Monday, April 16, 2007

What are the top 5 Catholic seminaries?

At the beginning of this month, a comment from one of our readers asking about the best colleges "for Catholics who wish to think with the mind of the Church" led us to post the question, "What are the top 5 Catholic schools?" (April 4, 2007), which is still bringing in votes for various colleges and universities, with Christendom, University of Dallas, St. Thomas Aquinas College, and Franciscan University taking the lead (22 Catholic institutions have been named so far).

The enthusiastic response and commentary prompted the present post. I am curious what the response may be, since the majority of our readers are not seminarians or priests. Nevertheless, there is a lot of good information out there about seminaries, not all of it from the same sources, and I am curious what we may find. Again, you do not need to limit yourself to seminaries in the United States. There are excellent seminaries in Rome and other parts of Europe, as well as the rest of the world.

Update: The score of our little survery as of April 18 is ...
  • Sacred Heart Major Seminar, Detroit (3 votes)
  • Angelicum, Dominican Pontifical University, Rome (2 votes)
  • Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC (2 votes)
  • Holy Apostles Seminary, Cromwell, CT (2 votes)
  • Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Emmitsburg, MD (2 votes)
  • Mundelein Seminary, Chicago (2 votes)
  • Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary - FSSP, Denton, NE (2 votes)
  • St. Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, PA (2 votes)
  • St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia, PA (1 vote)
  • Conception Seminary College, Conception, MO (1 vote)
  • The International Seminary of Saint Pius X - SSPX, Econe, Switzerland (1 vote)
  • St. John's Seminary, Brighton (Boston), MD (1 vote)
  • St. John Vianney Seminary, St. Paul, MN (1 vote)
  • St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, Denver, CO (1 vote)
  • St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, New York City (1 vote)
  • Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Toronto (1 vote)
Note: Not all of the seminaries listed above are major seminaries. Some are minor or college-level preparatory seminaries. All seminaries with the same number of votes are arranged alphabetically with no prejudice to institution, unless some reason is indicated. Bear in mind that numerous criteria enter into selecting institutions beyond "thinking with the mind of the Church" (academic quality, location, price, size, etc.), and that the yield of such an exercise as this is exceedingly limited. For fuller evaluations (including criticisms), please refer to the remarks of the voters in the combox. Don't hesitate to add your vote if you haven't weighed in yet.

The listing above reflects the tally as of April 18, 2007.

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