Discipleship Stage seminarians receive their formation in the College of Liberal Arts, a free-standing college seminary unattached to any existing non-seminary college or university. As such, it is one of few such seminaries existing in the United States.
The dimensions of formation are integrated and unified in a seamless, consistent manner. Priest formators and professors share the ultimate goal of accompanying seminarians as they grow in relationship with Christ through study while also cultivating virtue and self-knowledge.
The College of Liberal Arts forms seminarians within an ecclesial seminary community as they discern a call to the Roman Catholic priesthood (diocesan or religious) at the Discipleship Stage. Seminarians are prepared within the College to continue graduate-level theological education in a School of Theology at the Configuration Stage of formation.
Recognizing that seminarians come from different backgrounds, cultures and experiences, our College program fosters in seminarians an ever-deepening appreciation of the dignity of the human person in light of the mystery of Jesus Christ. It prepares them to respond to the universal call to holiness and to participate in multiple dimensions of pastoral ministry in the Discipleship Stage of seminary formation.
The College accentuates the role of Christ-like discipleship, love, mature freedom, informed conscience and an open and honest dialogue in all dimensions of formation: human, intellectual, pastoral and spiritual.
As a school of liberal arts, guided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation (6th ed.), the College equips seminarians to exercise competent Christian responsiveness in pastoral dialogue with contemporary culture. Its programs first cultivate in the seminarian a love of learning and the desire for God, a striving for wisdom founded in certitude of truth and animated by an intelligence of the heart. This is closely followed by teaching and demonstrating the application of acquired knowledge, challenging the seminarian to begin living, now, an authentic life in Christ as “doers of the word, not hearers only” (James 1:22).
Young men entering College seminary today have been challenged by a contemporary society that often rejects the way of Christ and the Catholic Church. Thus our program is tailored to help each seminarian begin, perhaps for the first time in his life, a transformative process whereby he may encounter Christ on a more personal and intimate level, reminding him: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
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