PPKE Repository of Dissertations (Pázmány Péter Catholic Univ.)

Törő András

 1 
 
 
 
 
 
PÁZMÁNY PÉTER  
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY  
 
FACULTY OF TEOLOGY 
A NEW DIMENSION OF PRIESTLY FORMATION 
AND OF INSTITUTES OF PRIESTLY 
FORMATION: THE PROPAEDEUTICUM 
 
Dissertatio ad Doctoratum   
 
 
Written by: TÖRŐ András  
Supervisor: DR. LAURINYECZ Mihály 
 
Budapest 2020 
 
 2 
Our Holy Mother Church - acknowledging the reality of the specific challenges 
of our time - promulgated her renewed document entitled “Ratio Fundamentalis 
Institutionis Sacerdotalis” (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation) on 8 December 2016. This 
document - which was originally prepared in 1970, in the spirit of the Second Vatican 
Council -, was published earlier, in 1985, after the renewal of the Code of Canon Law.   
In this way, the Church sought to provide guidance through this document 
regarding the training program for those young men, who are committed to take the path 
leading to became a Catholic priest. It was timely to update this document also due to the 
accelerated changes in our society. 
 The document, which was published by the Congregation for the Clergy, is a 
milestone in the process of priestly formation, that is continuously taken into 
consideration by the community of the Church. The new Ratio aims to redefine the 
priestly formation program. Based on this interpretation, one can differentiate four stages 
of priestly formation from entry into the seminary: the preliminary (preparatory) phase, 
i.e., the propaedeutic stage; the discipleship stage; the configuration stage; and the 
pastoral synthesis stage, which basically covers the whole priestly life, according to the 
document’s intention.1 The Holy See tries to strengthen the (public) image, identity of the 
clergy in a direction that we as priests shall look at our priesthood realizing that we are 
disciples on a journey, which discipleship will accompany us throughout our earthly 
career. Highlighting this aspect shall encourage us to somewhat reconsider, reshape our 
view of formation of priestly vocation. If we consider priesthood as a pilgrim community 
constantly being on a journey, being responsible for oneself and for the community, in 
the life of which the priestly ordination is an important milestone, but not the final station, 
then obviously in the first step can the pilgrim’s path be well-founded, and then can he 
be released on his journey in a proper way. According to the teachings of the document, 
in this case, this phase is the propaedeutic stage; which my thesis also aims to address.  
The propaedeuticum is not necessarily a new, foreign institution. In 1769, Ádám 
Patachich, Archbishop of Kalocsa emphasized that a one-year period would be needed 
before the formation of priests, which would be similar to the stage of novitiate, in which 
                                               
1 Cf. RFIS, Introduction. 
 3 
period the students would prepare for the seminary.2 The Second Vatican Council’s 
document Optatam Totius (Decree on Priestly Training) had already outlined a sort of 
blueprint for the preparatory year of studies, which was implemented in several countries 
in the years after the Second Vatican Council.3 Subsequently, in 1992, the post-synodal 
apostolic exhortation entitled “Pastores Dabo Vobis” also presented the priestly 
formation this training enriching step as an opportunity. These trainings can be divided 
into three groups: autonomous, integrated in the seminary curriculum, or bound to the 
pastoral care (of students).  
 Since the current Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis requires such a 
period, as the first substantial step (out of four) of priestly formation, hence the previously 
thus acquired observations, and the existing experiences can have a significant impact on 
the training of priests, if we consider those specificities, contemporary challenges and 
realities, which we experience in our society, and among our clergy.  
If we explore the situation of our time, the current state of the clergy, and the 
pivots of priestly formation, with particular emphasis on acting responsibly, then we can 
reflect on this preliminary/preparatory period better.  
 
