“When you send people to another diocese [that diocese] may have a different set of ideas about what a priest should be,” said Fr. Sanz, Director of Blessed Junipero House of Formation.
Beginning this year, the Diocese has found a way to keep its seminarians around a couple of years longer, strengthening their formation in diocesan priesthood while allowing them to hit the required academic markers.
Through Connecticut-based Holy Apostles Seminary, diocesan seminarians will be able to take philosophy and pre-theology courses on-line, instead of relocating to out-of-state seminaries to take them. This increases the time a seminarian will spend at Serra House by two years.
“The idea is that we will have more time for the formation of our seminarians,” Fr. Sanz said, adding that seminarians need to experience some of the unique realities of the Diocese, such as its considerable cultural diversity, in order to effectively minister here.
“The seminarians cannot be strangers to what is going on in the Diocese,” he said.
The change could also benefit the Diocese financially because travel expenses incurred by the seminarians will be saved. Historically, the Diocese would pay for each seminarian studying philosophy and pre-theology out-of-state to travel back to the Diocese twice a year. There could also be some savings in tuition costs by utilizing the on-line courses.
Fr. Sanz is quick to add that online program offered by Holy Apostles Seminary meets all of the requirements of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and other regulating bodies for seminary studies. Last year, some seminarians began taking the online courses on a trial basis and the results were good enough to begin the program formally this year, Fr. Sanz said.
Seminarians will still relocate to either Assumption Seminary in San Antonio or St. John Seminary in Camarillo to do their coursework in theology.