By Josh McDermid
While seminarians spent the first two weeks of the seminary year engaged in ‘in-house’ activities and programs, such as sessions on resilience, liturgy and preaching, retreats and the Senior Celibacy Seminar, this week seminarians went back to school as we commenced our formal academic studies for 2023 at Catholic Theological College (CTC), East Melbourne. Along with the spiritual, human and pastoral formation that seminarians undertake, most of us are also full-time university students, having the same academic load that a full-time student at any Australian university would.
This academic study forms the central plank of our intellectual formation. The document that guides seminaries around the world, The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, explains that “intellectual formation is aimed at achieving for seminarians a solid competence in philosophy and theology, along with a more general educational preparation, enough to allow them to proclaim the Gospel message to the people of our own day in a way that is credible and can be understood.” So, while seminarians do write essays, sit exams, and get degrees like other students, this academic study is not an end in itself. It forms part of our preparation for pastoral ministry and our overall configuration to Christ.
Corpus Christi College first-year formator and Catholic Theological College lecturer Rev Dr Jake Mudge teaching Pastoral Studies I: Theory of Pastoral Practice
One of the most common questions I am asked as a seminarian is: what on earth do you study for seven years? So here is the basic answer. While every student has a slightly different path, and some students enter the seminary having already undertaken relevant previous study, this is the typical academic journey for a seminarian.
The first year is a propaedeutic or spiritual year, so seminarians only have a part-time academic load. In addition to informal classes in the seminary, students take courses at CTC in Christian spirituality, introductory biblical studies, and additionally, in the second semester, their first taste of philosophy.
The focus in the second and third years is on philosophy. Seminarians, now with a full-time load, study the history of philosophy, with courses on Ancient Greek, medieval, early modern, and twentieth-century philosophy. Students also study courses based on different fields of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology. Apart from philosophy, students also continue their biblical studies, commence introductory studies in theology and complete units in Church history.
In the fourth year, students complete a pastoral internship in a parish. Upon their return to the seminary, the fifth, sixth and seventh years are focused on theology. Students study areas of theology such as creation, eschatology and theological anthropology, along with liturgical and sacramental theology, pastoral studies and moral theology. Apart from these theological studies, seminarians also complete any remaining courses in biblical studies, study canon law and write a 25,000-word synthesis in their last semester to bring together everything they have learnt.
And so, as our lighter start to the year gives way to this more stressful period of readings, essays and exam preparation, we thank you for your prayerful support and ask that you continue to pray for us.