The key questions posed by the dissertation are as follows: What is the purpose of 
priestly formation? Shaping personality according to priestly identity to enable the pastor 
to carry out a fruitful pastoral work at the actual place of service. What is the actual 
problem to be solved? Based on the observations relating to priestly formation and chief 
pastoral experiences, for some reason, the priestly training program does not accomplish 
its aims, that is to say, it cannot adequately establish and consolidate priestly identity. 
What is the specific task to be accomplished? The possible causes are needed to be 
explored and remedial measures initiated, that is, the program of priestly formation (to be 
observed in seminaries for the formation of priests) must be rendered more effective. The 
propaedeuticum may serve as one of the guarantees of this effectiveness. Therefore, our 
                                               
2 Cf.. TÓTH T, Patachich Ádám papnevelési reformtervezete, in Vigilia 2006, Budapest, 
Vol. 71, No. 1, p. 4 
3 Cf. Cf. Decree on the Training of Priests (Optatam Totius), V. n. 14. 
 4 
thesis is that the propaedeuticum has to be integrated into the existing institutional system 
of priestly formation. 
In view of this, in the first part of my dissertation I examine basically the times we 
live in, in which the call to priesthood is received, and its specific characteristics, which 
affect the person. In particular, I deal with the situation of the families, the external 
relations, and the parish community, as well as the call/vocation to become a priest, and 
its aspects, respectively. In addition to the network of relationships, it is also important to 
focus on the intellectual trends, which strongly influence the man of our time. This part 
of my study cannot ignore the interconnectedness with the technical world of our time, 
which creates a uniquely new situation in several respects.  
The second chapter deals with the goal of priestly formation, which goal, in this case, 
is concretized as bringing up a responsible person. Actually basic principles are 
formulated, which are essential reference points before beginning any education, training, 
or related activities, because these show in which direction should the process develop. 
Questions also arise about identity, maturity, and celibacy issues, in addition to maturity 
examinations concerning the person involved in the training of priests. Emphasis is placed 
on the development of a responsible spirituality, which is based on the grace of God, 
however to be a mature, healthy person, ready for development is also a sine qua non 
condition for such spirituality, as well as to feel the desire to live a fully dedicated life, 
respectively.  
The third chapter of my Ph.D. thesis addresses the propaedeuticum - in the light of 
the above mentioned factual considerations -, as a possible platform of priestly formation. 
This requires that we see the real picture of our country's religious peculiarities, including 
the specialties of the sense of vocation. It is also necessary to take into consideration the 
life of the Greek Catholic communities living in Hungary. Due to the population 
movements within the country, the previously more isolated community was torn from 
the eastern region of Hungary, and nowadays, Greek Catholic scattered chaplaincies can 
be found in many parts of the country. The close connection with them, on the basis of 
being tightly bound to Rome, may also require that the candidates/aspirants of the two 
rites enter the initial stage of (priestly) formation together and attend the courses of this 
 5 
preliminary period jointly. Since taking a common path can bring us together in unity 
through human relationships, therefore certainly, we may see beneficial points in it for 
further consideration. I present the utterances of the competent Church authorities 
regarding the preparatory year, and the specificities, which show the characteristics of the 
period.  
The fourth chapter addresses two emphatic elements of priestly formation, namely, 
discernment and priestly spirituality. Both areas are such realities, which accompany the 
path of life of those who have received the call, from the initial moments till the end of 
their priestly ministry.  
Regarding discernment, I explore the necessity and the process of the method by 
basically following the heritage of Jesuit spirituality, with a particular emphasis on 
vocation discernment.  
The priestly identity does not belong to the achievable repository of knowledge and 
results. It manifests itself in different ways in each stage of life, thus, it is a dynamic 
reality in the person’s life. These challenges are accompanied by the fact that after the 
Second Vatican Council, misunderstandings have led to blind alleys in this field. Joseph 
Ratzinger dealt with the subject, first as a theologian, later as Saint Peter's successor, who 
highlighted the question of priestly identity effectively. However, it is necessary to gain 
insight also on the issues of the related crises, which may be of great help in the early 
detection and effective treatment of the arising problems. 
The final chapter of the thesis presents the experiences acquired from the 
propaedeuticum. At the international level, a preparatory year was organized by the 
Episcopal Conferences, or optionally, also by a diocese, in several countries as well. Via 
raising questions and obtaining answers, we may inspect those systems, which have stood 
the test of time or those that later have ceased to exist due to immaturity. It is also 
important to examine the preparatory training system, previously operating in Hungary, 
whose participants, either as superiors or as novices, have shared valuable lessons that 
they have learned from it. 
 6 
In the light of all these, our viewpoint can crystallize concerning the new gift of the 
Church, that is, the propaedeutic year, which is specifically intended to help the (priestly) 
formation - recognizing the reality of today's world and the situation of young people 
living in it -, to become as efficient as possible, where the individual's personality can 
start to develop along the road to becoming a priest, living a responsible priestly life.  
 
