The Immaculate Conception
School of Theology, Vigan City, Ilocos Sur trains future pastors who will
preach the Word of God, minister to the sacramental needs of God’s people,
build, guide and lead the communities thus nurtured on the Word and the
Sacrament. The seminary educates these future pastors to be knowledgeable,
competent and perceptive professionals, and forms them to be mature men,
prayerfully dedicated to God and apostolically committed to His kingdom.
The seminary prepares, evaluates,
judges and recommends candidates for the diocesan priesthood for the Archdioceses
and Dioceses of the ecclesiastical provinces of Northern Luzon.
The seminary forms and educates seminarians
according to the goals and aims, the policies and regulations of the Church
and of the seminary.
The seminary is guided by the spirit
of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in January 1991. In line
with the Council’s call for a Community of Disciples, following the Lord
Jesus in His ministry to all, especially to the poor, we orient our community
activities, our apostolate and studies towards the formation of Basic Ecclesial
Communities both among ourselves and in our surroundings. Pertinent to
seminary formation, the Council decrees:
“The Second Vatican Council reminds
us that the formation of priests is of critical importance, because on
it depends the success of the renewal of the whole Church. The journey
of the priestly vocation begins with a call by Jesus, a drawing to his
person, a desiring to do good to other.”
“Special attention should be given
to the spiritual, intellectual, psychological, disciplinary and pastoral
aspects of formation. In these areas as well as in the formation to a mature
socio-affective and healthy sexuality, Priest-formators and selected mature
lay members of the Christian community should collaborate. Relevant formation
given in our seminaries today should take into account the depressing poverty
of large portions of society, the emergence of a concerned and fast maturing
laity, the coming together of numerous small ecclesial communities and
the unmistakable basic hunger of all for the Spirit.”
