Seminarians enrolled in Saint Joseph Seminary College’s Propaedeutic Program visited the El Paso area earlier this month to learn about the plight of migrants coming into the United States, our federal laws concerning immigration, the effect mass migration has had on local communities and countries, and about Catholic social teaching.

Fr. Maurice Moon, Dean of the Propaedeutic Program, said the Hope Border Institute helped organize and lead the weeklong trip.

Seminarians met the Most Rev. Mark Seitz, D.D., bishop of the Diocese of El Paso, and several priests who are ministering in the area during the trip. They visited and helped in migrant shelters, participated in a prayer service at a section of the border wall, climbed Franklin Mountain, which overlooks Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, and participated in several conferences.

Seminarians stayed at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary while in El Paso.

Seminarians enrolled in SJSC’s Propaedeutic Program are freshmen and first-year pre-theology students. The program was recently mandated by the sixth edition of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation, or PPF, as an introductory stage to priestly formation focused on human and spiritual development.

Propaedeutic seminarians are housed in SJSC’s Callais dorm separate from other seminarians, often have separate prayer schedules and have formed their own smaller community within the larger seminary community. It’s a very structured environment aimed at helping the men transition into the seminary life while also meeting the demands of being a full-time student. There are limits on technology use and scaled back holidays, for instance, as seminarians use that time to focus individually on their own spiritual lives and work together to serve others.

Fr. Moon said seminarians in the program should gain a solid foundation for spiritual life as well as a greater self-awareness of their own personal growth during the year. He said year-long seminars on prayer, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and human formation are helping to achieve these goals.

“I'm hoping that the things we implemented for the Propaedeutic Program – the daily Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the service to the poor throughout the year, having the seminarians work with their hands, as well as the various seminars they attend – will have helped the men grow as stronger disciples of Jesus Christ and have them ready for the discipleship stage of priestly formation,” he said.

The El Paso trip was the longest of the year. During the fall semester seminarians visited religious sites in New Orleans, volunteered at a Baton Rouge soup kitchen, and helped renovate a low-income housing apartment complex in New Orleans.