Wynnewood's St. Charles Borromeo Seminary To Move, Join University

Wynnewood's Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary has announced that they are discarding a previous plan and will likely move their seminary operation elsewhere, according to a recent release from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The Seminary also plans to join with a college or university in the near future to continue to offer a graduate degree program for clergy.

The Seminary had previously commissioned a study in March of 2013 to investigation how to consolidate and reorganize underutilized space on their campus.

One component of that plan called for the Seminary to move the College Division program from the lower portion of the campus into vacant space within the Theology Division buildings on the upper side of the campus, after a period of study and renovation over a number of years.

A separate study, more recently commissioned, recommended the modified path of ceasing consolidation, and to instead relocate the Seminary on or near the campus of a partnering college or university.

The exact timing for any specific decisions regarding the new direction is still to be determined. It's also not clear which university the Seminary will partner with, although St. Joseph's University, a Catholic college, is nearly adjacent to the Seminary grounds on City Avenue.

The Archdiocese said that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has accepted these recommendations and authorized the Seminary’s Rector, Bishop Timothy C. Senior, to begin the process.

“It is my strong belief that this new direction will allow us to build on the already solid foundation of our present program by significantly strengthening and enhancing our seminary," Bishop Senior said in a prepared statement. "This new path forward allows us to pursue new facilities that will further enrich and better serve the contemporary academic, spiritual, and human needs of our seminarians and lay students."

Pope Francis stayed overnight at the Seminary during his visit to Philadelphia in the fall of 2015. The seminary has trained and educated clergy since 1832.

Image via Commons, Rev. Samuel F. Hotchkin, M. A., Rural Pennsylvania, in the Vicinity of Philadelphia, (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Company, 1897).