This summer, 25 men from 13 U.S. dioceses, 4 international dioceses, and 5 religious communities are enjoying the fraternity and the academic rigor of the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) Summer Session. Sacred Heart’s innovative STL is for priests who wish to obtain a pastorally-focused degree concentrating on the New Evangelization. The online program for priests and Catholic leaders offers the STL in a “blended” format, so students earn this pontifical post-graduate degree by taking most of the courses online while only having to leave their home dioceses for a five-week residency for four summers. Students learn to analyze contemporary social issues from a Catholic perspective and acquire real-world skills for reaching a culture that has become increasingly indifferent to religious faith.
“In the Gospel of Luke, as Jesus sends his disciples, he tells them to go without a bag, without money, without sandals to preach and to go and to bring peace to each house to prepare priests for the new evangelization,” explains Father Burr, Rector and President of Sacred Heart, “The goals of the STL program in the New Evangelization are to develop ministers as people witnessing Jesus Christ, to grow in the areas of spirituality, theology, and scripture and leadership and pastoral skills to preach the new evangelization.”
“With the tremendous challenges we’re facing in the Church and the world, priests need support,” explains Ralph Martin, Director of the Graduate Programs in the New Evangelization, “This program really gives support to priests. They leave the program more confident about Sacred Scriptures, more confident about their preaching and teaching.”
The STL summer term is academically intense; the men take four courses in two mini-sessions of two-and-a-half weeks each for a total of five weeks of study. The coursework is challenging yet intellectually invigorating, plunging into the Models of Evangelization: Historical and Contemporary; Theological Anthropology; Virtue Ethics and the New Evangelization; the Letters of St. Paul and the New Evangelization; and Theology of the Cross.
Sacred Heart’s dean of studies, Father Timothy Laboe, describes the STL educational experience as one-of-a-kind, combining theological and spiritual exploration with practical applications.
“We were the first institution to be approved to teach licentiate level courses online in our blended format. Students have the benefit of studying in an intense summer term on our seminary campus and at home in their places of ministry during the rest of the year. They are studying while they are engaged in active ministry, and it has led to very engaging and fruitful discussions in the classroom.”
At the same time, the summer session is an occasion for fraternal fellowship with fellow priest-students as they share meals, celebrate Mass, and support each other in their studies.
Father David Hottinger, a priest of the community of Pro Ecclesia Sancta who currently serves as pastor of the Church of St. Mark in St. Paul, Minnesota, is spending his second summer at Sacred Heart for the STL program. His superiors directed him to this program so that he could continue his studies while still serving as pastor.
“We’re a small religious community and we kind of need all hands on deck, especially our priests. We also value studies and want our men to be able to pursue those but that takes a great sacrifice that our situation didn’t allow sparing a man to go to Rome, but this program allowed me to continue those studies while I worked at the parish.”
His favorite things about the program include the fraternal environment and the quality and rigor of the studies.
“I would say the academics are top-notch. In every class, whatever the topic, we’re always asking the question, and the professors are always reminding us that it needs to be asked, ‘Okay, what am I going to take home to my people? How is what I’m learning here going to impact my work as a pastor?’ So we dive into the material without sacrificing the speculative aspect of it.”
Father Santiago Feu, an Argentinian priest of the St. John Society, was most surprised by the universal camaraderie.
“What I found appealing about the program was the amazing teachers. They have a very good combination of biblical wisdom and applied wisdom for pastoral work and, at the same time, a lot of zeal for the Lord. That combination is not so easy to find sometimes,” Father Feu explains, “I also loved being with other priests from so many countries. It widens your mind and heart in a sense of listening to what is working in other places, having different kinds of perspectives on different issues, and I think that is very useful for our ministry.”
Father Feu is grateful for the spiritual renewal opportunity that the summer residency offered.
“It renews you. It refreshes your ability to do the most important things that you came to do in this vocation: to actually take the Lord, to evangelize. It’s a very good way to grow in zeal. The challenges are so big and so demanding regarding the difficulty of evangelizing that we need to do things like this so we can find encouragement. Here, you get to be influenced by good people, holy people.”
One of those holy people he encountered this summer was another STL student, Father Matthew Farrugia, an Australian Poor Friar working in Louisiana. He’s been ordained a priest for 10 years in some of the parishes most heavily hit by Hurricane Ida. He’s now in his second year of the STL course in pastoral theology and loves the flexibility of being able to continue his studies while maintaining his parish.
“I’ve loved each and every class,” reflects Father Farrugia, “Everything has been directed toward the new evangelization. I feel like the courses are an answer to many prayers over years of seminarians, priests, and bishops who have recognized the need to focus on the evangelization of our people rather than having just an academic catechesis to educate our people. It’s focused on the pastoral ministry and making missionary disciples of our laity and empowering them to go out and evangelize the gospel with competence.”
In the throes of the busyness priesthood can be, the STL summer residency offers Father Farrugia a much-needed reprieve.
“Spiritually, this degree has been a great gift to me. The busyness of my parish life can be a temptation to draw me away from my spiritual growth and my spiritual journey. So, coming up here every year has also given me a certain rhythm and schedule and even discipline to refocus, not only my academic life but also my spiritual life, to come away here to be detached from all the distractions I have. It’s almost like a little retreat in a certain sense, surrounded by holy priests who are all in love with the Lord and striving their best to do his will.