This degree is designed to be completed by seminarians while they are fulfilling the core requirements of the Ordination Formation Curriculum. It may also be adapted to serve as a professional preparation for those who desire to serve the Church in other areas of ministry, but who are not called to the priesthood.
Mount St. Mary’s Seminary is a school of faith, discipleship and learning that prepares men for the Catholic ministerial priesthood. We strive to be a spiritual place that fosters a way of life and provides an atmosphere for excellent priestly formation in all its aspects: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral.
The Master of Divinity (M.Div.) is a fully-accredited graduate-level professional ministerial degree. It aims to instill in its students a thorough understanding of the Catholic theological heritage and of its faithful contemporary expression, an enriched practice of the Catholic spiritual life, growth in human maturity, and the acquisition of the skills for effective pastoral ministry.
The M.Div. degree program aims to prepare seminarians to share in a special way in the three-fold office of Christ: teaching the Gospel, celebrating the divine mysteries, and shepherding God’s people. The Seminary believes that the intellectual formation goals specified in the Program of Priestly Formation (2006) together with the goals identified in the other dimensions of formation (human, spiritual and pastoral) meet and surpass the ATS Standards, 4.1-4.6 for the M.Div. degree program.
The specific objectives for the M.Div. degree, as outlined in ATS Standard 4.3, are:
The seminary treats the first and second ATS content categories as specified by our goals of intellectual formation. The third program content category is incorporated into the human and spiritual dimension and its goals. The fourth content category is addressed by those goals identified in the pastoral formation dimension. Of course the PPF and the standards of accreditation are not isolated content “silos” but are integrated into one formation program, and program and student achievement must reflect integration. (PPF 82, 112-115, 164, 241; ATS standards ES 1.2.1 and A.1.3.2)
The Seminarian Handbook gives detailed information about Formation Advising, Academic Norms, MAPS procedures, Pastoral Formation, the SGA Constitution, etc.
Download the Seminarian Handbook (.pdf)Learn more about our Seminary dual-degree program offerings.
Dual Degree options