Not just theology: Catholic seminarians go to summer school to learn management skills

[rug]

By David Gibson | Religion News Service July 7 at 1:42 PM

RADNOR, Pa. — “How many of you have ever studied a parish budget?” the Rev. David Couturier asked the 11 Catholic priests-in-training seated before him. After a few beats, just one hand went up, tentatively.

“That’s not unusual,” Couturier told them. “Just unfortunate.”

It’s also why these seminarians were at a Villanova University conference center in the leafy Philadelphia suburbs, part of a first-of-its-kind program that aims to provide some real-world grounding to the theological studies that dominate their course work.

It’s a bit of “operative theology” to complement the “abstract theology,” as Couturier put it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/not-just-theology-catholic-seminarians-go-to-summer-school-to-learn-management-skills/2014/07/07/58dfd33e-05fc-11e4-a7ef-9ed5d8510e81_story.html

[No Vested Interest]

1. Business skills are necessary for pastors in today's world. nt

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

2. I told my former bishop exactly that. He agreed with me.