Handbook for Seminarians - Holy Apostles College & Seminary

89 Pages·2015·0.58 MB·English

by  John Hillier

Handbook for Seminarians

Holy Apostles College and Seminary
Cromwell, Connecticut

Revised and Approved by the Administration
February 18, 2015

Statement of Purpose

This revised 2014 edition of the Handbook for Seminarians at Holy Apostles College &
Seminary supersedes all those previously published. Seminarians are expected to
familiarize themselves with those parts of this handbook related to their role at Holy
Apostles College and Seminary.

The contents of the Handbook for Seminarians represent current policies at Holy
Apostles.

Very Reverend Douglas L. Mosey, C.S.B.
President-Rector

Table of Contents

Preamble .................................................................................................................................... 1
Formation Outcomes ................................................................................................................ 5
Human Formation ......................................................................................................... 7
Spiritual Formation ....................................................................................................... 7
Intellectual Formation .................................................................................................. 8
Pastoral Formation ....................................................................................................... 8
Daily Living ............................................................................................................................. 11
1. Time Management ................................................................................................... 13
2. Community Life ....................................................................................................... 16
3. General Business ..................................................................................................... 19
4. Campus Facilities .................................................................................................... 20
Library .............................................................................................................. 21
Conservation of Energy .................................................................................... 21
5. Alcohol and Drug Policy ......................................................................................... 22
6. Communication/Public Relations Policy ............................................................... 23
7. Code of Conduct ...................................................................................................... 24
8. Dress Code for Seminarians ....................................................................................25
9. Security and Safety ................................................................................................. 26
Fire .................................................................................................................... 27
Firearms .......................................................................................................... 28
Personal Property ............................................................................................ 28
10. Guests .................................................................................................................... 29
11. Resident Room Policy ........................................................................................... 30
12. Medical Services ..................................................................................................... 31
13. Motor Vehicles ...................................................................................................... 32
14. Vacations and Longer Absences from Campus .................................................... 33
15. Telephones/Telephone Voice Mail System .......................................................... 34
16. Computers, the Internet and Electronic Devices .................................................. 37
17. Work Program ....................................................................................................... 38
18. Evaluation of Seminarians ................................................................................... 39
19. Ministries .............................................................................................................. 43
20. Academic Grievance Policy .................................................................................. 44
Appendix A: Policies that Affect Seminarians (extended versions of some of the shorter
policies listed in sections 1 – 20 of this Handbook) .................................................. 45
Academic Grievance Policy and Procedures ............................................................... 47
Campus Security Plan .................................................................................................. 51
Course Withdrawal Policy ...........................................................................................53
Course Audit Policy ..................................................................................................... 55
Incomplete Policy ........................................................................................................ 55
Information Technology Appropriate Use Policy ...................................................... 56
Medical Emergency Policy ......................................................................................... 59
Notification of Rights under FERPA .......................................................................... 59
Notice for FERPA Directory Information .................................................................. 60
Plagiarism and Cheating Policy ................................................................................. 62
Sexual Conduct and Grievance Policy ........................................................................ 64
Drug-Free Workplace Statement ................................................................................ 67
Disabilities Resource Center (DRC) ............................................................................ 76
Preamble

Cultivating Catholic Leaders for Evangelization

The integrating thread of all your time here at Holy Apostles Seminary is to imitate the
Master’s life “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). The work of priestly
formation is to educate oneself and advance in character formation in order to serve the
Church, your future parishioners and all whom you will encounter as a priest of Jesus
Christ with an “undivided heart” (Psalm 86:11).

As a seminarian you are expected to reach higher and seek to do all things well because
in persona Christi you will be given the finest of gifts and as Our Lord counsels, “more
will be demanded of the one entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48). Meanwhile, as a man
preparing for the priesthood, before being sent out to preach, to heal, to reconcile and to
comfort, you are called "to be with him" (Mark 3:14). As Pope John Paul II points out in
his 1992 Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis:

“In its deepest identity the seminary is called to be, in its own way, a
continuation in the Church of the apostolic community gathered about
Jesus, listening to his word, proceeding toward the Easter experience,
awaiting the gift of the Spirit for the mission. Such an identity constitutes
the normative ideal which stimulates the seminary in the many diverse
forms and varied aspects which it assumes historically as a human
institution, to find a concrete realization, faithful to the Gospel values from
which it takes its inspiration and able to respond to the situations and
needs of the times.

The seminary is, in itself, an original experience of the Church's life. In it
the bishop is present through the ministry of the rector and the service of
co - responsibility and communion fostered by him with the other
teachers, for the sake of the pastoral and apostolic growth of the students.
The various members of the seminary community, gathered by the Spirit
into a single brotherhood, cooperate, each according to his own gift in the
growth of all in faith and charity so that they may prepare suitably for the
priesthood and so prolong in the Church and in history the saving
presence of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd.” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 60).

The following Formation Outcomes, coupled with the contents of the Seminarian
Handbook, outlines some of the ways Holy Apostle’s Seminary strives to meet the
criteria set forth in Pope John Paul’s Pastores Dabo Vobis and the American Bishop’s
Program of Priestly Formation (5th edition). Specific rules and regulations in this
handbook are meant to help each seminarian live in a way that promotes fraternal
charity.
3 | H andbook for S em i nari ans