St. Mary's Malankara Major Seminary

St. Mary's Malankara Syrian Catholic Major Seminary is a centre of priestly training of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

History

It was the long cherished dream of the Malankara Catholic Church to have a Major seminary of its own for the formation of its clergy.The desire to set up a Major seminary had been voiced from several quarters of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and it gathered momentum in 1980 at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Reunion Movement of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.[1] The Delegate of the Pope, Wladyslav Cardinal Rubin, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, encouraged to start a Major Seminary for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

In fact, the establishment of a Major seminary to train the Syro-Malankara Catholic clergy was clearly envisaged by the Holy See of Rome at the time of the Reunion of Archbishop Mar Ivanios.[2] St. Mary’s Malankara Major Seminary was inaugurated at Pattom, Trivandrum, Kerala on 29 June 1983. The Holy See of Rome granted the formal recognition to the Seminary on September 8, 1984.[3] As a temporary arrangement, the seminary started functioning in the building of St. Aloysius Minor Seminary of the Metropolitan Eparchy of Trivandrum at Pattom, Trivandrum.[4]

The Major Seminary was shifted to the new building at Bethany Hills, Nalanchira, Trivandrum on 25 May 1989. It was On 11 April 2005 the Faculty of Theology of St. Mary’s Malankara Major Seminary got affiliated to the Pontifical Urbaniana University, Rome. The Silver Jubilee of the Malankara Major Seminary that commenced on Thursday, 29 June 2007 was officially inaugurated on Tuesday, 2 October 2007 by Moran mor Baselios Cleemis and its concluding celebrations were held from 5-8 November 2007.

Theology course

The theology course of the seminary is of 4 years and the philosophy course is of 3 years. The seminary offers training for the students of eparchies and religious institutes of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church. A few students of the Syro Malabar and the Latin Church also get training here.

The motto of the Major Seminary is "To continue Jesus' mission of love and service".

The Seminary have 29 professors for Theology and 28 Professors for Philosophy. The number of students for Theology is 86 and the number of students for Philosophy is 95.

MS Publications

M S Publications is the publication wing of Malankara Seminary. Dr. Philip Chempakassery is the Director of M S Publications.

Apostolate of Social Action(ASA)

Apostolate of Social Action(ASA) is a social upliftment wing of St. Mary’s Malankara Seminary which follows Christ who divided himself as an example of sharing. ASA strived to help the brethren who are inside and outside of the seminary by understanding their needs and help them and to develop the social responsibility and an attitude of social service. Also the seminarians who are the members involve themselves in the service of the poor, sick and needy so as to obtain experience and training for their future ministry.

Service activities such as visiting hospitals, families, juvenile homes and jails are organized by this wing. The wing raises funds for its activities through the self-sacrificing efforts of the members. It also organizes various humanitarian services such as blood donation and taking care of the poor and the needy who comes to the seminary. More details go to ASA's website: apostolateofsocialaction.in [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
  2. ↑ Letter of the Apostolic Delegation, No. 2035/130, Banglore, August 20, 1930
  3. ↑ Prot. No. 87/83
  4. ↑ The Students of St. Aloysius Minor Seminary were shifted to the pastoral Centre at Kuravankonam, Trivandrum
  5. ↑ MS Publications

External links

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