LORENZO MISSION INSTITUTE: THE FORMATION OF AGENTS OF "BRIDGING DIALOGUE"

1) Seminary Formation that is Christological- Since the Lorenzo Mission Institute promotes a priestly formation that is missionary, then it has to foster a Christ-centered formation. Christ is the image and the sacrament of the Father. "The fundamental idea is that Seminaries should form missionary disciples who are "in love" with the Master, shepherds with the 'smell of the sheep', who live in their midst to bring the mercy of God to them." (RFIS 3) Bridging dialogue is an important mission theology which the seminarians have to be imbued with because to serve the Filipino-Chinese culture entails "bridging" and "dialoguing." 

2) Seminary Formation that is Missiological- The Lorenzo Mission Institute fosters a missiological formation that equips the seminarians for their future ministry and mission work. Optatam Totius 16 exhorts that seminary formation should include the appreciation of religions present in the world. It is to acknowledge and affirm the presence of the truth in them. It says that seminarians should be "introduced to a knowledge of other religions which are more widespread in individual regions, so that they may acknowledge more correctly what truth and goodness these religions, in God's providence, possess, and so that they may learn to refute their errors and be able to communicate the full light of truth to those who do not have it." (OT 16). Missiology courses are offered at the Lorenzo Mission Institute to facilitate the missionary orientation and deepen the missionary spirit among the seminarians. The Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis clarifies: "In a context of increasing human mobility, in which the entire world has become a ‘global village’, a course in the study of missiology cannot be omitted, as a genuine formation in the universality of the Church and the promotion of its evangelising impulse, not just as missio ad gentes, but also as new evangelisation." (RFIS 171)

3) Seminary Formation that is Universal- The exposure of the seminarians is crucial in developing a universal mind and spirit. Aside from the missionary experiences and being assigned geographically away from the diocese and seminary, the courses to prepare seminarians are crucial. John Paul II suggests that missiology and missionary experiences should accompany each other in doing mission. "Theological training cannot and should not ignore the Church's universal mission, ecumenism, the study of the great religions and missiology. I recommend that such studies be undertaken especially in seminaries and in houses of formation for men and women religious, ensuring that some priests or other students specialize in the different fields of missiology." (RM 83)

4) Seminary Formation that is Ecclesiological- The Lorenzo Mission Institute develops seminarians to be lovers of the Church through their missionary orientation and missionary work.  Every seminarian has to understand that mission is wider than the Church. Appreciating mission is appreciating the nature of the Church. The church is the instrument of mission. In a world today where there exists a number of religions aside from Christianity, mission is needed as an approach to them. John Paul II said that priests have to be open and develop a special love for the Church by fostering dialogue as the Church bridges itself with followers of other religions. He said: "we have disciplines which have been and are being developed as responses to problems strongly felt nowadays. This is true of the study of the Church's social doctrine which "belongs to the field...of theology and, in particular, of moral theology" and is to be counted among the "essential components" of the "new evangelization," of which it is an instrument. This is likewise true of the study of missiology, ecumenism, Judaism, Islam and other religions." (PDV 54)