Wednesday, October 1, 2014

REDEMPTORIS MATER SEMINARY, GUAM: NOTHING FOUND

The chapel (?) at RMS. Yes, that is the Book above the Body of Christ. Read more about that here.
In my previous post about the "real" seminary for our region at St. Peter Chanel in Fiji, I mentioned I'd be getting back to you about the questionable instruction going on at RMS and its companion institute, Blessed Diego. So here it is. 

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The website for the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, like the rest of the Neocatechumenal Way, gives us almost ZERO information. Its website has 3 main pages. All 3 pages are actually only pictures. There are two links on the first page: ABOUT and CONTACT. The CONTACT link only has basic contact information and the ABOUT link gives only a statement about the seminary and a few links to outside websites.


The STATEMENT is misleading, and probably purposely so. It says:
The Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary, Redemptoris Mater, of the Archdiocese of Agana forms priesthood candidates holistically for the new evangelization in Guam, in the Pacific Region and the entire world.
Contrast this with Article III of the RMS Articles of Incorporation:
The purpose of the Corporation shall be to establish and conduct a House of Formation to prepare men for the priesthood for the new evangelization following the life and practice of the Neocatechumenal Way in accordance with the precept of the Roman Catholic faith. 
Notice something missing from the statement from the website? Obviously the words "following the life and practice of the Neocatechumenal Way" are left out. Why? The "new evangelization" is an extremely general term and can be applied to the whole church, so its use wouldn't raise any flags. But "following the life and practice of the Neocatechumenal Way" certainly would. Thus on its website, RMS hides its true mission. 

So the first question is: Why would anyone in their right mind want to support or send someone to a seminary that can't even be honest about its mission in its actual mission statement? 

Of course we are used to this kind of bait and switch from the NCW leadership. But we are talking here about a bait and switch that is costing us not just millions of dollars in misdirected funds, but misdirected vocations and probably the ruination of sincere aspirants to the priesthood.

Going on. 

The links to the other websites are mostly to Vatican documents. They say nothing about RMS in particular, but for the casual visitor,  they appear to give the seminary a Vatican pedigree. The only other link is to the Blessed Diego Institute. The website says:
The philosophical and theological studies will be carried out by the candidates at the Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores Catholic Theological Institute for Oceania, according to the Ratio Studiorum for the Seminary studies.
Sounds good. Let's visit.

So we go to the Institute's website. It looks good. There are important sounding tab headings such as Academic Life, Journal, Blog, and Virtual Campus (and of course the ever present Contact). 

Let's visit Journal. It has all of 4 entries, all of which were entered over a year ago in June of 2013. Let's go to Blog. There's a nice picture of a conference table. Now let's scroll down to view the scholarly blog of this wonderful Institute with the big name. Alas, we find....



Oh, so disappointing. And I was so looking forward to being more educated about the place we are asked to completely entrust our young men to and send our dollars to. Shucks.

Oh, well, let's wander over to Academic Life. Surely there must be something there. So we follow this path: Academic Life>Program of Studies>Read more>Outline of Studies. Ah, at last, here is the meat we've been looking for. I click on the Outline of Studies. The page starts to load. I can see that it's going to be a pdf...but then:



Oh darn. Let's try the next one. Let's try Departments>Download Courses by Departments. There MUST be something here!!! Click. It starts to load....and....VOILA!



Oh darn again. Okay, let's check behind Curtain No. 3. The Faculty. Hmmmm. Who are all these people? Let's see. First the "permanent and stable professors":

Atienza de Frutos, David
Philosophy and History
Doctorate in Anthropology at the Complutense University of Madrid. Spain, 2006.
datienza@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Okay, so there's the famous David Atienza. We know he lives here. So I guess "permanent" would apply, though his real "permanent" job is at UOG. Hmmm. A doctorate in Anthropology. Great. What's he doing teaching philosophy and history?

Ferrarese, Gianfranco
Dogmatic Theology
Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, Italy, 2002.
gferrarese@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Who? Anyone seen him around lately? The only place on google where he shows up, at least in English, is the the same page we are looking at now. 

Gallo, Lorenzo
Philosophy, Social Sciences and History
Doctorate in Social Sciences at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, 1973. 
lgallo@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Dr. Gallo is listed as a professor at the International Dominican University. Nice. Maybe Guam is a vacation home?

Gennarini, Giuseppe
History of the Church and Patrology
Ph.D. Candidate in History of the Church at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. Licentiate in Church History at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, 1992.
ggenarinni@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Ah, yes. The famous Giuseppe. The man who pulls all the strings. Hmmm, only a "Ph.D. candidate"? I hear he is here two weeks out of the year and spends most of his time ordering AAA to fire priests. Really? A "permanent and stable" professor? Sheeesh!

