The CARF Foundation and the challenge of seminarian formation

Since its foundation in 1989, the CARF Foundation has acted as a link between thousands of benefactors willing to contribute financially with study grants and scholarships so that priests and seminarians from all over the world can receive a solid theological, human and spiritual preparation.

More than 800 bishops from 131 countries want some of their priests and seminarians to study at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome or at the Faculties of Ecclesiastical Studies of the University of Navarra in Pamplona. In turn, they complete their human and spiritual formation at the Sapientiae (Rome) and Bidasoa (Pamplona) International Ecclesiastical Colleges. In order to carry out this training also apply for study grants for their candidates.

Thanks to benefactors and donors like you, the CARF Foundation meets most of the requests, but the needs are growing and we want all requests to be met.

18,000 euros is the amount necessary for a candidate to live, study and train for a year at the universities of Rome or Pamplona. The neediest dioceses in the world request a full scholarship for their candidates. In all cases, the diocese covers a small part of the cost of training a seminarian in his country of origin, as a sign of its commitment to maximize the future use of the aid.

Approximately every academic year the CARF Foundation assists with direct and indirect scholarships approximately: 400 seminarians, 1,120 diocesan priests and 80 members of religious institutions.

Each full scholarship, awarded by the foundation, can be broken down as follows:

• 11,000, room and board.
• 2,700, tuition and academic fees.
• 800 €, supplement for human and spiritual formation.
• 3,500 €, allowances for academic training.

Personal expenses are always at the expense of the student or the diocese.

The Central Statistical Office of the Church has been in charge of the edition of The Pontifical Yearbook 2022 and the Ecclesial Statistical Yearbook 2020 published in recent days.
They gather the data on the 2019-2020 biennium which gives us an overview of the numerical reality of the Catholic Church in the different countries and on the different continents allowing us to extract some news related to the life of the Church in today's world.

The presence of Catholics does not change at the level of the entire planet, but it does if we analyze the number of Catholics in the different continents. There is a maximum increase on the African continent and a relative increase in Asia. On the other hand, in Europe there has been a continuous decline in recent years. America and Oceania remain stable in relation to the world total.

The data analyzed on priests in all ecclesiastical districts of the Catholic world, both diocesan and religious, reveal a decline in the number of priests. At the close of 2020 there were 410,219 priests in the world, 4,117 fewer priests than the previous year. Only in Africa and Asia were there significant increases in the number of priests, which together contributed a total of + 1,782 priests to the world during the biennium under analysis.

We can observe a clear imbalance between the number of Catholics and priests in the world, which translates into a very high overall pastoral burden.

Regarding seminarians

Candidates for the priesthood went from 114,058 seminarians in the world in 2019 to 111,855 in 2020. The trend in major seminarians observed in the world total, between 2019 and 2020, affects all continents, with the exception of Africa, where seminarians increased by 2.8%. From 32,721 to 33,628 seminarians.

The declines in priestly vocations are significant especially in Europe (-4.3%,) although they can also be seen in the Americas (-4.2%) and Asia (-3.5%.)

The percentage distribution of seminarians by continent shows slight changes over the two-year period. Africa and Asia contributed 58.3% of the world total in 2019 and in 2020 their share rises to 59.3%. Oceania reveals some negative adjustment. America and Europe as a whole see their share decrease. American and European seminarians accounted for almost 41% of the total, while one year later they drop to 39.9%.

The birth of priestly vocations in Africa and Asia is a constant fact recorded in recent years. These future priests will support and strengthen the European and American Churches. This data helps us to get a real idea of the responsibility we have as Catholics to take care of each new vocation with the utmost care. Supporting the dioceses in the formation of seminarians, even more so in the most disadvantaged continents.

Universidad Pontificia Santa Cruz and its relationship with the CARF Foundation

Academic activities at the PUSC began in 1984, with the name of Centro Accademico Romano della Santa CroceThe germ of today's University, which was erected as "Pontifical" by the Holy Father. John Paul II January 9, 1990.

The Pontifical University of the Holy Cross It currently consists of the Faculties of Theology, Canon Law, Philosophy and Institutional Social Communication; the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Apollinare is also an essential part of it.

