Priests today and Latin

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Given all that, at 56 years old (and just returning to the Church after two decades) I’m doubtful of my chances of ever being a Priest 😃
 
There would really be no need to travel. Latin is a very popular subject in the homeschool world, and there are literally dozens of programs designed for self-study with no teacher required. Most are inexpensive, and some are even free. If a young child can teach himself Latin, there is no reason that a highly educated priest can not teach himself at least the basics necessary to celebrate Mass and read the Vulgate (itself written in extremely simple Latin).
 
BartholomewB said:
A Hebrew teacher, who had had both Catholic and Protestant seminarians among his students, told me that none of his Catholic students had ever shown the slightest interest in the language; they were there to get their piece of paper saying they had completed the course, and that was all.
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Protestant seminaries tend to place a stronger focus on scripture which is unsurprising in light of their sola scriptura tradition. For us, scripture is only part of what we do and, if anything, there’s a greater focus in our seminary education on theology as well as philosophy (which barely features as far as I’m aware in Protestant seminaries).

The Ratio Studiorum (the blueprint for seminary academic formation) provides that, as well as Hebrew and Greek, seminarians should be introduced to Latin from the start of their formation since it provides an access to the sources of the magisterium and the history of the Church. The difficulty is though that seminarians frequently need to learn at least one other modern language (for example,. Spanish in the US) while also allowing for the fact that the language they’re studying in may not be their first language. Ultimately, there are only so many hours, days and weeks available.
 
My spiritual director who has been a priest for 21 years does not know any Latin as it was not taught at his seminary. He said he has no reason to learn it.
 
phil19034 said:
Below is the academic requirements for St. Charles Borromeo in the Philadelphia suburbs
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Sadly, that seminary is closing and the students moving to Baltimore. Not sure of the timeline, but it’s been sold to Mainline Health. Philadelphia Archdioceses won’t have a seminary in the future.
 
A friend of mine was in the seminary in the 80s. He has several horror stories. One of them was a group of seminarians actually petitioning the rector for Latin classes based on Canon law. It was not well received.
These days, it is my understanding that the same seminary definitely teaches Latin.
 
Convert3 said:
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phil19034:
Below is the academic requirements for St. Charles Borromeo in the Philadelphia suburbs
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Sadly, that seminary is closing and the students moving to Baltimore. Not sure of the timeline, but it’s been sold to Mainline Health. Philadelphia Archdioceses won’t have a seminary in the future.
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I’m not sure where you got your information, but this is not true. I live in Philadelphia.

The Seminary is MOVING, not closing. They sold the land but will be building a new seminary adjacent to Neumann University, south of Philadelphia. College Seminarians will take some general classes (like english & math) with Neumann University students. They will also be able to use general services at Neumann University (like their fitness facilities, etc). However, the seminary is buying land from the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia (who owns land adjacent to Neumann University) for seminary only buildings.

The St. Charles campus buildings are so old and so out of date, it was determined that it would be cheaper to build a new seminary at a Catholic college than to renovate the existing buildings.

So rest well… St. Charles Borromeo is NOT closing and the students are NOT moving to Baltimore and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia WILL continue to have a seminary.

NOTE: perhaps some partner seminaries are going move their seminarians to Baltimore instead of staying at St. Charles when it relocates to Neumann University campus, but the seminary is not closing - again, it’s just moving.

https://www.scs.edu/node/2580
 
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Phil is correct. In addition, the Philly seminary is going to continue to operate on the Wynnewood property for at least 5 years while it slowly moves to Aston in Delco (this is in the Philly suburbs, not Baltimore). They also need to figure out what to do with the historic buildings. I doubt they’ll want to just tear them all down (some, yes, all, no).

There is no reason for Philadelphia to NOT have its own seminary. The number of parishes and Catholics here is very large and we also send a goodly number of seminarians to the seminary each year. I am also sure that the Delco site probably has a lot more amenities that aren’t possible in Wynnewood at this point.

 
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Well, all I know is my pastor discussed it at our parish council meeting two weeks ago. Time will tell. I live in Montgomery County, am on the parish council, and our Pastor follows this closely because a member of our Parish is in the Seminary.
 
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I think in the absence of an official announcement from the Archdiocese, we can’t go by word-of-mouth plans as they might change.

So far the official plan is that the seminary is moving to Delco. Whether they eventually merge with St Mary’s in Baltimore remains to be seen. It’s probably a lot cheaper to run a seminary down there.
 
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Convert3 said:
Well, all I know is my pastor announced discussed it at our parish council meeting two weeks ago. Time will tell. I live in Montgomery County, am on the parish council, and our Pastor follows this closely because a member of our Parish is in the Seminary.
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Perhaps he or you misunderstood?

My pastor is on the Board of Trustees for the Seminary. They are moving.

NOW: some people (including priests) are very upset about the seminary moving because of the historic campus with historic buildings (esp the Chapel) is closing. To these people, the fact that the campus is closing is really all they can grasp & what they focus on.

The only thing I can think of regarding Baltimore is that some dioceses (other the Philly) who send their college seminarians only to St. Charles might be making the decision to send their college seminarians instead to Baltimore because they don’t want their college seminaries taking general classes with Neumann University professors/teachers?

However, it also very common for partner dioceses to change often.

Here are two recent news links (one on the Seminary’s website) from May and June 2019
 
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phil19034 said:
Perhaps he or you misunderstood?
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He was pretty clear that it was a budgetary decision and stating that there is no need for every archdiocese to have a seminary. He also said it was a recent change. I absolutely could be wrong, but as I said, time will tell.
 
Convert3 said:
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phil19034:
Perhaps he or you misunderstood?
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He was pretty clear that it was a budgetary decision and stating that there is no need for every archdiocese to have a seminary. He also said it was a recent change. I absolutely could be wrong, but as I said, time will tell.
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Well, it 100% was a budgetary decision. They are spending a significant amount of money on maintenance - far more money that would be required if they had new buildings. From what Bishop Senior says, the vast majority of donations have to be spent on maintenance and they can’t spend it on mission - as they would like.
 
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