At the height of contemporary culture: What does this mean for the ongoing formation of priests?

My topic is, "To be at the height of contemporary culture: What does this mean for the ongoing formation of priests."  The primary mission of priest is to lead men to salvation and sanctification in Christ.  A  priest, therefore, should be at the height of contemporary culture in such a way as it aids in this mission.  How a priest's ongoing formation should integrate the vast range of human culture into this mission can hardly be examined in three minutes. I will therefore limit myself to two aspects: what, in general, is the "height" or highest point of any culture; how does priest, from the height of contemporary culture, for himself and for those entrusted to his care, discern the value of various conflicting cultural movements.
    First, what is the true human height of culture?  If we use Confucian humanism to answer this question we discover that, though learning in art, literature, music, etc. all have their place, the cultured man par excellence is the man of virtue.  The culture height is achieved by the man who fulfills the virtues of benevolence and filial piety.  In our contemporary culture, then, the priest can only reach its culture height by developing virtue: especially the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity.  On going formation or continual development as a man who understands art, music, literature, politics, is useless if the priest does not develop the virtues proper to the priesthood.  Given that this development in virtue is primary, each priest, according to his specific mission, his natural talents and interest should keep abreast of the main developments in contemporary culture so as to be able to communicate with contemporary man.
    It is not enough to know what the contemporary culture is, from the height of this culture the priest must be able to discern the value of its often conflicting cultural movements.  The most obvious case for such discernment is the complex set of philosophies, literature, art, music, political theories, etc. constituting what John Paul II and Benedict XVI identify as the culture of death.  Every priest needs to continually deepen his understanding of the sources in contemporary philosophy and art that support this culture of death and help those under his care to discern which aspects of contemporary culture are contributing to the destruction of human life, of the family and of the innocence of the young.  At the same time the priest must understand and help his people understand which  contemporary culture movements in art, literature, music, fashion, philosophy, etc. are contributing to a culture of life.  To help himself and his  people make the discernment between the culture of death and culture of life, a priest's ongoing formation not only demands a continual growth in virtue, it also demands a continually deeper reflection on the documents of the contemporary Magisterium, most especially "Faith and Reason," "The Splendor of Truth" and the "Gospel of Life."