Preparing for ordination

I had a delightful day to begin the year: I met up with the two Leeds seminarians who received Candidacy just before Christmas, Sean Crawley and Anthony Rosso. Candidacy is the moment in a man's formation when he says "Yes, I definitely want to be a priest" and the Church says "Yes, we think that you have the makings of a good priest." In every man's vocational journey, there is a moment of transition when he stops discerning whether God is calling him to the priesthood and begins preparing for ordination. Candidacy is the public seal of that spiritual shift. Both Sean and Anthony have changed since I last met them. They have gone deeper. It's great to behold. They are now in their fifth year at the Venerable English College in Rome and are studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University. I had a pub lunch with Sean and then we walked around the lake in Roundhay Park in Leeds; afterwards I had tea and cakes with Anthony in my flat at Leeds Trinity University. "So he gets a full lunch and I get a cream bun!" said Anthony.

The pictures show Sean with Archbishop Arthur Roche, who was our bishop until a few months ago and who is now the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome and Anthony in my sitting room.