EN
The institution responsible for the preparation of candidates for priestly ordination is the seminary. The Ełk Diocese Seminary has been engaged in priestly formation since 16 April 1992. It applies the guidelines of the magiste-rium of the Church and the local tradition and customs, resulting from the spe-cific conditions of the Church of Ełk. The article analyses the profiles of candidates, who join the seminary and the changing religious, cultural and sociological conditions. It presents the cur-rent system and model of formation at WSD in Ełk and proposals for changes and developments of that model in the future. The philosophy of the seminary’s further activities contains the need to shift the emphasis from “formation for priesthood” to “priestly formation”. It enumerates concrete proposals and methods, which are worth considering and possibly including in the future for-mation practice, in order to fulfill the “integral formation” postulate. The con-tent is enriched with the analysis of the questionnaires filled out by the clerics.