Formation

St. Francis Center for Priestly Formation

St. Francis Center for Priestly Formation, located on the University of San Diego campus, comprises both the Office for Priestly Formation of the Diocese of San Diego and a house of formation for men preparing for admission to a seminary school of theology.

The Office for Priestly Formation administers the diocesan program of priestly formation for both pre-seminarian and seminarian candidates according to the norms set forth by the Program of Priestly Formation of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As a house of formation, St. Francis Center, helps prepare men in each of the four areas of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral for admission to a seminary school of theology. In the human and spiritual areas this is accomplished through community life together, the mentoring of priests and other staff members, the discipline of personal and communal prayer, retreats and other programs of spiritual enrichment and regular spiritual direction. Intellectually, candidates prepare for admission to graduate level theology studies by earning a bachelor’s degree with a major in philosophy and a minor in undergraduate theology. Those candidates who have already earned a bachelor’s degree must satisfy the philosophy and theology requirements if their degrees were in other disciplines. This is normally accomplished at the University of San Diego. In the pastoral area each candidate is assigned to an apostolate at The Immaculata Parish on the USD campus, where the Director of Priestly Formation is pastor.

Once a candidate is accepted into a seminary school of theology the Office for Priestly Formation collaborates with the theologate in the seminarian’s formation including the assignment of parish internships and other pastoral experiences and in scheduling annual assemblies and one convocation for all the seminarians and pre-seminarians of the diocese.

Candidates/Seminarians

Fall 2019 Seminarians

Pre-Seminarian Candidates

Theologates