The Importance of the Seminary for the Church in Panama - The Challenge of Maintaining Standards

It is wonderful to know that there are so many seminarians studying for the priesthood here in the seminary in Panama City. There are, between diocesan and Augustinian students, over 70 in total. However, when you consider the overall statistics of the Panamanian church things look quite different.

Just looking at the diocese that includes Panama City is instructive:

The diocese has only 98 parishes compared to 200 in Dublin, a city of comparative catholic population. However, the average size of a parish here is 50,000 people and some even have more than 100,000. Each of these parishes has one priest, well, most of them have; some have no priest at all. Where there is no priest there is a permanent deacon or lay pastoral workers. This is very different to Irish parishes where, if I remember correctly, the average population is between 8,000 and 10,000. There are very few parishes without a priest in Ireland, but, as we all know, this is changing.

There are 149 priests in the Archdiocese here: 84 diocesan and 65 from religious orders (Some dioceses have much fewer. The diocese of Chiriqui has only 10 diocesan priests). The numbers make very stark reading and that is why the work done in the seminary is so important. 

Of course, having more priests is only one part of the challenge. An equally important part is to ensure that the priests who are in ministry are well prepared for the work they will be doing. This involves a formation that is academic, spiritual, and practical. My role here is to help in the academic formation of the seminarians; I do, of course, get involved in the other aspects, but to a much more limited extent. 

Academically, the challenge is to try to make sure that the students advance as far as they can and engage with both philosophy and theology (both required for formation for all seminarians) to the best of their abilities. Many of them come from situations in which academic formation (schools and other colleges) was not always easily accessible – either physically, because of the difficulty of getting to school, or because of the need to work to support their families. 

This means that teaching here has to take account of this as it is just as important that the teacher keeps up with the class as it is that the class keeps up with the teacher. 

Keeping the academic level as high as possible is important. That is one of the reasons they are happy to have me teaching here… not that I am so wonderful or anything, but I have, at least, had the opportunity to pursue further studies in the area of theology. 

There are two major initiatives this year to try to improve the academic standard of the education the seminarians are receiving.
Firstly, the seminary has paired up with the Universidad Bolivariana of Colombia. This is a well-established catholic university and will now be the institution validating the seminarians’ work and granting them degrees on successful completion of their studies. This is important because it provides an external impetus to keep the standards up. At the moment a lecturer from Colombia is here, giving an intensive course on St. Thomas Aquinas to bring the students up to speed on this important philosopher and theologian. On top of their normal classes the seminarians have an extra 4 hours of lectures every day on St. Thomas, 2 in the afternoon and 2 at night (for one week). I don’t know how they do it!!!

The second thing that they are doing here is that the seminary has teamed up with the Universidad Santa Maria la Antigua (the catholic university of Panama) and the students will now be taking some of their courses there, and some of the lecturers from the USMA will give lectures in the seminary. There is a lot of excitement among the seminarians about this, especially with regard to taking advantage of the university’s facilities (and very good reputation) for teaching English. I have been asked to give some lectures in the university while I am here.

So, as we have heard so often in Ireland, much done, and more to do! My commitment to help here is part of the Irish Augustinian support for developing and mission territories. In time, the Panamanian church will have its own teachers but, for the moment, they need a little help.