O’Donoghue, Neil Xavier
Sacraments and Liturgy
Ph.D. Doctorate in Liturgy at St. Patrick’s Royal Catholic College, Pontifical University, Maynooth, Ireland.
nodonoghue@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Yes, I know him. Used to be around a lot about ten years ago. Listed by Academia.edu as: Redemptoris Mater House of Formation -Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland, Theology , Prefect of Studies, but I heard he spends most of his time in New Jersey where he was ordained.Yes. Very "stable". 

Ponce Rodriguez, Pablo
Sacred Scripture and Languages
S.T.D. Candidate in Biblical Theology at the Gregorian University of Rome, Italy. Licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome, Italy, 2005.
frpabloponcer@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Yep. The rector. Okay. How's that "candidate" thing coming? 

Quitugua, David C.
Canon Law
Doctorate in Canon Law (J.C.D.) at the Angelicum University, Rome, Italy, 1995.
dcq@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Well, we've seen how well he knows canon law with his fumbled firing of Fr. Paul. Great education guys. Good luck.

Sammut, Edwin Pius
Pastoral Theology
OCD, Ph.D. Candidate in Theology (Spirituality) at Teresianum, Rome, Italy. Diploma in Catechetics at Lumen Vitae, Bruxelles, Belgium, 1973. Licentiate in Theology with specialization in Spirituality at Teresianum, Rome, Italy, 1972.
psammut@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Really? Does he teach anything other than to stay away from this evil blog? Is he ever here? He gets a paycheck though, two, I'm told. 

Walsh, Francis M.
Moral Theology
Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University, Rome, Italy, 2001.
fwalsh@sanvitoresinstitute.com

Okay, maybe one legitimate guy on the staff. Nice. 

And then there's a whole list of visiting professors. Hmmm. If the above list is supposed to be the "permanent and stable" faculty, what can we expect about the visiting? You can look for yourself. Too many to print and comment about. I had to laugh though when I saw my friend Todd Inman's name. Todd's been gone since 2006 and has never "visited". And I believe he stopped teaching at RMS well before that. Also, Dan Bradley no longer teaches there. Apparently RMS doesn't think its guys need to know Latin...even though (I'm told) it's one of the requirements to hold on to its so-called "affiliation" with the Pontifical in Rome. 

Let's stop playing games with our young men. See to it that they are properly formed at a real and truly accredited seminary and not Kiko's sham. 

12 comments:


  1. This is like having Fr. Matthew Blockley on the rms staff.

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    1. Hey, Blockley, where did you go??

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  2. Could it be that the NCW have the Bible over the tabernacle because they are reliving the era of the Ark of the covenant. The tabernacle being the Ark and the Bible being the scrolls written by the prophets, not to mention the so called tablets of the commandments.

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    1. Yes. Kiko's Way has been characterized as the "jewification of Christianity." It's a religion unto itself, neither Jewish or Christian. But now think of the formation seminarians are receiving in this place. What are they learning? They are learning that the Book is greater or at best coequal to Christ in the Eucharist. Unfortunately, once we removed our tabernacles from the central place in the sanctuary, we opened the door to these aberrations.

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    2. Too true! The NCW communities also sing the Dayenu, which I'm sure is lovely, but also happens to be a 10th Century AD Jewish hymn. Why would they want to sing a "modern" (as opposed to "ancient") hymn of the Jews?

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    3. With respect to Kiko's tabernacles, the key question is: It would be very appropriate to fall on our faces in worship of the Blessed Sacrament. Would it be as appropriate to fall our faces in worship of the book of Gospels? Of course not, and therein lies the problem.

      I try to drill down to the authentic Jewish roots of the Eucharist in these posts: Kiko's Passover Problem, Part I. and Kiko's Passover Problem, Part II.

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  3. This just never ends, does it? This has become much more than a mere encroachment, this is pure subversion.

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  4. The one thing that is sad is when confronted with legitimate and valid concerns, the Diana NeoKat blogger almost always deflects to another subject and tries to bring it back to "it's Tim & the Jungle's fault, they're so evil." I just visited their site and was stunned to see how she stated everything coming from her as fact and everything coming from this website as gossip, hatred and rumors that do nothing but hurt the church. The only FACT I know is Tim Rohr has been upfront and puts his name behind everything he posts. "Diane", however, still hides behind an anonymous facade. That speaks volumes as to who's being honest and who's hiding. It's a fact but watch how she'll twist it to a judgement. Sigh.....pass the Tylenol please.

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    1. As I've said, that blog does more to discredit Kiko and his Way than anything I can post here, especially by the fact that they fear the same persecution they throw at me. How fun.

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  5. I've looked at websites for other RMS in the U.S. (i.e. Boston, Florida, NJ) but not much info as far as academics and who the faculty are.

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  6. Boston RMS attend the very well estabished Saint Johns Seminary. archdiocesan Seminary of Boston.

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  7. If they attend the "very well established Saint Johns Seminary", why would they need Boston RMS? Interesting that you mention that because there in Boston, you have neo seminarians going to an archdiocesan seminary, and in Guam, the diocesan seminarians are going to a RMS (neo) seminary.

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