Formation for Laity, Deacons, and Religous - Saint John's Seminary
Celebrating 140 Years of Our Faithful Mission!

Formation for Laity, Deacons, and Religious

“I want a laity who knows their religion,
who enter into it, who know just where they stand,
who know what they hold and what they do not,
who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it,
who know so much of the history that they can defend it.
I want an intelligent, well-instructed laity.
I wish you to enlarge your knowledge, to cultivate your reason,
to get an insight into the relation of truth to truth,
to learn things as they are.”

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

The MAM/MTS Programs at Saint John's Seminary

The Master of Arts in Ministry and Master of Theological Studies Programs at Saint John’s Seminary provides whole-person formation for the mission of Christ. The Institute serves the laity, deacons, and professed religious. Through these programs, the Seminary is making its theological and formational expertise in training seminarians even more widely available, building on the solid foundation of more than fifteen years of experience with the Master of Arts in Ministry program, the Seminary’s breakthrough initiative in lay outreach. In 2011 the Master of Theological Studies program was added, offering students a degree designed to expose them to the broad parameters of Catholic theology to evangelize the fields of culture, work, politics, and family.

Master of Arts in Ministry

The Master of Arts in Ministry (M.A.M.) Program is an accredited graduate degree that promotes an integrated formation, assists participants in living out their baptismal dignity, and equips them for service in the public work of the Church. The program is ideal for those preparing for ministerial positions open to the laity, deacons, and religious in various Catholic settings. Most of our graduates minister in parishes, on high school and college campuses, in hospitals and prisons, or teach in Catholic schools. Others have completed the program for personal enrichment. The M.A.M. degree relies on the same four dimensions of formation-academic, human, spiritual, and pastoral — articulated by Pope Saint John Paul II in Christifideles Laici that Saint John’s Seminary utilizes to train seminarians, adapting them to the needs of the laity, deacons, and religious.

Master of Theological Studies for the New Evangelization

The Master of Theological Studies (M.T.S.) Program is an accredited graduate degree designed to expose students to the broad parameters of Catholic theology while enabling them to focus on a particular topic that is of interest to them. The program is ideal for those working in other professions who seek to augment their primary skill set with a grounding in theology in order to more effectively evangelize the fields of culture, work, politics, and family. The M.T.S. degree relies on the same same four dimensions of formation-academic, human, spiritual, and pastoral -articulated by Pope Saint John Paul II in Christifideles Laici that Saint John’s Seminary utilizes to train seminarians, adapting them to the needs of the laity, deacons, and religious.