The CARF Foundation and its commitment to training

Hundreds of bishops from all over the world request study grants from the University and the CARF Foundation is in charge of obtaining the funds to send diocesan priests, seminarians and religious to study in its classrooms. The objective of the CARF Foundationsince 1989 is to provide these young people with a deep scientific and spiritual formation at the PSUC.

The specific mission of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is to deepen the intellectual content and anthropological richness of the faith, while establishing a dialogue with contemporary culture.

The Pontifical University of Santa Cruz an education open to the world

The Santa Croce is characterized on the one hand by being open to the world, in dialogue with secular culture. Both in teaching and in research there is an attentive look at the problems of the world, being aware that from the sacred sciences one can contribute to the search for truth.

Topics such as anthropology, social doctrine and the defense of life are the object of study. In addition, the vast majority of the professors at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross have obtained civil academic degrees in the various fields of knowledge, which facilitates this dialogue.

Following the wish of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo, the academic activities are open to scholars and intellectuals in the scientific, philosophical, economic and social fields, providing the necessary elements for a true dialogue of faith with the world.

Among the greatest spiritual inheritances received by St. Josemaría Escrivá is undoubtedly the exhortation to cultivate a profound unity of life. This is manifested not only in a due coherence between words and deeds, but also through the harmony that must exist between professional and intellectual formation, on the one hand, and spiritual and theological formation on the other.

Because it is important for the CARF Foundation that seminarians and priests have access to a formation at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce.

First of all, because Rome is the cradle of Christianity! A few years ago, Pope Benedict XVI, Addressing the students of Roman universities, he told them that "the possibility of studying in Rome, seat of the successor of Peter and therefore of the Petrine ministry, helps you to strengthen your sense of belonging to the Church and your commitment to fidelity to the Pope's universal magisterium".

Also relevant during formation in Rome is the sense of union with the whole Church that is strengthened in the eternal city. Walking through the streets where so many holy women and men have walked is impressive and a spur for each one of us. To this is added another factor: in Rome you touch the universality of the Church. You see, talk and live with Catholics from all over the world: people of very different cultures, traditions and races, but at the same time very close because they believe in, proclaim and love Jesus Christ. When you discover this, a great horizon opens up in your interior life: belonging to the great family of God.

For this reason, the Pontifical University of Santa Cruz is an institution open to the world, and it carries out a training where the aim is to enable students to help the men and women of their country to encounter God precisely in temporal realities. The majority of the faithful are citizens who need to receive a formation that will enable them to be saints in their daily lives.

The annual visit of benefactors of the CARF Foundation to the PUSC in Rome

Every year the foundation organizes a day of meetings and training in Rome, during which benefactors and friends have the opportunity to meet some of the students they support and to chat and have lunch with them. They can also visit the PUSC and participate in some conferences given by teachers or personalities involved in the academic, cultural or communication fields.

The participants carry out a real pilgrimage to Rome The students were able to visit the Sedes Sapientiae International Seminary, the Tiberino Priestly College, the excavations of the Vatican Necropolis, together with some students of the university, and to participate in the Audience and the Angelus with Pope Francis.

During the trip, benefactors can see why the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross is unique among all other Pontifical Universities. In addition to the three main faculties, the PUSC promotes the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences and several research centers. A challenge, difficult in our times, but in which it puts all its efforts so that through formation it also contributes to evangelization and the spread of the message of Christ.

Upon completion of the LentDuring Holy Week we commemorate the crucifixion, death and resurrection of the Lord. All of salvation history revolves around these holy days. They are days to accompany Jesus with prayer and penance. All leading up to Easter where Christ with his resurrection confirms that he has conquered death and that his heart longs to enjoy man for all eternity. In this article we review how to live Holy Week.

To live Holy Week well, we have to put God at the center of our lives, accompanying Him in each of the celebrations of this liturgical season that begins with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday

"This threshold of Holy Week, so close already to the moment when the Redemption of all humanity was consummated on Calvary, seems to me a particularly appropriate time for you and me to consider by what ways Jesus our Lord has saved us; for us to contemplate that love of his - truly ineffable - for poor creatures, formed from the clay of the earth." - How to live Holy Week. St. Josemaría, Friends of God, no. 110.

