provincial, principally:

1. to decide with his council how best to achieve the formation of the brothers, bearing in mind n. 234;
2. with his council to propose the regent to the Master of the Order, having consulted the commission for the intellectual life, if this needs to be done outside the provincial chapter;
3. to prepare suitable professors for the intellectual formation of the brothers;
4. to appoint brothers to teach in the province’s centres of studies according to the statutes of these centres;
5. to submit the Ratio Studiorum Particularis to the Master of the Order for his approval.

Institutional studies are to be made, if at all possible, within the Order, bearing in mind the particular character of our own studies (see nn. 76-83). If it is not deemed opportune for them to be made within the Order, the province, with the consent of the Master of the Order, shall arrange the best way of achieving the formation of the brothers, remaining always faithful to the doctrinal tradition of the Order.

1. Each province should have its own centre of institutional studies to provide its students with an intellectual formation according to the tradition of the Order and of the province. The centre’s faculty or group of professors, constituted according to the province’s Ratio Studiorum Particularis, and under the presidency of the moderator, is responsible for the institutional studies of the brothers even when their studies are pursued outside the centre or outside the province.
2. A centre of institutional studies which provides the entire curriculum required by the Ratio Studiorum Generalis offers the best possible intellectual formation according to the tradition of the Order. Provinces should, whenever possible, establish and strengthen such centres.
3. Where, because the number of students is small or there is a lack of suitable professors, or because of the benefit of collaborating with other institutes for the good of the Church, the centre of studies does not provide a curriculum, and the students with the consent of the Master of the Order frequent other institutes or faculties not belonging to the Order, then the centre of studies should provide some courses and programmes for the students so that they can have a real experience of study within a community of the Order, especially in subjects relating to the doctrinal tradition of the Order.
4. When students are sent to another province for institutional studies, they retain their links with their own centre of institutional studies; they return to it at least for some experience of study within their own province; and they are subject to the faculty of that centre insofar as the planning and coordination of their studies is concerned.
5. When students are sent to centres of higher studies of the Order or other centres of higher studies, they remain under the regent of studies for the planning and coordination of their studies.

Cooperation in institutional studies within the Order can be done:

1. by setting up in a particular nation or region, with due regard for n. 233, an interprovincial centre of institutional studies with its own particular statute, in which the entire curriculum according to the Ratio Studiorum Generalis of the Order can be provided for brothers of several provinces;
2. by providing in one province’s centre part of the curriculum (for example, the philosophical formation for students of two or more provinces) and another part in some other province’s centre. Such collaboration is governed according to a particular statute agreed between the provinces;
3. by offering to those provinces which send students to another province’s centre some sharing, at least consultative, in the government of that centre;
4. by sending students to the Order’s centres of higher studies, especially international centres, with due regard for n. 233.

In the government of the house of studies, the prior shall ensure that the conditions are favourable for the intellectual formation of the students; and he shall respect the freedom of the brothers entrusted with formation within the limits of each one’s tasks.

The moderatorship of the centre of institutional studies shall be appointed according to the centre’s own statute, observing n. 92-bis, § I.

1. A centre of institutional studies is governed by a group of professors under the presidency of a moderator. The duty of this group is to promote everything that pertains to study, always bearing in mind the integral formation of the brothers. It is the task of Rationes Studiorum Particulares to determine which teachers fully belong to the faculty, and how students are to participate in it.
2. This centre’s moderatorship is subject to the prior provincial in discharging its responsibilities. It is subject to the conventual prior in all that concerns the religious life and government
   of the community.
3. Professors and students should willingly work together under the authority of the moderatorship to promote study.

The curriculum of institutional studies includes philosophical and theological disciplines and pastoral formation.