Dear Friend in Christ,
We know the impact that Mount St. Mary’s Seminary has on the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. We encounter it every time a priest formed here celebrates the Mass or when a permanent deacon baptizes an infant. What is not always visible is the impact of our School of Theology. The men and women formed through the School of Theology often labor behind the scenes, but that does not mean their work in the Church is less impactful.
Joe Hensler had never considered the permanent diaconate when his pastor presented the idea. As a busy husband, father and professional in a Fortune 100 company, he didn’t know if he was being called to that vocation.
As part of the formation and discernment process, Joe enrolled in classes in MTSM’s lay ministry program, and that proved life-changing for him and his family.
“It was a time to really get formed in the Faith, which I really didn’t understand, but was loyal to,” he said.
Joe loved the classes, the community of students and the opportunity to learn from faculty who are all experts in their fields. He was exposed to the myriad of ways one can serve the Church and realized he was being called, just not to the permanent diaconate.
“Taking classes at MTSM created the opportunity to be open to a different path spiritually and mentally.”
Near the end of his master’s degree in pastoral ministry, Joe made a leap of faith, quit his corporate job, and moved his family to Denver to work for FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). During his time at FOCUS, the organization grew from 50 college campuses to 150, impacting tens of thousands of Catholics, recent converts and the Catholic-curious.
Joe’s story is unique in its details, but not in its pattern.
For more than 50 years, MTSM’s School of Theology has been forming men and women to serve our Faith in our parishes, schools and apostolates and also in their families and communities.
While still offering graduate classes at our main Cincinnati campus and at satellite locations around the Archdiocese, the School of Theology has begun to channel our life-changing curriculum of formation into local parishes to better serve the needs of today’s Catholic adults. We know that many faithful Catholics would like to broaden and deepen their Faith, like Joe, but may not have the ability to do so because of other obligations.
Already MTSM is serving hundreds of families in the Archdiocese in this way, and we are poised to serve thousands more. Our goal is for our faculty to bring the same unfathomably rich formation our seminarians, permanent deacons and other lay leaders receive to every parish family within the Archdiocese. But to do so, we need your help.
Would you make a gift to support the School of Theology today so lay men and women in the Archdiocese can make an even bigger impact in their communities?
As Joe Hensler said about his experience here, “The Church is a lot smaller on the inside than it looks on the outside.”
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Samuel B. Johnson, Ph.D.
Dean, School of Theology