Simulation Lab

Students at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary will be able to practice pastoral encounters in a safe, supportive environment with the help of a $5 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. The grant will fund the “Cor Iuxta Meum” (“After My Own Heart”) Project, which aims to incorporate new teaching methods such as simulated encounters into the formation of seminarians, priests, deacon candidates and lay leaders.

“It speaks to the heart of the idea of, how are you helping to form future priests? Can we use the time that they’re with us in a better way?” said Father John Kartje, rector/president of USML. “Can we provide formation for the people in the parishes? We want to help give formation to parish leaders so they truly become collaborators and partners with us.”

Encounter-based Learning

Simulation-based Learning

The Tolton Teaching Parish Program

The Tolton Teaching Parish Program provides a space and a time for seminarians to develop human qualities, pastoral sensitivities, and practical skills for ministry under the supervision of the Teaching Parish Team along with the accompaniment of active and committed parishioners that form the Teaching Parish Committee.

Holy Land Study-Pilgrimage

Seminarians spend the third year of theology preparing for their ordination as deacons at the end of the year. This journey culminates with an eight-week study-pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where the Sacred Scriptures come alive for them and they grow in their understanding of what it means to be a priest.

Clinical Pastoral Education Program (CPE)

An option at Mundelein Seminary, Clinical Pastoral Education brings seminarians together with students and ministers of all faiths to engage in supervised encounters with persons in crisis, typically in a hospital setting. Through such concentrated engagement and the feedback from peers and teachers, seminarians develop new awareness of themselves as persons and ministers and of the needs of those to whom they minister.