The Diocese of Huelva has signed, together with the Faculty of Theology San Isidoro de Sevilla, the agreement by which the Holy See recognizes the affiliation to said Faculty of the San Leandro Theological Institute, issued last May. The Bishop of Huelva, Msgr. Santiago Gómez, has traveled there to attend the event in which the Sevillian institution has signed agreements with other dioceses.
Afterwards, a celebration was held in the chapel of the Metropolitan Seminary. Eucharist presided over by the Archbishop of Seville, Monsignor José Ángel Saiz, and concelebrated, among others, by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Bishop of Huelva.
After the Mass, the inaugural lecture by Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”of the International Theological Commission, and of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, entitled “Contributions of the Christology of the image to contemporary anthropology”.
The San Leandro de Huelva Theological Institute, academic institution of the Diocese of Huelva for teaching, training and research in the field of Theologyreceived in May of this year from the Congregation for Catholic Education the approval of the affiliation to the Faculty of Theology San Isidoro de Sevilla.
This Institute, located in the Diocesan Seminary of Huelva, currently offers the obtaining the title Baccalaureatus in Theologia Degree in Theology, directed especially to the seminarians of the Diocese of Huelva. As a novelty, since the publication of the Apostolic Constitution veritatis gaudiumabout the ecclesiastical universities and faculties, it is possible to incorporate lay people into ecclesiastical studies, which broadens the panorama of formation in our Diocese of Huelva.
Its director, Isaac Moreno Sanz, affirms “the San Leandro Theological Institute intends to offer the philosophical and theological formation necessary for a Church on the way out”to which he adds that “the Gospel needs to be announced by educated men and women, who question themselves and who are clear about the faith of the Church. I consider that the experiences carried out with lay people who have already enrolled in the Theological Institute have meant a mutual enrichment, both for them and for the seminarians. Each one, from their own vocation, must be prepared to be a disciple of Jesus as part of the People of God and in dialogue with the various cultures”.
The Theological Institute was born in 2017 and during these years a significant number of seminarians from the Diocese of Huelva have been trained, collecting the witness of the training that has been given in the Diocesan Seminary of Huelva, since its foundation in the fifties of the last century. For this task, there is a faculty of teachers suitably qualified and competent in the subjects they have taught. In recent years, in addition, the cloister of the San Leandro Theological Institute has been renewed, through the incorporation of new teachers with proven preparation and intellectual dedication. Recently, it has assumed the formative work that had been carried out in the defunct Diocesan Center for Theology, Pastoral Care and Spirituality, with the desire to centralize and give greater formality to formation in the Diocese of Huelva.