Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary offers a four-year program of Intellectual Formation within the Theology Division. The fundamental goals of this Intellectual Formation Program are to increase the seminarian’s own understanding of the faith (fides quaerens intellectum) and to provide him with the tools and skills necessary to elucidate the principles of the faith for the people he will serve in the ordained ministry. The specific objectives of the Program of Intellectual Formation under the umbrella of the Master of Divinity Degree are the attainment of the following:

1. A vital integration of the seminarian’s theological knowledge with his life in Christ.
2. An awareness of the nature of the redemptive, sacramental priesthood, and a stronger conviction of the call to share in it.
3. A deepening of the seminarian’s personal Catholic experience, and his lifelong commitment to priestly service.
4. A vivid awareness of the contemporary world in which God’s saving presence is at work.
5. A growing understanding of the seminarian’s Catholic faith through critical and contemporary theological reflection.

Integrated under the umbrella of the Master of Divinity Degree Program, in which all Theology Division seminarians are enrolled upon successful admission, the four aspects of formation within the Theology Division (human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral) are designed to provide seminarians with a well-rounded preparation for the ministry of priestly service through the
integration of personal and communal prayer, through a comprehensive curriculum of theological studies, and through a series of supervised pastoral education placements, all conducted in the context of everyday community living.

The Theology Division also seeks to develop a proper sense of ecumenism through a series of courses attended by seminarians from four other seminaries in the Philadelphia area: Palmer Theological Seminary, Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lutheran Theological Seminary, and Moravian Theological Seminary. Seminarians from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, along with students from other colleges and seminaries, also take part in a series of seminars coordinated by the Inter-Faith Council on the Holocaust to promote Jewish-Christian dialogue.