The Palm Sunday We remember the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in which all the people praise him as king with songs and palms. The branches remind us of the covenant between God and his people, confirmed in Christ.

In the liturgy of this day we read these words of profound joy: "the sons of the Hebrews, bearing olive branches, went out to meet the Lord, crying out and saying: Glory in the highest".

Maundy Thursday

"Our Lord Jesus Christ, as if all the other proofs of his mercy were still not enough, institutes the Eucharist so that we can always have him near us and - as far as we can understand - because, moved by his love, who needs nothing, he does not want to do without us. The Trinity has fallen in love with man." How to live Holy Week - St. Josemaría, Christ Is Passing By, no. 84.

The Easter Triduum begins with the Holy Mass of the Lord's Supper. The common thread of the whole celebration is the Paschal Mystery of Christ. The supper in which Jesus, before giving himself up to death, entrusted to the Church the testament of his love and instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood.  When Jesus finished, he went to pray in the Garden of Olives where he was later arrested.

In the morning, the bishops gather with the priests of their dioceses and bless the holy oils. The washing of the feet takes place during the Mass of the Lord's Supper.

Good Friday

"In admiring and truly loving the Most Holy Humanity of Jesus, we will discover one by one his wounds (...). We will need to enter into each of those most holy wounds: to purify ourselves, to rejoice in that redeeming blood, to strengthen ourselves. We will go like the doves who, according to Scripture, take shelter in the holes of the rocks at the hour of the storm. We hide in that shelter, to find the intimacy of Christ." How to live Holy Week - St. Josemaría, Friends of God, no. 302.

On Good Friday we reach the culminating moment of Love, a Love that wants to embrace everyone, excluding no one, with absolute self-giving. On that day we accompany Christ remembering the Passion: from the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives to the scourging, the crowning with thorns and death on the Cross. We commemorate it with a solemn Stations of the Cross and the ceremony of the Adoration of the Cross.

The liturgy teaches us how to live Holy Week on Good Friday. It begins with the prostration of the priestsinstead of the usual initial kiss. It is a gesture of special veneration for the altar, which is naked, exempt from everything, evoking the Crucified One at the hour of the Passion. The silence is broken by a tender prayer in which the priest appeals to the mercy of God: "Reminiscere miserationum tuarum, Domine", and asks the Father for the eternal protection that the Son has won for us with his blood.

Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil

"The work of our redemption has been accomplished. We are now children of God, because Jesus has died for us and his death has redeemed us". How to live Holy Week - St. Josemaría, Way of the Cross, XIV Station.

How to live Holy Week on Holy Saturday? It is a day of silence in the Church: Christ lies in the tomb and the Church meditates, in admiration, on what the Lord has done for us. However, it is not a sad day. The Lord has conquered the devil and sin, and in a few hours he will also conquer death with his glorious Resurrection. "In a little while you will no longer see me, and in a little while you will see me again" Jn 16:16. On this day, love does not hesitate, like Mary, it keeps silent and waits. Love waits trusting in the word of the Lord until Christ rises resplendent on Easter Day.

The celebration of the Easter Vigil on the night of Holy Saturday is the most important of all the celebrations of Holy Week, because it commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The passage from darkness to light is expressed with different elements: fire, candle, water, incense, music and bells.

The light of the candle is a sign of Christ, the light of the world, which radiates and floods everything. The fire is the Holy Spirit, kindled by Christ in the hearts of the faithful. The water signifies the passage to new life in Christ, the source of life. The Easter Alleluia is the hymn of the pilgrimage toward the Jerusalem of heaven. The bread and wine of the Eucharist are a pledge of the heavenly banquet.

As we participate in the Easter Vigil, we recognize that time is a new time, open to the definitive today of the glorious Christ. This is the new day inaugurated by the Lord, the day "that knows no sunset" (Roman Missal, Easter Vigil, Easter Proclamation).

Easter Sunday

"The Easter season is a time of joy, a joy that is not limited to that time of the liturgical year, but is always present in the heart of the Christian. Because Christ lives: Christ is not a figure who passed away, who existed at one time and then went away, leaving us a wonderful memory and example". How to live Holy Week St. Josemaría, Homily Christ present in Christians.

