What are our STL Grads Doing These Days?

Most of the seminary community knows that we offer a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) with a focus on the New Evangelization. The degree is offered through the Angelicum University in Rome and is a pontifical degree that qualifies its recipients to serve in a variety of ways in the Church. Holders of the degree are qualified to teach in Catholic institutions including seminaries, hold leadership positions in evangelization on the diocesan and parish levels, and go on to doctoral studies. The STL is generally considered to include most of the coursework required to enter a doctoral program and begin work on a dissertation with just a minimum of additional courses neededor none.

Recently we have received permissionthe first permission of its kind grantedto begin offering an alternative path to the STL other than the traditional two-year residential program where students work on the degree full-time here at Sacred Heart for a minimum of two years. The permission was granted by the authorities in Rome and began this summer with our first cohort of priest-students. We are able to take about fifteen new students each year for the four-year online/five-week summer session program and about reached our maximum this first year. They are in residence during the five-week summer session in rooms vacated by the college-level seminarians but are able to continue to fulfill their pastoral assignments in their home dioceses during the year while they take the online courses.

And what are our first graduates doing? They are doing a surprising variety of things.

• Fr. Tim Hepburn, after working in campus ministry and on the diocesan level in evangelization, is now serving as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Atlanta as well as a consultant to the Archdiocesan Office of Formation and Discipleship. He is often called upon to give talks on evangelization during priest retreats and convocations. He regularly teaches in the summer sessions for seminarians at the Institute for Priestly Formation held each summer at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.
• Fr. Pat Collins continues to publish books on evangelization and play a leading role in leading evangelization in the Republic of Ireland. He writes frequently for Catholic publications, both popular and academic, on the new evangelization and is currently running a 26 week certificate course on the new evangelization. He has been asked by Cardinal Brady to be on a task force that is preparing a document on the new evangelization for Ireland. He has given 16 lectures in the Czech Republic which were recorded and later shown on Catholic TV in that country. He is active in Alpha and has produced a six week course for use in parishes which is being used in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
• Fr. Gerard Kelly continues to do extensive preaching, serves in a renewal community in the United Kingdom, and has begun teaching at St. Mary's Seminary in Oscott, Archdiocese of Birmingham, a seminary that serves a multitude of English dioceses. He has also taught on the new evangelization in Australia.
• Fr. Eduardo Montemayor, S.O.L.T. continues to carry out significant Hispanic ministry and also serves as the Associate Director of Evangelization for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
• Mr. Michael Dopp has launched an evangelization ministry - missionoftheredeemer.com and does parish missions and leadership training in a number of venues both in the US and Canada. He is based in Canada and is a key organizer for an upcoming international conference on evangelization to be held in April of 2015 in Ottawa.
• Fr. Gerard Battersby continues to work on his doctorate through the Angelicum in Rome, while also serving here at SHMS as Vice-Rector.
• Fr. James Joseph has returned to India where he has been elected Vice-Provincial of his Pallottine Province in Bangalore, named Rector of their minor seminary, where he is supervising 22 seminarians doing their first three years of preparation for the priesthood, and is often called upon to do teaching on evangelization for clergy, religious and laity throughout India.
• Fr. Matthew George Charthakuzhiyil just recently successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the Angelicum and received his S.T.D. magna cum laude. He then proceeded to undertake the camino hiking the whole distance to the Shrine of St. James. He then returned to his Syro-Malankara diocese in India where his bishop Cardinal Cleemis, current head of the Indian Bishops' Conference, is calling on his expertise in the new evangelization. While still a doctoral student he published articles and presented papers on the new evangelization.
• Fr. Vallikatt Varghese has returned to India and is responsible for coordinating the activities of all the commissions of the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council which is the Catholic heartland of India and the source of an amazing number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
• Ms. Kerri Lenartowick continues to work on her doctoral dissertation for the Lateran University in Rome and has begun to teach in the theology department of the University of Dallas.
• Fr. Jean-Robert Ngandjui has returned to Cameroon and has been teaching theology and holding administrative responsibilities in the Diocesan Higher Institute as well as serving in pastoral assignments.
• Fr. Godswill Agbagwa continues to work on a doctorate in moral theology at the Catholic University of America and has presented papers at conferences on moral theology.
• Fr. Ed Fride continues as the busy pastor of Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor and also teaches for the Diocese of Lansing and SHMS a variety of theology courses.

There are more graduates to report on but this is enough for now! When we first began the program and obtained scholarship funds for a limited number of international students we hoped that the program would be a way for SHMS to make a contribution to strengthening the Church around the world. We are profoundly grateful to see that this has come to pass. We are grateful to all that have contributed to making this possible our Archbishop, our boards, our rectors and deans, our donors, our students, our professors, our support staff. Thank you. And most of all thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow.