Nearly 200 vocation directors, formators, major superiors, seminary personnel, and lay ministers filled Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Seminary & School of Theology August 31–September 3 for the Saint Luke Institute (SLI) fifth Conference on Human Formation, co-sponsored with Saint Meinrad, with supporting sponsorships from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Religious Formation Conference, the National Religious Vocation Conference, and the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.
Offered under the title “The Complicated Candidate: Navigating Personality in Discernment & Formation,” the conference drew participants from multiple dioceses, religious institutes, abbeys, and monasteries from 27 states and Puerto Rico, including an auxiliary bishop from Haiti. Women religious made up the largest single group of participants.
Fr. Patrick McDevitt, CM, Ph.D., SLI President and CEO, opened the event with “Discernment as a Moral Act: Ethical Decision-Making in Formation and Admissions.” Presenters were drawn largely from SLI’s clinical staff, affiliated clinicians and partners.
Sessions took up practical questions about personality needs that those preparing candidates for ministry or religious life actually face. Plenaries addressed how personality disorders differ from personality styles and what personality attributes in a psychological report can assist formators in their assessments; how transference and countertransference operate in the asymmetrical relationships of ministry; and how freedom, the internal and external forum, and the interests of both candidate and Church bear on discerning a candidate’s future. Several constructed case studies were also considered to provide practical awareness of these realities among the participants in real time.
Workshops went deeper into personality-related topics such as narcissism, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, avoidant and dependent patterns, the long reach of childhood trauma, and the importance of distinguishing cultural norms from personality structure when working with international candidates. Others offered practical guidance on interviewing for personality issues without compromising a candidate’s dignity, translating a psychological report into measurable formation goals, sustaining communication among vocations, formation, and leadership personnel, and caring for oneself while navigating interpersonal conflict.
“Formation is never a peripheral concern,” Fr. McDevitt said. “The questions raised here are not administrative. They are questions of stewardship on behalf of the candidate, the community, and the People of God. Giving formators sound clinical understanding within a spiritual framework is central to how Saint Luke Institute has been serving the Church for nearly fifty years, and it is a cornerstone of our growing mission.”
“What struck me was everyone’s desire to truly take in all that was being presented,” said Marc DelMonico, Ph.D., Director of Mission Partnerships & Communications. “Clergy and religious reflecting a wide range of spiritual and theological dispositions all came together around the need for mental health, specifically personality health, in ministry. These are conversations the Church as a whole has not always found easy.” He continued, “Participants arrived with varying experience of addressing mental wellbeing in the life of candidates for priesthood, diaconate and religious life. They came aside to this beautiful monastery, this ‘out of the way place,’ to learn, pray, and network together, and left with language, tools, and new colleagues in their important ministry on behalf of the whole Church.”
The days unfolded within the Benedictine rhythm of the Archabbey, with participants invited to Mass, Vespers, and Compline with the monastic community — an integration of clinical understanding and spiritual practice that is characteristic of how SLI approaches wellness for those in ministry. Saint Luke Institute is grateful to Saint Meinrad for their partnership in this conference series and for the hospitality extended to every guest. Special thanks to Beth Davis, Coordinator for the Conference, Brother John Mark Falkenhein, OSB, PhD, faculty member at St. Meinrad and member of the SLI clinical team in Louisville, and Marc DelMonico for their collaborative efforts in planning and implementing the conference.
Recordings of the plenaries and workshops will be available on SLIconnect in October, so that communities and formation teams unable to send participants can still take up the material together. A pre-sale discounted price on the package of recordings is available through October 1. Further, additional offerings in the form of virtual engagements for conference participants and others will be offered multiple times in 2027. Conference attendees will receive updates in the coming weeks.
SLI will continue a fall focus on the integration of clinical and spiritual needs in ministry in October. The Global Institute for Mental Health will convene its inaugural virtual conference, The Art of Aging Gratefully: Learning from Religious Women, on October 10. Discounted registration is available through October 1.