Saint Leo University's new degree of Master of Arts in Theology (MTH) is offered at the University Campus, Savannah Center and the Chesapeake Dominion Boulevard Office. The mission of MTH is to educate and prepare candidates for lay ministers and the Permanent Deaconate to exercise pastoral leadership and service in the Roman Catholic Church.
Today in many, if not the majority of pastoral situations, MTH students and graduates may be the first and perhaps only direct pastoral contact with the Catholic Faith Community and her Tradition. Due to several key factors—young families moving to the Sunbelt, the immigration explosion—Hispanic and other, and the abundant increase each year of converts to Catholicism through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults), the Catholic Church has become the largest faith community in the State of Florida. A similar “Catholic population explosion' seems to be starting in Georgia.
At the same time that the Catholic Church is expanding exponentially, the number of ordained priests for pastoral ministry continues to decline exponentially. One statistic speaks volumes to this increasing pastoral need for trained and educated deacons and lay ministers. In the United States there are approximately 19,000 parishes, and already 3,000 find themselves without even a single priest. (footnote 1) With the average age of priests in America a little over 57 years and the small number of seminarians these past few years, it will be come increasingly difficult for the Catholic Church in Florida and Georgia to respond to the pastoral and spiritual needs of the faithful by simply relying on the declining pool of aging clergy. (footnote 2) Attempts at “importing' priests from Africa and Central Europe have not met with much enthusiasm from the faithful because of the language and cultural differences.
To respond to this need, the MTH program proposes a practitioner-based thirty-six (36) hour comprehensive curriculum. Coming out of a “practical theology' that is, nonetheless, rooted in solid theological and biblical foundations as well as the best of the human sciences and pastoral technology, MTH affirms Vatican II’s vision of Church and the integration of a personal and apostolic spirituality into the courses.
The instructional delivery methods include lecture-discussion in an adult learning model, blended courses (onsite lectures, on-line, and video conferencing), practica, and projects—individual and group.
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1 Judy Valente, “Parishes Without Priests' in Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, June 20, 2003. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/weekly642/cover.html
2 “Catholic Bishops Discuss Growing Priest Shortage, ' Saint Petersburg Times, June 17, 2000, p. 9. “There are more priests over 90 than there are under the age of 30.'