ALUMNI UPDATE
What Are Our STL Grads Doing These Days?
Dr. Ralph Martin
Director of Graduate Theology Programs in the New Evangelization
M
ost Mosaic readers know that we offer a
Licentiate in Sacred Theology with a focus on
the new evangelization. Holders of the degree
are qualified to teach in Catholic institutions
including seminaries, hold leadership positions
in evangelization on the diocesan and parish
levels, and go on to doctoral studies.
Recently we have received permission
from Rome—the first permission of its kind
granted—to begin offering an alternative path
to the STL other than the traditional two-year
residential program. The program began this
summer with our first cohort of priest-students.
They are “in residence” during the five-week
summer session but fulfill their pastoral
assignments in their home dioceses during the
year while they take on-line courses. (See
page 34.)
And what are our first STL graduates doing?
They are doing a surprising variety of things.
Mr. Michael Dopp has launched
an evangelization ministry—
www.missionoftheredeemer.com—and does
parish missions in a number of venues in the
U.S. and Canada. He is a key organizer for
an upcoming international conference on
evangelization to be held in April 2015 in Ottawa.
Fr. Tim Hepburn is serving as vocation
director for the Archdiocese of Atlanta as well
as a consultant to the Archdiocesan Office
of Formation and Discipleship. He regularly
teaches in the summer sessions at the Institute
for Priestly Formation at Creighton University
in Omaha, Nebraska.
Fr. Jean-Robert Ngandjui has returned to
Cameroon and has been teaching theology and
holding administrative responsibilities in the
Diocesan Higher Institute as well as serving in
pastoral assignments.
Fr. Gerard Kelly continues to serve in a
renewal community in the United Kingdom, and
has begun teaching at St. Mary’s Seminary in
Oscott, Archdiocese of Birmingham, a seminary
that serves a multitude of English dioceses.
He has also taught on the new evangelization
in Australia.
Fr. Eduardo Montemayor, SOLT
continues to carry out significant Hispanic
ministry and also serves as the associate director
of evangelization for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Fr. Vallikatt Varghese has returned to
India and is coordinating the activities of all the
commissions of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’
Council, which is the Catholic heartland of
India and the source of an amazing number of
vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Fr. Stephen Bilson-Ogoe is a DMin student
at the Catholic University of America where he is
studying before returning to Africa.
Fr. James Joseph has returned to India
where he has been elected vice-provincial of his
Pallottine Province in Bangalore, named rector of
their minor seminary, and is often called upon to
do teaching on evangelization throughout India.
Fr. Godswill Agbagwa continues to work
on a doctorate in moral theology at the Catholic
University of America and has presented papers
at conferences on moral theology.
Ms. Kerri Lenartowick continues to work
on her doctoral dissertation for the Lateran
University in Rome and has begun to teach in
the theology department of the University of
Dallas.
Fr. Matthew George Charthakuzhiyil
successfully defended his doctoral dissertation
at the Angelicum and received his STD. He then
returned to his Syro-Malankara diocese in India,
where his bishop is calling on his expertise
in the new evangelization. While a doctoral
student, he presented articles and papers on the
new evangelization.
There are more graduates to report on but this is enough for now! When we first began the STL program
in 2004, we hoped it would be a way for the seminary to make a contribution to strengthening the Church.
We are profoundly grateful to see this is coming to pass.
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MOSAIC