 


Hungarian

A papnevelés és a papnevelő intézetek új dimenziója: a propedeutikum

Muzsalyi Róbert

Az egyenértékűség és a tényleges érvényesülés elve az Európai Unió jogában

Pomeisl András József

A devizaalapú kölcsönszerződések egyes dogmatikai kérdései

Tanos Márton

Mészöly Miklós regényeinek prózapoétikai vizsgálata

Tóth Ágnes

French

A tér és a test reprezentációi Maurice Carême műveiben

Jávor Miklós

Egyházpolitika, ateista propaganda és békemozgalom a Kádár-rendszer korai éveiben, 1957-1964

File Bálint

English

Modular analysis of brain and free word association networks

Kovács Bertalan

Lokális kölcsönhatások által modulált belső dinamika mint biológiai szabályozó mechanizmus vizsgálata globuláris fehérjékben

Nagy Balázs

Three-dimensional Scene Understanding in Mobile Laser Scanning data

Kepe Nóra

1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PhD Dissertation 
Book of Thesis 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nóra KEPE 
 
 
2020 
2 
  
3 
Pázmány Péter Catholic University  
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 
Doctoral School of Political Theory 
Director: Prof. Dr. Balázs Mezei, DSC 
 
 
 
 
 
THE NARCISSISTIC MAN OF SOCIAL MEDIA 
The technological view of man in the 21
th
 century 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nóra Kepe 
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Zoltán Hidas 
 
 
2020 
4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Table of contents 
1. Introduction ............................................................................... 5 
2. Methodology ............................................................................. 5 
Aims .............................................................................................. 6 
3. Results ....................................................................................... 7 
Research Questions ........................................................................ 7 
Conclusions ................................................................................. 10 
 
  
5 
1. Introduction 
The aim of my dissertation is to present a possible approach of the 
view of the man based on social networking sites (SNSs) since their 
appearance. My main research questions are to what extent and how 
social media shaped our relation to the world. Specifically I will 
focus on the main features and notions of the discourse of 
‘technological idea of man’ in the 21th century; and how we can 
have a glance at this discourse from an outside perspective. 
 
Statement of the Problem 
The number of SNSs and their users is exponentially increasing. In 
2010 0.98 billion, in 2017 more than 2.46 billion people registered 
on different SNSs. Forecasts predict that the number of users will 
exceed 3 billion by 2021, thus 40 percentage of the population of the 
World will be registered to a SNS. On the one hand, this means a 
stable growth in proportion as well: the users’ number grows faster 
than the growth of population, so an increasing part of people will be 
SNS user. On the other hand, the intensification of use (time-wise) is 
also noticeable, so not only the number of users is increasing, but 
also the time spent by a user on SNSs. Thus physical humans are 
increasingly represented in a digital world. The interaction of man 
and SNS is intensely researched by different disciplines, such as 
philosophy, psychology, management studies and social sciences. 
My approach will be from a socio-theoretical perspective.  
 
2. Methodology 
Rationale 
The dissertation is a descriptive social theoretical study that builds 
on the empirical findings and results of former studies from the 
6 
fields of psychology, social psychology, communication and media 
theory.  
My approach is more in the tradition of the philosophical ‘essay’, in 
the meaning that it is an ‘experimental’ and ‘open’ research, and not 
a definitive stance on the issue. As the phenomena is still evolving, I 
will not be presenting a singular theory, but introduce multiple, 
contradicting theories on the matter to the extent that these are 
underlining or adding to the integrity of the argumentation.  
 
