A very exciting assignment for any young priest is the invitation, at the request of his bishop, to study abroad for an advanced degree, usually in one of the sacred sciences.
This often rare privilege grants a unique opportunity for clergy to enter the global stage, immersing them into an international classroom with professors and teachers from around the world, and offering them the best in priestly and human formation.
The custom of the past 50 years has been for newly ordained clergy to first spend a few years in a parish to experience parish life with its cura animarum (pastoral care). Then, those who have shown special academic promise or particular scholastic aptitude may be tapped to continue with higher studies.
The chance to live and study in a different land, being fully immersed in the local culture with new language and customs, is a priceless cultural exchange. It offers students a truly global perspective, encompassing a variety of relationships that will last a lifetime.
Upon completion of studies, the priest then usually returns home to work in a parish. He may also teach in the local seminary or Catholic university, or even work in the diocesan chancery with the bishop’s curia.
Each year of the many Canadian clergy who are sent to pursue higher studies at prestigious universities, there are a handful from the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
These include priests now studying or who have recently studied at the Gregorian University and the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm, both in Rome, the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and the prestigious University of Navarra, in Pamplona, Spain.
Father Pablo Santa Maria, former vice-rector of Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver and master of ceremonies for Archbishop Miller, has been sent this year to study canon law for three years at the University of Navarre.
Father Pablo was born into a Catholic family in Mexico City. Over the years he moved with his family, living in various countries and finally settling in Canada. He was ordained a priest in 2012.
To study at the University of Navarra seems a fine fit for Father Pablo, combining both his passion for canon law and his affection for Spain, the land of his ancestors. The spoken language in the classroom is Spanish, which will not be a challenge for him.
The University of Navarre is relatively new, compared to many other Catholic universities on the European continent – some founded as far back as the 1300s. The university was founded in 1952 by St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, who was canonized in 2002. Providentially, Father Pablo attended the canonization in the Vatican as a youngster with his family.
A man of great vision and erudition, this modern, 20th-century saint from Spain envisioned a new university that would act as a corporate work of his newly formed apostolate of Opus Dei, a lay and clerical institution founded in 1928.
What began as a law school now has six campuses across the world: in Pamplona, San Sebastián, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich and New York City.
The university has grown by leaps and bounds. Today there are over 11,000 students that study any number of degrees in many faculties, ranging from architecture to medicine to law.
Father Pablo is enrolled in the School of Canon Law, where he will study for a licentiate in canon law (Church law), along with countless other young jurists being formed for service in the Church and state.
The licentiate degree in canon law consists of three academic years that aim to provide a comprehensive education in the Church’s Code of Canon Law. Most of the classes are in the morning and most exams are oral, not written, with about 19 hours of class per week.
Subjects of study include both civil and canon law: Roman law, canonical jurisprudence (the theory or philosophy of law), Latin, matrimonial law, fundamental theory of canon law, canon law of the Oriental Churches, and much more.
Father Pablo writes of Pamplona in a letter to friends and family: “Pamplona is a very beautiful city. Like all European cities it is full of elegant palaces, charming streets and piazzas, and of course beautiful churches.”
Pamplona is most famous for its week-long festival of San Fermín, the annual running of the bulls from July 7-14, which attracts over 1 million spectators to witness hundreds of people running in front of six angry bulls and another six steers down an 825-meter (0.51 mile) stretch of narrow streets of the old town.
The festival, made famous in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, is known locally as Sanfermines, held in honour of Saint Fermin, the co-patron of Navarre. St. Fermin, the first bishop of Pamplona, is a revered martyr, having been beheaded in France in 303.
The most famous church, and the true gem in the crown of the city, is Pamplona Cathedral (Santa Maria la Real), a 15th-century Gothic church with a very rare neoclassical façade that was added in the 1700s.
The church was built between 1394 and 1501. It is full of history, where the medieval kings of Navarre were crowned and buried, and it is renowned for its outstanding 13th and 14th-century Gothic cloister that gives access to two other extraordinary Gothic rooms that are a must-see: the Barbazan chapel and the old refectory.
While staying in Pamplona, Father Pablo is living in a downtown parish with seven other student priests. The parish is dedicated to St. Michael and surrounded by many other churches. He writes of San Miguel: “It is a very active parish with nine Sunday Masses, catechism programs, marriage preparation and the like.”
Father Pablo concludes: “The university is a half-hour walk from the residence. It is not too bad on the way there as it is downhill ... I will be praying for you these days, please pray for me.”
J.P. Sonnen is a tour operator and history docent with Vancouver-based Orbis Catholicus Travel.