Introduction

An important clarification in order to define the objective of formation comes to us from a comparison with the past, and with what once was considered, with no uncertainty the objectivus ad quem  of a formation program and of consecrated and priestly life in general:  perfection.

That model has continued up to our days, if consecrated life – especially – is still called a life of perfection and religious congregations are considered “Institutes of Perfection”, but through revisitations, also substantial ones, of the concept and its underlying logic.  See in fact the models that have followed each other in the informal evolution of these last decades, more  or less informally, and that have slowly changed a certain idea of perfection as the goal of the formation plan: the model of self-fulfillment, of acceptance and the most current one of integration.