Aims 
A: Overview of the theories of technology in order to find an 
approach through which social media as technology may be 
described. 
B: Overview of the principles, procedures and notions of social 
media in connection to the individual. 
C: Overview of the discourses on narcissism between 1897 and 
2020, particularly in relation to SNSs. 
D: Presentation of the individual through SNS, from an outside 
perspective on the discourse itself, with the emergence of SNSs. 
 
Overview of the Chapters 
In the first chapter I will present the definition of technology and a 
typology on theories of technology. The overview of the different 
social theoretical thinkers’ arguments on the relationship between 
man and technology will be based on Steve Matthewman’s (2011) 
and Andrew Feenberg’s (1999) typologies. My approach is 
humanistic in the sense that I consider man as the primary actor in 
relation to technology. The freedom of choice and the ability to 
choose will remain a human characteristic, even if SNSs have an 
impact on human behavior or worldview and thus producing 
7 
structural changes on the individual and societal level, with far-
reaching consequences.  
Secondly, I am examining the SNSs through the writings of Michel 
Foucault. The study focuses on his works relating to power written 
between 1972 and 1976. This dissertation will not be treating 
Foucault’s whole writing on the topic of the power, solely his 
understanding of the relationship between man and social media is 
the topic of my dissertation. For the use of this theory, I draw 
parallel and use the word technology as per Foucault’s definition of 
power. Thus the social media sites could be understood as power 
institutions such as they were established in the 18
th
 and 19
th
 century. 
The description was similarly made along the principles of 
panopticism in order to summarize the notions, principles and 
procedures in relation to man and technology. 
In the second part, I will examine the term ‘narcissism’ and how its 
meaning evolved in the last 100 year, searching for the milestones of 
the phenomena in relation to man, especially the presence and 
manifestations of narcissism in social media. 
In the final part, the dissertation is concluding with two chapters with 
the limitations of the study and analysis and preseting further areas 
of research related to the motive of narcissism.  
 
3. Results 
Research Questions 
1. Technology and man mutually shape each other. Technology may 
have positive and negative effect on the individual and on society as 
well. However – presuming man as the principal actor – I also 
assume that the opportunity will always remain for the individual to 
bring the change it wants to see in the world. 
Based on Feenberg’s typology (1999), in accordance with critical 
thinkers on technology (including Ortega y Gasset, Lewis Mumford, 
8 
Herbert Marcuse, Hans Jonas and Michel Foucault) my 
argumentation is based on the view that man creates technology, that 
technology is without independent ‘inner essence’ and although it 
has an impact on the individual, the primacy of the individual is 
unquestionable – thus theoretically the responsibility of action 
remains on the individual’s side.   
2 The notion of ‘technology’ can be analogous to that of ‘power’ in 
Michel Foucault’s works written between 1972 and 1976. 
Power is something that is found and is operating through 
relationships between individuals, creating a unique ‘surplus’ 
(excess): power creates its particular system, socio-cultural milieu, 
manifesting through objects, activities, special forms of knowledge. 
In this regard power may be conceived as technology. 
3. Social media may be interpreted as power institution, whose 
principles, procedures and techniques multiply knowledge collected 
from and by people. 
Michel Foucault summarized the manifestations of power in the 18
th
 
