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- SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD
A Profile of the Divine Word Seminary
Richard F. Szippl, SVD Rector of the Divine Word Seminary
ON 25 MARCH 1984
the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome elevated the then Department of Theology in the Faculty of Arts and Letters at Nanzan University to the rank of a full-fledged Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology. This decree marked the culmination of some 30 years of seminary education by the Divine Word Missionaries in Japan. The headquarters of the faculty is the Divine Word Seminary, located beside the university campus. The education of priests and missionaries has long been a concern of the Society of the Divine Word, whose members are currently active in 75 countries on five continents . In Japan the order has been nurturing candidates for the priesthood since 1942. The main goal, of course, is the careful fostering of aspirants trained in philosophy, theology, and sacred scripture, as well as the practical skills needed for the apostolate they will eventually enter. Although the seminary is a place of learning and residence for SVD priestly candidates, other students who aspire to the priesthood or just wish to study theology, even if they are not Catholics, are welcome also. Students in fact take all their classes “across the road” on the University campus, where
philosophy and theology are taught by the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology.
Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology
Because the Nanzan Department of Christian Studies has been granted all the privileges of an ecclesiastical faculty, Catholic students can thus acquire, besides all civil degrees, the canonical degrees of Licentiate and Doctor of Sacred Theology. Studies begin with philosophy and gradually evolve into a synthesis of biblical, dogmatic, and pastoral theology. It should be noted, however, that students aspiring to any canonical degree have to spend more years on
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