Before presbyteral ordination (part 2)

[julianwu]

Hello! I’m just curious. I do not have priest friends, so I really don’t have anyone to ask to about this.

For diocesan transitional deacons, what usually happens weeks before your ordination? What is this thing called “defense”? I happened to see people congratulating one of our local deacons for finishing a defense (but he’s already done with his studies) on socmed, so I was wondering if deacons have to go through a special kind of defense after their retreat / weeks before their ordination (I’m too shy to ask him, but anyway, I still congratulated).

What are usually the questions or something like that?

Anyway, thanks to everyone who’ll answer! I hope all is well with you guys.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

I’m only venturing a guess - I have no first hand knowledge of how this works except that I’ve been around more than a fair share of soon-to-be-priests and have some awareness of what our local seminaries do.

It’s my understanding that most priests leave seminary with their ordination and a masters degree in (something, likely theology or divinity). Part of the masters process is a defense (oral examination) of your thesis. Around here, thesis defense and graduation usually occur within 4-6 weeks prior to ordination.