In this special “Deep Dive” episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle paints a comprehensive picture of seminary formation today and the challenges formators are seeing.

While reductive narratives depict priests as perfect heroes or evil villains, said writer and producer Father Stephen Fichter, the truth is more complicated.

During Lent, Pope Francis said, Catholics—and especially Catholic seminarians—should rediscover the joy of simplicity, and pay less attention to their appearance and more to their prayer lives.

Members at last October’s synod, which included cardinals, bishops, women and men religious, lay men and women, noted their concern with the almost total absence of parish priests at the synod assembly.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Church should reconsider the celibacy requirement for Latin-rite priests.

Looking back on 60 years of priesthood, the author notes the importance of the cross, the Eucharist, faith and grace in giving people meaning, purpose and hope in life.