The Pre-Theology Program
Propaedeutic and Discipleship Stages of Formation
Pre-Theology is a distinct three-year program designed to address the needs of seminarians in the early periods of their formation. It consists of a one-year Propaedeutic Stage, and a two-year Discipleship Stage.
Pre-Theologians come to the Seminary with backgrounds in various disciplines, typically a college degree, and in some cases with work experience. While they approximate Theologians in age and life-experience, like the Collegians they are novices to the Seminary.
Although life-experience contributes to maturation, it often comes at a cost, because the culture in which applicants to the seminary were raised is in many ways antithetical to the life they aspire to lead. While grace has touched them such that they desire to give their lives to Jesus and his Church, and in some ways have, much of the old man remains (cf. Program of Priestly Formation, 6th ed., hereafter PPF, 119).
The truth about ourselves as persons created and redeemed in love has been distorted by lies designed to convince us that we are less than we are. In some cases, the roots of these lies run deep, so much so that we’ve never thought to think otherwise. If the truth sets us free, as Jesus taught us, then lies enslave us and incline us to live beneath our dignity.
The Propaedeutic Stage of the Pre-Theology Program affords a precious time for healing and maturation towards Catholic manhood.
Solitude and community life, each in its own way, promote self-knowledge and awareness, such that we may know ourselves as we are, in the truth of who we are. Just as children rely on others to show them who they are, so we, likewise, are meant to receive our identity through our relationship with God and others. The freedom to engage priestly formation presupposes the security of knowing ourselves as beloved sons in the Son (cf. PPF 119).
Healing and maturity give way to discipleship, which aims to develop an intimate relationship with Jesus, such that we internalize his Gospel, and share his outlook, attitude, and sentiments (cf. Ratio fundamentalis, hereafter Ratio, 41).
If the Propaedeutic Stage places us in Nazareth with Jesus, under the watchful care of Mary and Joseph, the Discipleship Stage places us in the intimate community of the twelve, gathered around our Lord. As the best of friends, Jesus not only desires our good, but he brings it about within, such that we incrementally acquire “interior maturity” and act with “interior freedom” (Ratio 41).
Together, then, the Propaedeutic and Discipleship Stages foster self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and self-possession, in preparation for self-gift (cf. PPF 193).
