Plan to rescue hundreds of vocations devastated during the Francis pontificate

During the previous pontificate, the Church witnessed a disturbing phenomenon: the systematic persecution of seminarians, formators, and bishops linked to the liturgical and doctrinal tradition, carried out without transparency and, in many cases, without adhering to the most basic principles of canon law. We are not talking about a conspiracy caricature, but rather documented facts that left behind hundreds of deeply unjust personal situations.

The case of the San Rafael seminary in Mendoza (Argentina) is emblematic. Closed in 2020 by direct order of the Holy See, following a controversy over the reception of Communion in the hand (which they wanted to force), it left dozens of seminarians displaced or discouraged. It was the second most vocational seminary in the country. Many of these young people were never able to relocate or resume their path. Some left the ministry. Others were trapped in dioceses where they were seen as "problematic" for their fidelity to tradition. Still others have had to persevere in mission lands thousands of miles from home and to this day have not been ordained.

The case of Fréjus-Toulon, France, is equally clear. In 2022, the Vatican banned all ordinations in the diocese, paralyzing the La Castille seminary, which had more than 60 seminarians in formation. The reason? Widespread problems of "structural discernment." The result was the silent destruction of France's most fruitful seminary, with a long list of frustrated vocations.

Also in the United States, in January 2019, Cardinal Blase Cupich ordered the closure of St. Joseph College Seminary in Chicago. At the time, it had 20 seminarians. The decision was made unilaterally, without consulting the seminary's advisory board, and under the pretext of "demographic changes." Its closure was interpreted as part of the same pattern: eliminating ecclesial spaces where a strong and unapologetic Catholic identity flourishes.

These three cases—Saint Raphael, Fréjus-Toulon, and Chicago—are just a few notable examples, but unfortunately not the only ones. All are concentrated in the period from 2019 to 2023, which today can clearly be described as a period of radicalization of institutional persecution against traditional environments fertile in vocations.

A concrete proposal for institutional reparation

Faced with this reality, is reparation possible? Not only is it necessary: it is morally urgent. In just a few years, vibrant seminaries and entire communities of priestly formation were dismantled—for ideological reasons. These are hundreds of vocations cut short, displaced, or wounded, at a time when many dioceses are crying out for a shortage of priests. This is not a question of resentment or revenge: it is a question of pastoral and charitable justice for hundreds of young men called to the priesthood.

A concrete and realistic solution would be the creation of a special reparation commission, promoted by the Dicastery for the Clergy, to locate those affected, offer them the possibility of returning to their dioceses, validate their studies without requiring them to repeat unnecessary years, and accompany them spiritually and canonically in the recovery of their vocation. What was destroyed were not ideas, but generous souls who responded to God's call and were silenced by an institutional machinery that today must—at least—offer them a way back.

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