The “national theological college” is off to a very good start this year with unprecedented student numbers. Helped by one of the largest intakes that Holy Cross Seminary has had in recent years (9 students) the College has begun the year with 70 students on its books.
Twenty-two of those are seminarians – 16 at Holy Cross and our 6 at Marist Seminary (5 for Oceania and Matt Crawford for the New Zealand Province). There are another 19 lay students on-campus at the College.
In addition to them (and in response to a request from the Trust Board) Good Shepherd is now offering courses by distance, and from various parts of the country 19 students are interacting with their lecturers via email and internet. Peter Janssen, who teaches the Introduction to Catholic Theology course has 16 of them in that class. John Owens has six distance students in his class on The Beginnings of Western Thought, and Merv Duffy has seven in his Christology class. The photo montage (44 of the 70 students) gives an idea of the diversity.