The ongoing formation of priests, whether diocesan or religious, is the natural and absolutely necessary continuation of building priestly personality which began and developed in the Seminary or the Religious House with the training program which aimed at ordination. (Pastores Dabo Vobis, # 71)

It is particularly urgent today, not only because of rapid changes in the social and cultural conditions of individuals and peoples among whom priestly ministry is exercised, but also because of that “new evangelization” which constitutes the essential and pressing task of the Church at the end of the Second Millennium. (Pastores Dabo Vobis, # 70)

Can. 279 §1. Even after ordination to the priesthood, clerics are to pursue sacred studies and are to strive after that solid doctrine founded in sacred scripture, handed on by their predecessors, and commonly accepted by the Church, as set out especially in the documents of councils and of the Roman Pontiffs. They are to avoid profane novelties and pseudo-science.
§2. According to the prescripts of particular law, priests are to attend pastoral lectures held after priestly ordination and, at times established by the same law, are also to attend other lectures, theological meetings, and conferences which offer them the opportunity to acquire a fuller knowledge of the sacred sciences and pastoral methods.
§3. They are also to acquire knowledge of other sciences, especially of those which are connected with the sacred sciences, particularly insofar as such knowledge contributes to the exercise of pastoral ministry.