St. John's Seminary (California)
| St. John's Seminary | |
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| Established | 1939 |
| Type | Private, Graduate |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Chairman | Roger M. Mahony[1] |
| President | Patrick Nichelson[1] |
| Vice-president | Albert Bahhuth[1] |
| Rector | Craig A. Cox[2] |
| Dean | Richard Benson[1] |
| Vice Rector | John P. Brennan[2] |
| Academic staff | 29[2] |
| Admin. staff | 37[3] |
| Students | 77 seminarians (2009-10)[4] 29 lay (2009-10)[4] |
| Location | Camarillo, California, USA 34°14′35″N 119°00′19″W / 34.24308°N 119.005329°WCoordinates: 34°14′35″N 119°00′19″W / 34.24308°N 119.005329°W |
| Campus | Suburban, 100 acres (40 ha) |
| Website | http://www.stjohnsem.edu/ |
St. John's Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary located in Camarillo, California. It is within the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The seminarians prepare for assignments in dioceses as well as religious orders.[5] St. John's offers the Master of Divinity degree as a first professional degree for seminarians.[5] If interested in theological studies and research, eligible seminarians can also concurrently earn a Master of Arts.[5] The seminary offers a Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry for non-seminarians who are interested in lay ministry.[5]
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[edit] History
St. John's Seminary began teaching seminarians on September 12, 1939.[6] Juan Camarillo, Jr. donated 100 acres (40 ha) of land from his Rancho Calleguas on March 3, 1927 with the specific desire to have the land used for a seminary named for St. John the Evangelist.[6] On January 14, 1938, John J. Cantwell announced the planned construction of the seminary. The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada first accredited St. John's in 1976; it had previously been accredited by the American Association of Theological Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Beginning in 1961, St. John's granted bachelor's degrees through its subsidiary St. John's Seminary College. Following a 2002 report from a task force appointed by Roger Mahony, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles closed the undergraduate portion of the seminary.[7] Only 12 seminarians graduated in 2002, and the Archdiocese chose to focus solely on graduate training. The task force also scheduled a 2005 review to see if St. John's should be entirely closed with Loyola Marymount University taking over the school's functions; this shutdown has not come to pass. The diocese agreed to sell most of the seminary's land, including the area used for undergraduate study, in 2004,[8] for a price which was dependent on the sort of zoning approval the land would receive.[9]
[edit] Library
Carrie Estelle Doheny donated her rare book collection to St. John's Seminary in 1940. The collection was sold at auction in 1988-89.
[edit] Controversy
Of the approximately 625 St. John's graduates to be ordained by the Los Angeles Archdiocese between 1950 and 2005, 65 had been accused by 2005 of molesting the underaged, reflecting a rate higher than what studies have found for U.S. priests in general. A seminary spokesman noted California's then-extended statute of limitations on molestation lawsuits, and suggested that a wave of publicity on molestation by priests had made their graduates targets of such accusations.[10] Four days after the Los Angeles Times reported this information, the paper ran a letter to the editor from St. John's rector Helmut A. Hefner. He stated that reforms had been implemented in the seminary, and that from 1985 to 2005, of the 155 priests ordained at St. John's Seminary for the archdiocese, 2 had been accused of sexual misconduct.[11]
Further, the lede to a 2002 Newsweek article entitled "Gays in the Seminary" opened by interviewing a recent alumnus: St. John's "may be one of the country's gayest facilities for higher education. Depending on whom you ask, gay and bisexual men make up anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of the student body at the college and graduate levels."[12]
[edit] Alumni
- William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
- Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia
- Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles
- George Niederauer, Archbishop of San Francisco
- Tod Brown, Bishop of Orange
- Geoff Farrow, priest relieved of his congregation after denouncing California Proposition 8 from the pulpit
- Msgr. Francis J. Weber, archivist of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, and biographer of Archbishop John Joseph Cantwell, Cardinal James Francis McIntyre, and Cardinal Timothy Manning
- Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento
- Gustavo García-Siller, archbishop of San Antonio.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d "Board of Directors". St. John's Seminary. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/board.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Faculty". St. John's Seminary. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/faculty.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ "Staff". St. John's Seminary. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/staff.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ a b "The Seminary Newsletter". St. John's Seminary. October 2009. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/semnewsletter.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Catalog". St. John's Seminary. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/Catalog.pdf. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ a b "History". St. John's Seminary. http://www.stjohnsem.edu/history.htm. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
- ^ Erika Hayasaki; Steve Chawkins (November 23, 2002), "Church may close seminary", Los Angeles Times: B-22 Home Edition, http://articles.latimes.com/2002/nov/23/local/me-seminary23, retrieved March 30, 2010
- ^ Steve Chawkins (May 6, 2004), "Developer to buy part of Camarillo seminary land", Los Angeles Times: B-1 Ventura County Edition, http://articles.latimes.com/2004/may/06/local/me-seminary6, retrieved March 30, 2010
- ^ http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2006-12-22/front_page/003.html
- ^ Paul Pringle (November 17, 2005), "Trail of abuse leads to seminary", Los Angeles Times: A-1 Home Edition, http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/17/local/me-stjohns17, retrieved March 30, 2010
- ^ Helmut A. Hefner (November 21, 2005), "Seminary's reforms should be noted", Los Angeles Times: B-10 Home Edition, http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/21/opinion/le-monday21.4, retrieved March 30, 2010
- ^ "Gays in the Seminary", Newsweek, May 19, 2002, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2002/05/19/gays-and-the-seminary.html, retrieved February 1, 2012
[edit] External links
- St. John's Seminary official website
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- St. John's Seminary (California)
- Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
- Roman Catholic seminaries in the United States
- Seminaries and theological colleges in California
- Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
- Education in Ventura County, California
- Educational institutions established in 1939
