School of Theology Catalog 2021

Program of Pastoral Formation
Rev. Mr. Jonathan Kuhar baptizes a new member of the faith community at his pastoral assignment,
The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, February 2020.
The St. Mary's Seminary & University theological
curriculum and priestly formation program
are designed to prepare seminarians to
assume demanding pastoral responsibilities.
The seminary is the center for the seminarians'
human, intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral
formation. The parish, ministry sites,
and hospitals are the experiential forums for
their formation.
Our Pastoral Formation Program is developed
to help seminarians understand the
dynamics of Catholic parishes today and learn
how to apply their theological and pastoral
education to the realities of parish life.
The program aims to develop compassionate
and authentic pastors who shepherd their
communities with spiritual and pastoral care.
After their studies and seminary formation,
the seminarians will have competency in the
basic pastoral skills of evangelizing, preaching,
pastoral counseling, and pastoral leadership.
Today's newly ordained are being assigned as
pastors much sooner than their predecessors.
Consequently, we are making formation
intentional and strategic with the help of a
collegial and collaborative faculty. Every
course has a defined purpose and an
expressed pastoral outcome. Academics, community
life, pastoral experiences, personal
and community prayer, spiritual direction,
and skill development workshops contribute
to the formation of pastoral leaders.
In addition to their academic studies, the
seminarians in their pre-theology (Philosophy
year) spend four hours a week working with
direct service agencies that minister to the
poor and the marginalized.
Seminarians in their first, third, and fourth
theology years minister on the weekends for
five hours a week in selected parishes
throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
In the parish setting, we use the learning
team model under the leadership of the transitional
deacon. In this model, the parish
becomes the focal point and experiential
forum of the seminarians' learning. With the
transitional deacons as leaders, the first and
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