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The person preparing for the
priestly ministry in the Catholic Church today is to be formed and
educated in Word and Sacrament in order to be one with Christ and so
minister authentically and effectively to the community of Christian
believers, as well as to the larger community of persons and
societies, both contemporary and future.
Principles
and Objectives
The priest today is called by
Christ through His Church to be a minister of Word and Sacrament.
The response to this calling involves an acceptance of the mission
to serve Christ’s purposes and the ministry of service to people’s
needs. Both of these elements have been identified and clarified
anew by the pastoral mandates of Vatican II. A vibrant community of
believers depends on objective knowledge and subjective experience
of both the Word of God in the Scriptures (especially the Gospel)
and the Sacrament of Christ in worship (especially the Eucharist).
Both realities of Word and Sacrament are conveyed and celebrated
through the living Christian Community and its responsible
ministries.
- Formation in the
Word
A person preparing
for ordination to the priesthood must be knowledgeable of
the Word, both in an academic and in a personal sense. It is
essential that the seminarian has a basic reading
familiarity with and comprehension of the Bible (appropriate
hermeneutical attitude) and that he grasps and can use, at
an initiatory level, some of the technical tools of
interpretation (exegesis, criticism). Only with such
knowledge can he learn to preach the Word more effectively,
to celebrate the Word more authentically, to assimilate the
Word more personally and to bring Christ’s Word of
redemptive love to the needs of others more compassionately.
The person preparing for priestly ministry must have a
thorough, basic familiarity with systematic and moral
theology, especially those under girding themes and
principles rooted in the word of faith and nourished in
sacramental life.
- Formation
in Sacrament
The Word has been
given to and is still present in specific cultures, whose
experiences and symbols of the Word have become the
constituent elements of the believing community’s tradition.
In order to celebrate liturgically the sacraments of the
Word, as understood in the Roman Catholic tradition, one
must be able to recognize sensibly in the phenomena of the
created world and in particular historic and contemporary
cultures the perceptible signs of divine presence and
activity. For such a process of symbolic elaboration and
ritualization, religious theological presuppositions are to
be analyzed and the appropriate structures and methods of
evangelization and catechesis are to be learned, so that the
interdependence of Word and Sacrament may support the inner
life and the outward activity of the believing community.
- Formation
in Christian Community
As minister of Word and Sacrament, the priest is called
by God and by the Church to be a servant of the ecclesial
community. One must be able to participate personally and
help others to participate personally in the community’s
proclamation of the Word and celebration of the sacraments.
When the priest preaches or baptizes, Christ speaks and
transforms; when one hears the Word or is baptized, the
entire community is enlightened and enlivened. The minister
must strive to ensure that every member of
the community of believers can participate, with appropriate
rights and responsibilities, in the vital experiences of
Word and Sacrament.
The most effective service of Word and
Sacrament is exercised where justice and peace are
operative. The prophetic and pastoral traditions of the
people of God guide the priest in ministering to the current
needs and concerns of the immediate faith community and to
the wider communities with which it interacts. The "Pastoral
Constitution on the Church in the Modern World" offers an
outline of a viable Christian anthropology and identifies
current needs and concerns. In effect, the three-fold
process of formation in Word, Sacrament and Community should
establish a conformity of the seminarian to Jesus Christ,
prophet, priest and pastor.
Recapitulation
The priest is formed by a specialized
relationship to Christ which makes authentic ministry
possible: he is shaped by the experience of a community of
Word and Sacrament; the community of Word and Sacrament is
shaped by the ministry of the priest. Priestly formation and
education must respect and reflect this interaction.
Pre-Theology
Program Policies
The Notre Dame Seminary Pre-Theology Program is designed to
give students the preparation required of them by the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB),
as stated in the Program of Priestly Formation (PPF).
Academically, it consists in 24
semester hours in philosophy, 15 semester hours in religious studies
and two (2) semester hours in supervised pastoral ministry and
on-hands ministerial experience. These requirements are arranged
variously into one, one-and-a-half and two-year program to meet the
needs of various students.
If students come with transcripts
that testify to their having successfully completed philosophy
courses in accredited colleges and universities, these are counted
in their favor.
Supervised Pastoral Ministry is
guided academically by the Pre-Theology Director, but the actual
ministry is determined and evaluated by the Associate Director of
Pastoral Field Education. If students have not completed a bachelor
degree, they are enrolled at Our Lady of Holy Cross College to
achieve a B.S. in General Studies in which they do the core
curriculum (60 semester hours). In this particular degree program,
first year and part of the first semester second year theology
courses constitute part of that major, so that the student goes on
to complete the four-year theology program at Notre Dame Seminary
for a Master of Arts in Theological Studies Degree rather than a
Master of Divinity Degree. Note that all students actually have the
same master’s education courses.
A few students also complete
bachelor degrees at the consortium universities of Loyola and
Xavier. This is due to the fact that they had already begun a
program in one of these universities, or to a choice made by their
bishop or vocation director. In addition to what is required of them
there, they also complete the pre-theology program at Notre Dame
Seminary before qualifying for our theologate.
Some foreign students complete
requirements determined by an official evaluator of foreign
transcripts while beginning their first year of theology. They are
usually advised academically by the Pre-Theology Program Director
until those requirements are fulfilled.
Synthesis
Seminar
Introduction
The ability to articulate and
explain the Christian message is crucial for a pastoral theologian
and so is the capacity to integrate the various disciplines with the
Master of Divinity Program. To accomplish this, the Faculty Council,
in its March 19, 1990, session, agreed to place greater emphasis on
the Synthesis Seminar, making the seminar itself the focal point of
the Fourth Year program.
As an interdisciplinary offering
for Fourth Year students, the Synthesis Seminar will have a clear
pastoral focus. Through this integrative effort, each student should
learn to reflect creatively as a knowledgeable pastoral theologian.
Goal
The integration/synthesis of
the various areas of theology: Sacred Scripture, Historical, Moral,
Pastoral and Systematic Theology.
Objectives
- Identify areas where
students perceive a lack of integration/synthesis.
- Give some help and
point out some ways to bridge the gap between theology and
pastoral practice.
- Throw some light on
areas, subjects and themes of theology that have remained
unclear, confused or confusing in the understanding of the
students.
- Instill an awareness
of the need for continuous learning and ongoing learning.
- Show ways and means
how students themselves may find answers to questions not
explicitly treated in the course of their studies.
Procedures
- All candidates for the Master of Divinity Degree and all
students for priesthood are required to attend the Synthesis
Seminar. This seminar will integrate the five areas of theology:
Sacred Scripture, Historical Theology, Moral Theology,
Systematic Theology and Pastoral Theology/Canon Law.
- The seminar will be directed by a team of five professors,
one from each area of the program of studies. In each area of
theology under discussion (Scripture, for instance), the
professor from that area—the Scripture professor—will first give
an overview of the content and important issues in that area;
and then will make prior provisions for whatever texts are
deemed necessary and will guide the discussion with the
students. Each professor may invite other faculty members to
assist in presenting any given topic.
- The five professors will assume the responsibility of
drafting a list of topics covering the major content and key
issues in their respective areas. They will be aided in this
task by the questions that students are expected to turn in upon
their return to Notre Dame Seminary from internship.
- Each segment of the seminar will cover a three-week period
in the semester and will meet five or six times.
- There will be a test at the end of each section—either a
take-home examination or an in-class test.
- The final grade will be averaged from these five tests and
will count as any other three-credit course for the final grade
of graduation.
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