Redemptoris Mater Seminary

The international diocesan missionary «Redemptoris Mater seminaries are a fruit of the Second Vatican Council, an inspiration of St. John Paul II and of the initiators of the Neocatechumenal Way, Mr. Kiko Argüello and Ms. Carmen Hernndez. These seminaries find their root in the desire of the conciliar Fathers to create diocesan international semina... ries so that «the spiritual gift which priests receive in ordination does not prepare them merely for a limited and circumscribed mission, but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation to the end of the earth [] priests, therefore, should recall that the solicitude of all the churches ought to be their intimate concern [] for this purpose there can with advantages be set up some international seminaries [ where] priests can be incardinated for the common good of the whole Church (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 10). These international diocesan missionary seminaries are erected by diocesan bishops in agreement with the International Responsible Team of the Neocatechumenal Way and are governed by the current norms for the formation and incardination of diocesan clerics and in accordance with their own statues, in fulfillment of the Ratio fundamentals institutionis sacerdotalis. In them the candidates for the priesthood find in their participation in the Neocatechumenal Way a specific element of their Christian formative itinerary and, at the same time, are prepared for a «genuine presbyteral choice of service to the entire People of God in fraternal communion of the presbyterate (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 68) (Cf. Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way, art. 18). The first Redemptoris Mater seminary was opened in the Diocese of Rome in 1987 by St. Pope John Paul II. Today, there are 102 seminaries throughout the world in all of the 5 continents. Currently, there are 7 Redemptoris Mater seminaries in the US: in Newark, Washington DC, Denver, Boston, Dallas, Guam and Miami. After the visit of St. John Paul II, on the occasion of the World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, ...Read More