A Seminary for the Nation's Pontifical University: The Founding of Theological College of The Catholic University of America

At Baltimore's Cathedral of the Assumption on the evening of November 16, 1884, Bishop John Lancaster Spalding lectured on "University Education considered in Its Bearing on the Higher Education of Priests." Addressing a contemporary concern among persons of religious faith concerning the growing intellectual attacks on religion, he stated: "Never has the defense of religion required so many and such excellent qualities of intellect as in the present day." To prepare priests to speak effectively for religion, he proposed not an improvement of seminary studies, which, he noted, conferred no mental culture. Seminary studies and their textbooks "written often in a barbarous style," were geared only to "giving instruction." Borrowing from Cardinal John Henry Newman, he sought the perfection of the intellect as "the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its place and with its own characteristics upon it." As a result of educating priests with this aim, only "then will Catholic theology again come forth from its isolation in the modern world. . . ." For the Catholic Church of the United States, he recommended founding a "true university," that is, a graduate school under Catholic auspices for priests.¹

His lecture was well timed as one of the public addresses given during the U.S. bishops' Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. In working sessions at St. Mary's Seminary, near the cathedral, the bishops formulated decrees on major issues in Catholic life: parish schools, membership in secret societies, a national catechism, and rights of diocesan clergy. To improve formation of priests, the bishops gave long overdue attention to seminary education by setting the length of studies—ideally six years each—for minor and major diocesan seminaries and prescribed areas of study. Though not originally on the council's agenda, the bishops voted to establish a seminarium principale for graduate studies for priests. When the draft decree was examined in Rome, the privilege of conferring bachelor, licentiate, and doctoral degrees in theology was added. Pope Leo XIII ratified the council's decrees and in 1887 issued the brief establishing a pontifical university for the United States under the bishops' direction and the archbishop of Baltimore as its ex officio chancellor.²

At Washington, D.C., in November 1889, the bishops' Catholic University of America opened under the leadership of Bishop John Keane as rector with a faculty of six priests, most recruited from abroad, and one layman. Initially the university offered only graduate theological studies for priests. The latter formed the "Divinity College" whose president, Rev. John Hogan, member of the Society of St. Sulpice and former rector of St. John's Seminary in Boston, was responsible for directing their spiritual formation. Subsequently the university developed graduate studies in other disciplines opened to laity and undergraduate education. The challenge of opening a university seminary to educate candidates for the diocesan priesthood was deferred.

This essay addresses the effort to found a seminary at the Catholic University of America that resulted in the opening of Sulpician Seminary in 1917 under the direction of the Society of St. Sulpice. During a reorganization of the university's structure and revision of its constitution in the 1930s, the seminary was transferred to the university and renamed Theological College in 1940. This narrative unfolds in the multiple contexts of the U.S. bishops' record of collegial decision-making, the vision of theological studies for priests, the exercise of the Holy See's authority over seminaries, the tradition of diocesan priests' formation, and the Society of St. Sulpice's role and influence.³

The Seminary Heritage

The idea of a pontifical university having a seminary represents a new direction for educating diocesan priests. Since the Council of Trent's decree, Cum Adolescentium Aetas (1563), enjoined each bishop to sponsor a seminarium (seed bed) or seminary located at his cathedral to prepare poor youth for the diocesan priesthood, forming diocesan clergy developed as a function of the local church. Length of studies and content of learning...