By Carlos Luis
PUNE, November 6, 2026: The day’s sessions at the Pallottine Platinum Jubilee symposium on priestly formation traced a single arc from how formators see, to what seminaries lack, to how the Church must lead.
Opening the day, Father James Kannanthanam of National Vocation Service Centre in Pune offered formators an antidote to burnout.
Citing Appreciative Inquiry founder David Cooperrider’s statement that “the world is not a problem to be solved, but a miracle to be embraced,” he urged a shift from the deficit model, where formees are lists of faults to be corrected, to a strengths-based approach.
He deliberately abbreviated the approach as AIP, noting that AI has been “monopolised by Artificial Intelligence.”
His 4-D method — Discovery, Dream, Design, Destiny — invites formees to discover their “life-forces,” dream a “provocative proposition,” and design concrete plans. “What one focuses on grows,” he reminded the gathering, adding that compliance breeds fear, while appreciation breeds vocations.
If Kannanthanam supplied the mindset, Father Francis Scaria, rector of Khrist Premalaya Seminary in Ashta, delivered the diagnosis.
Measuring formation against the Good Shepherd of Jeremiah 3:15, he catalogued 10 sweeping lacunae: secularized formation where “knowledge of God without love of God is Satanic”; recruitment by allurement; insulated campuses; evaluation that measures intellect but never configuration to Christ; and priests formed for an “imaginary priesthood” who end up functioning as “CEOs of multinational companies.”
His remedies — honest discernment, human formation, open doors, wise use of AI, involvement of laity and religious women, pastoral immersion, and integral evaluation — echoed the day’s emerging consensus.
Concluding, Bishop Peter Paul Saldanha of Mangalore addressed the structural question of leadership. Synodality, he insisted, demands turning the pyramid upside down, confronting clericalism as the chief distortion, and forming priests “in and from” the People of God.
He advocated for women as co-responsible formators, formation houses in parish settings, and accountability modeled first in the seminary. In a fractured, digital age, he called for an “ecology of attention” and strict fidelity to Vos Estis Lux Mundi.
Three speakers reached one conclusion: formation is not repair work, not degree production, and not domination. Instead, it is wonder, integrity, and humble service, journeying with Christ at the center.