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SERVICES AND NON-DEGREE PROGRAMS

DEAF SERVICES PROGRAM

In August of 2003, the first deaf seminarians began their program of priestly formation at St. Patrick's Seminary & University. In August of 2005, the Deaf Services Program (DPS) was officially established to serve the communication access needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing seminarians, assure their full and active participation in seminary life, and provide information and education on a range of issues within Deaf culture to the faculty, staff, and larger seminary community. St. Patrick's Seminary & University provides its Deaf seminarians with the appropriate accommodations to meet their language and communication needs within the context of the formation process including interpreters for daily community prayer and Mass, classes, field education placements when needed, student government and extracurricular activities, and community celebrations. The Deaf Services Coordinator/Staff Interpreter is a full member of the seminary faculty and a certified interpreter. The services of other certified Bay Area interpreters are employed on a contract basis. Likewise, St. Patrick's Seminary & University provides real-time captioning for classes by qualified experienced CART providers. At this time, all services provided by St. Patrick's Seminary & University are paid for by the individual seminarians (Arch)diocese.

Field Education and Pastoral Year assignments include placements with both Deaf and Hearing parishes.

FIELD EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Field Education Program at St. Patrick's Seminary & University offers students the opportunity to exercise and develop their academic, social and ministerial skills in diverse pastoral settings. Primary among the available placements is the parish, but experience in hospital, campus, prison, urban and ethnic ministries is also provided and encouraged.

A wide variety of specialized social service placements is also used:

  1. Supervisory Workshops

    To enhance the quality of field education experience, the Field Education Department regularly provides an orientation and training workshop, which is required for new field education supervisors in order to assure that they can engage in this work effectively and professionally.

  2. Field Work

    Under the supervision of trained personnel, students are introduced to pastoral ministry by spending a required number of hours each week in pastoral work. During their course of studies, students are required to earn twelve credits in Field Education. In their ministerial experiences, through contracted job descriptions, planned supervisory conferences and evaluations, students are expected to gain a reasonable competence in the following areas: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) and sacramental preparation, religious education, ministry to the sick, liturgical celebration, team ministry and collegial parish leadership, and, if possible, other important ministries, such as involvement with social justice.

  3. Pastoral Year

    Students are offered the opportunity to further develop pastoral skills by participating in a Pastoral Year, normally after their second year of studies. The Pastoral Year is usually a ten-month (September-June) full-time parish-based experience of pastoral ministry in the student's own diocese under the direction of the Seminary. Six units of Field Education credit are granted for the successful completion of the Pastoral Year. (See p. 36 for Pastoral Year description.)

    If the diocese should decide not to include the Pastoral Year in a seminarian's program, the student must earn the six field education credits through additional pastoral work during the seminary program.

  4. Pastoral Ministry Courses

    In addition to on-site supervision in the field, students are required to take two pastoral ministry courses at the Seminary, which seek to sharpen pastoral skills: 1) Pastoral Leadership: Ministry and Skills and 2) Parish Administration and Finances.

  5. Clinical Pastoral Education

    While St. Patrick's Seminary & University does not require CPE units as part of its Field Education requirements, Clinical Pastoral Education is highly recommended for every student. The student's own diocese should arrange this during one of the summers. The Field Education Department is able to make known to a diocese/student available CPE programs.

As an extension of the Field Education program, St. Patrick's Seminary & University will grant two credits of Field Education to a student who successfully completes a full quarter of CPE at an accredited CPE program.

HISPANIC MINISTRY PROGRAM

Given the unique needs of the Hispanic Community in the West, the Seminary offers a three-year program in the study of the Spanish language and a required course, Ministry in a Multicultural Society, designed to familiarize students with knowledge of the Hispanic culture. Other elective courses are available. The Spanish language program consists of five semesters of in-class work. Pastoral assignments in which students can apply their bilingual and bicultural skills in the Spanish-speaking community are also available. This program is presently offered on an elective status and full involvement rests with the policy of individual dioceses.

St. Patrick's Seminary & University has several activities and criteria to support the Hispanic Ministry Program:

  1. Weekly Spanish liturgies are celebrated at the Seminary.

  2. The Seminary holds celebrations on Hispanic feast days, e.g., Our Lady of Guadalupe and Dia de los Muertos.

  3. The goals of the Spanish Language Program are the following:
    1. ability to read from a Lectionary and Sacramentary and to preside at the Eucharist and other liturgical services in Spanish;
    2. ability to compose and deliver a short, prepared homily for a liturgical service in Spanish;
    3. ability to carry on casual conversation in Spanish of the type which is likely to be held in pastoral settings after Mass or at socials.

Excluded from the specific skills requirement is the ability to counsel someone in Spanish. The program emphasizes basic pastoral Spanish. The program in no way pretends to make students fluent in Spanish, but intends to provide a base to lead to fluency in Spanish. Dioceses are encouraged to sponsor intensive summer placements for students to improve their Spanish.

PASTORAL YEAR PROGRAM

Students are offered the opportunity to further develop their pastoral skills by participating in a Pastoral Year, normally after their second year of theological studies. This positioning in the curriculum was chosen for two reasons: 1) to enable the student to complete two full academic years of theology, thus enabling him to experience the Pastoral Year with a certain degree of theological expertise; and 2) the enable student's return to the seminary program with new insights about his pastoral abilities and sustains the opportunity to test these abilities during his final two years of seminary training.

The Pastoral Year is normally a ten-month (September-June), full-time, parish-based experience of pastoral ministry in the student's own diocese, under the direction of the seminary. Supervision, evaluation, theological reflection, complemented by a spiritual program, are the essential elements of the pastoral year. Six units of Field Education credits are granted for the successful completion of the Pastoral Year.