Formation for Hispanic Ministry

Culture and Pastoral Ministry

Local Immersion

Together with the language classes, the Seminary offers a six-week Spanish language and culture immersion program in local parishes with large Hispanic populations. Features of the program include:

• opportunities to speak, write and minister using the Spanish language;
  
  
• focus on the realities of immigrant life and the many Hispanic cultures represented in the Twin Cities and Upper Midwest;
  
  
• application of Catholic Social Teaching to concrete situations of injustice;
  
  
• the opportunity to learn appropriate pastoral skills, particularly in the areas of youth ministry and home visiting;
  
  
• worship in Spanish, introducing students to cultural expressions of faith; and
  
  
• theological reflection.

International Immersion

Students may apply for grants for summer language and culture immersion programs in locations including Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia and the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas. A limited number of grants are available and applications are made through the office of the Vice Rector.

In order to serve Latino Catholics well, it is important for seminarians to experience and recognize some of the cultural roots of Latinos currently living in the United States. Toward that end, we currently offer two international immersion options.

Currently, The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity has partnered with the Seminario Cristo Sacerdote in Ambato, Ecuador, to sponsor an annual seminarian exchange students from The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity to go to Ecuador for three weeks in June, and Ecuadoran students come to St. Paul for three weeks in September. Students grow in their ability to speak Spanish or English, and both seminary communities are culturally enriched by the exchange. Students then go on to Guatemala for six weeks of intensive language study.

Students who participate in the local parish immersion go on to a two-week pastoral immersion in Mexico at the end of the Hispanic Ministry summer.

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