Minor seminary

A minor seminary or high school seminary is a secondary day or boarding school created for the specific purpose of enrolling teenage boys who have expressed interest in becoming Catholic priests. They are generally Catholic institutions, and designed to prepare boys both academically and spiritually for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. They emerged in cultures and societies where literacy was not universal, and the minor seminary was seen as a means to prepare younger boys in literacy for later entry into the major seminary.

Maria Assumpta Seminary – high school (minor) and college seminary of the Diocese of Cabanatuan, Philippines.
The students at Sacred Heart Apostolic School praying the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, 2009
Telšiai Diocese Minor seminary in Lithuania
Countries with Minor Seminaries (blue) and have existed in the past (red)

The minor seminary is no longer very familiar in the developed world. The 1917 Code of Canon Law described the purpose of minor seminaries as: "to take care especially to protect from the contagion of the world, to train in piety, to imbue with the rudiments of literary studies, and to foster in them the seed of a divine vocation". Suitable boys were encouraged to graduate to a major seminary, where they would continue their tertiary studies for the priesthood.

The program of priestly formation of the USCCB refers to them as "high school seminaries" rather than minor seminaries.[1]

Today, college seminaries, where philosophy is studied, are often called minor seminaries even though they are for those who have completed high school.[2]

Currently Operating Minor Seminaries

Canada

East Timor

Ghana
  • St Teresa's Minor Seminary[3]

India
  • St.Joseph Minor Seminary, Kalamassery – Minor Seminary for the Archdiocese of Verapoly, Kerala.
  • St. Aloysius Seminary, Trivandrum – minor seminary for the Syro-Malankara Archeparchy of Trivandrum
  • St. Agnes Minor Seminary, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
  • Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, Thrikkakara, Kochi, Kerala - Minor seminary for the Archeparchy of Ernakulam- Angamaly

Indonesia

Pakistan

Philippines

Poland

United States

The following minor seminaries operate in the USA today.

Uganda
  • Bukalasa Minor Seminary
  • Christ the King Seminary, Kisubi,
  • St. Joseph's Seminary, Nyenga – minor seminary
  • Mubende Seminary – in Nandele and Nyenga; minor seminary
  • Nadiket seminary – for the dioceses of Kotido and Moroto
  • Saint Charles seminary – minor seminary
  • Saints Joseph's and Gabriel's Junior Seminary Nswanjere – located in Nswanjere, Mpigi District.
  • St. Pius X Seminary – Nagongera – Located in Tororo district; West Budama County; Junior and Minor Seminary
  • St. Paul's Seminary – Rushoroza – in Kabale for Kabale Diocese; minor seminary
  • Kitabi Seminary in Bushenyi for Mbarara Arch diocese; minor seminary
  • Sacred Heart Mission for the Brothers of Divine Mercy; Missionary preparation
  • Sacred Heart Seminary Lacor – Gulu archdiocese
  • St Peter's Seminary-Madera) – in Soroti for Soroti Diocese; minor seminary

Vietnam

References
  1. Program of Priestly Formation - 5th Edition
  2. "St. Joseph House of Formation residences undergoing renovations". Catholic Diocese of Wichita. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  3. "St. Teresa's Minor Seminary".
  4. "St. Joseph House of Formation residences undergoing renovations". Catholic Diocese of Wichita. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
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