Media Education in the Formation of Candidates for Priesthood in the Context of the New „Ratio Fundamentalis“ and Polish Seminaries

: On the basis of the „Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis“ of the Congregation for the Clergy of December 8, 2016 (Congregation for the Clergy 2016), the particular Churches with their Bishops’ conferences create the basis for the formation of future presbyters in their respective countries. The previous „Ratio“ was published more than 30 years ago by the then competent Congregation for Catholic Education. Between 1985 and 2016 there was a revolution in the field of social communication and media. It is difficult to imagine the modern intellectual formation of a candidate for the priesthood without things such as media education. Future presbyters should know how to communicate with contemporary men and evangelise through the Internet, especially on social media. It will be good if they also understand the system of media work in general and know how to establish contact with journalists. Many valuable indications concerning contemporary communication and the journalistic world are contained in the teachings of the three popes of the Internet era and the relevant dicasteries of the Holy See from that pe-riod. The competence of future clergy in the field of IT is also important. The present paper contains a proposal for a new programme of media education in the seminaries. It [the proposal] is based on contemporary IT and media knowledge and on the research of nearly 30 years of experience in media education in the formation of future clergy in Poland. The article also presents an outline of the reception of the Vatican’s indications concerning media education in the seminaries of selected particular Churches: in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These analyses may help to determine the formation of future presbyters in the field of media education covering: the teaching of the Church on the media, media theory, IT and Internet education, elements of public relations and media relations. di-rect preparation for entering the priestly ministry. The research shows that media education is taught for 30 hours in more than 50% of the seminaries, and in more than 80% it is an obligatory subject.