This is the most important and most joyful day for Catholics, Jesus has conquered death and has given us Life. Christ gives us the opportunity to be saved, to enter Heaven and live in the company of God. Easter is the passage from death to life. Resurrection Sunday marks the end of the Easter Triduum and Holy Week and inaugurates the liturgical period of 50 days called the Easter Season, which ends with Easter Sunday. Pentecost.

How to live Holy Week? Let us ask God that this week that is about to begin may fill us with renewed hope and unshakable faith. May it transform us into God's messengers to proclaim once again that Christ, the Divine Redeemer, gives himself for his people on a cross out of love.

Types of grants that can be made to CARF Foundation

We work so that no vocation is lost and so that the seminarians, once ordained priests, can transmit in their pastoral work all the light, science and doctrine received. Thanks to our benefactors, we help in the formation of priests, spread their good name and pray for their fidelity and for vocations.

There are different ways in which the CARF Foundation can help seminarians:

Donate online

A fast and secure way to help seminarians, support the seminary and finance their formation. From anywhere, just with your mobile device, you can make a donation by following a few simple steps. Select the amount you want to donate and whether you want to make a one-time or recurring donation. Many seminarians depend on this act of generosity to complete their studies.

Donate Sacred Vessel Case

With your donation of 600 euros, you can help seminarians who are about to be ordained with a Holy Vessel Kit containing all of the liturgical objects necessary to impart the sacraments and celebrate Mass wherever he may be.

He will pray for you for the rest of his life, and you will know who he is and in which country he will carry out his pastoral work, to commend him to be holy and faithful to his vocation.

Donations in kind

Another way to help seminarians with their formation is by making donations in kind. Donations in kind are those in which, instead of contributing money, the benefactor makes a contribution of certain goods: jewelry, watches, works of art....

Most of the time, these are valuable assets that the donor already knows he or she will not enjoy, and considers that they will be more useful if they support a worthy cause. The goods will receive a professional appraisal and, once they are auctioned, the money they bring in to support seminarian vocations will be tax-deductible.

Donate legacies and wills

This testamentary disposition is a procedure that favors a non-profit institution, such as the CARF Foundation. Your legacy of solidarity is a commitment to the future and a way to perpetuate your life's work in others: to continue to support seminarians and diocesan priests on five continents. To do so, all you have to do is decide, in the form of an entire will or a part of a legacy of solidarity, your desire to help seminarians through the CARF Foundation.

International seminars with which the CARF Foundation collaborates

Under the inspiration and encouragement of St. John Paul II, Blessed Alvaro del Portillo initiated in 1989 the activity of the CARF Foundation to help seminarians and diocesan priests. Currently more than 800 bishops from the five continents annually request places and study grants for their seminarians and priests at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome and at the Faculties of Ecclesiastical Studies of the University of Navarre.

The CARF Foundation collaborates with two international seminaries, two priests' colleges and three major colleges, so that they can receive seminarians from all over the world who come to Europe to prepare for their formation.

• International Seminar Sedes Sapientiae: erected in Rome by the Holy See in 1991. It can accommodate 85 resident seminarians and their formators. It occupies the former Conservatory of St. Paschal Baylon, in Trastevere, very close to St. Peter's and the Pontifical University. Seminary support.
• Bidasoa International SeminarThe center was erected in Pamplona by the Holy See in 1988. It has a capacity for 100 residents and ten formators. It currently occupies a modern building in Cizur Menor, near the campus of the University of Navarra.
• Altomonte y Tiberino: priestly colleges located in Rome. They have modern facilities and more than a hundred places for priests studying at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
• Echalar, Aralar and Albáizar: The University of Navarre is a university college located in Pamplona, which, together with the Los Tilos residence, has places for more than 130 students who come from all over the world to study in the University of Navarre's ecclesiastical faculties.

We should be grateful to God for priests. Let us not cease to pray for them or to collaborate in their ministry. Let us ask the Lord to continue to give us many good priests, for work is abundant and vocations are scarce. Let us begin to help seminarians and support seminaries so that there will be no shortage of priests who, in the name of Christ, care for the people of God.