century in the term ‘panopticism’. In his view, people in the 
enlightenment’s culture of ratio, technology, and its principles and 
procedures were created in the light of utilitarism. Utility is upheld 
by normalization and docility, maintained simultaneously by 
measurement, inquiry and examination. 
4. Social media – examining according to principles of panopticism 
– is an organizing force of place, time, activities and people. 
On SNSs space is simultaneously isolated and transparent, time is 
liquid and prompt, presence is passive (following)  and active 
(creation), while individualization and totalization of procedures and 
methods can be seen at the same time. 
5. Panopticism creates a subjectivation which realizes itself at 
individual level as self-orientation and individualization, which 
creates in its character a narcissistic type of personality.  
9 
The arousal and awareness of narcissism is both an aim and a tool of 
the procedures, because this (attention) ‘surplus’ ensures the 
extension and the survival of the institution (SNSs). 
6. For users social media is a space where they can get closer to 
their inner self, where their (at least online) personality can be 
created, represented and experienced. 
Social media environment has an impact on users’ perceptions of 
themselves and others, their behavior, way of thinking and 
personality. In social media, sharing of activities and thoughts – and 
their representation and documentation – facilitates and rewards self-
reflection and self-representation. The consequence is the 
valorization of the (online) personality for its owner and sustains the 
whole system. This has an effect on consumption habits and 
activities on SNSs, enforcing users to become more and more 
involved on the sites. This ‘self-representation spiral’ thus portrays a 
narcissistic man on SNSs. 
7. Despite of this, there is no empirical evidence of a connection 
between culmination of narcissistic personality traits and social 
media use. The causality could not be grasped either. 
In the light of former surveys, there is no clear connection between 
social media use and the presence or the empowerment of 
narcissistic personality traits; the causality is uncertain either. 
Without statistical evidence – although we usually speak about an 
undoubtedly existing phenomenon – the arguments against the online 
presence and activities seem to be weakening. 
8. By examining the discourse on narcissism, the extending logic of 
psychological process may be illustrated. 
Psychology empowers it by its focus on personality, the appreciation 
of the self and the care of self, by highlighting the experience and 
expression of personal feelings and inner obsessions. The procedure 
is ever-extending, and is advocating its own logic in other areas as 
well. 
10 
The term ‘narcissism’ originated from the Viennese psychoanalysts’ 
vocabulary and transferred to the medical canon by 1980, spread and 
became measurable (1979) in social sciences and then popularized in 
Anglo-Saxon countries. Since the Millennium, the normalization of 
narcissistic behavior has started. The scientific literature and the 
multitude of non-fiction books illustrate this trend. 
9. The importance of narcissism is given by the fact that it sheds light 
on the tendency that the individual of our age defines itself by 
psychologic terms. 
 
Conclusions 
The conclusion of my dissertation is that the appearance of SNSs 
contributed to the change of the individual’s storytelling of itself. 
Without expanding on the shift occurred in man’s personality, I 
argue that in relation to social media sites, our thinking is organized 
around and by the motive of narcissism. 
The acceptance of the central role of the personality creates a 
radically individualist reference system and thinking framework, 
which both in theoretical thinking and in public discourse may lead 
to the fall of community-based thinking, or as Durkheim referred to 
the disintegration of society as well. 
This issue raises the importance of conceptualizing some other 
reference systems which highlight the primacy of man to technology 
and stress the importance of community as an organizing principle of 
our thinking.  
  
11 
4. Research activities 
Nóra KEPE (2020): Narcissism and self-adoring man in social 
media - from here and beyond. Philological Academy of Pest (PBA), 
lecture (delayed). 
Nóra KEPE (2019): Who if not me? The view of man in social media. 
Philological Academy of Pest (PBA), 4 lectures. 
Nóra KEPE (2019): The psychologic discourse through the term of 
narcissism. Spring Wind Conference, lecture, 1st award. 
Nóra Kepe (2018): Blessing or curse? The role of narcissism in the 
criticism of consumer society in the USA. Molnár Tamás Research 
Center, paper. 
Kepe, N. (2018): Why not to forget Foucault? The relevance of the 
panopticism. Interdisciplinary Doctoral Conference, lecture.  
Nóra KEPE (2018): What if it is #addicted to you? Factors 
explaining the spread of social media in the 21th century. Spring 
Wind Conference, lecture. 
Nóra KEPE (2017): Narcissism as new form of surveillance. 
National Scientific Students' Associations Conference (OTDK), 
lecture. 
 


A közösségi média önimádó embere

Not a member yet