In order to find out if the conclusion is well-founded, one has to examine the courses offered by the institutions that educate seminarians. This entry examines three of these institutions. Examples of the course work to be taken for the Master of Divinity Curriculum of Studies at Notre Dame [4] and at Pontifical College Josephinum [5] were provided by Joe Fessenden (July, 2014) [6]. Saint Mary's Seminary and University has a catalog of studies for the 2014-15 school year online, accessed April 30, 2015. [7]
None of the three institutions listed offered lessons in faith, fishing, forgiveness, humility, hypocrisy, poverty, overeating and alcohol consumption. In reverse order, this entry addresses each course that is missing from the typical curriculum at a seminary:
Alcohol Consumption
None of the Gospels specifically identifies inebriation as a sin therefore it is reasonable to assume that a good number of clergymen do indulge in alcohol and that some are alcoholics and former alcoholics, perhaps even alcoholics-in-training. The paragraphs quoted below, "by Daniel J. Gross Special to the News-Post," were published on Mount Saint Mary's website, accessed April 30, 2015:
"A recreation room also lines the basement of the seminary and is complete with a seminary bar that serves beer and wine at least four nights per week.
"Bar conversations during a recent December evening included anything from a class's final exam, to the history of Santa Claus, to the process of brewing beer, to such lessons from other priests as how to properly react to seeing an attractive woman enter a room.
"A pool table, pingpong table and large flat-screen television with leather lounge chairs are also in the room.
"Bartender Brian Bursott, in his second year at the seminary, said he is brewing his own beer and hard cider at the seminary. He expects to serve them at the bar in the spring.
"Tending bar is Bursott's house job, something each seminarian is assigned while living at the seminary." [8]
Serving beer "at least four nights a week" with hard cider to follow is good preparation for pastoral care? If so, then there ought to be guidelines as to how much alcohol ought to be consumed before consumption becomes an addiction.
Overeating
Overeating is related to excessive drinking. While neither is condemned, both can fall under the sin of gluttony. Overeating, like alcoholism, is detrimental to one's health. Therefore, courses on nutrition and proper exercise ought to be part of a seminarian's curriculum.
Poverty
An education is expensive, a seminarian's education is no different. Perhaps there ought to be a course on comparative poverty since many priests like to use the phrase made famous by Teresa of Calcutta: "poorest of the poor." What is more important, buying medication and food for indigents or paying tuition for seminarians to be educated and have beer "at least four times a week"?
Hypocrisy
How can one preach about poverty when one is living with all the comforts of life, often exceeding those of the average worker? Perhaps hypocrisy is not available as a course for seminarians because both professors and students are in denial.
Humility
How often are seminarians assigned to mop bathroom floors and clean toilets, pull weeds and get on their knees to wash the feet of the sick and the elderly? Perhaps humility is not a course that is taught because it is extremely difficult to expect one to be humble when one is so bright, so articulate and so educated.
Forgiveness
Do all seminarians have perfect parents, perfect siblings, perfect friends, perfect colleagues, perfect superiors so that none of them has the need to forgive those whom they know so well? Whether or not that is the case, can seminarians preach forgiveness when they become pastors without first learning to forgive those who are the most difficult to forgive?
Fishing
Leave the fishing to the fishermen even though eating fish on Fridays is recommended. How can seminarians be fishers of men when they do not even know how to fish? Fishing ought to be a hands-on course that occurs every Friday. If no fish is caught, then no meal will be served. The objective of this course is to teach students patience and ways to deal with frustration. Practically speaking, if a seminarian does not have the skill and patience to lead sinners onto the path of Christ, then no degree will be awarded, and he ought to do something else.
Faith
No amount of studying will increase one's faith in God. One can become extremely knowledgeable and be proud of what one knows and what one can teach others, but how unfulfilled is his heart if a seminarian goes back to his room alone and finds emptiness, sees the kind of darkness that light does not penetrate and hears no reply from his prayers because he drinks too often, eats too much , lives too comfortably, sins behind closed doors while being virtuous in public, wears an invisible crown of superiority, holds grudges, has no genuine interest in those seeking guidance and mostly because he does not truly believe in God, and thinks that everything about being priestly is the precise adherence to the procedures, going through the motions that are required while his mind goes blank.
[1] http://www.seminarygradschool.com/article/Is-Seminary-Education-Always-Necessary-for-Pastoral-Ministry%3F
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://nds.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/M.-Div.-Curriculum.pdf
[5] http://www.pcj.edu/files/9414/0432/2346/Curriculum_Plan_for_Master_of_Divinity_Degree_June_2014.pdf
[6] http://www.quora.com/What-is-a-curriculum-for-a-Catholic-seminarian
[7] http://www.stmarys.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/SOT-catalog-2014-1.pdf
[8] https://www.msmary.edu/about-the-mount/news-and-events/newspaper-articles/B-article342DayInTheLifeSeminary.html
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