St. Mary's Seminary is the first Roman Catholic seminary in the nation: rich in tradition while focused on priestly preparation for the 21st-century.
These pages provide information on the history, personnel, environment, and formation (in the Sulpician tradition) at St. Mary's.
The three pages in this section of our site touch on the very basics of the formation process.
A major part of priestly formation is intellectual formation, accomplished through the pursuit of academic degrees.
Desiring to assist in the strengthening of Hispanic ministry and recognizing the need for well-prepared priests dedicated in-part or in-full to this ministry, St. Mary’s Seminary and University has established a specialized track in Hispanic ministry.
St. Mary’s Propaedeutic Stage implements the vision of the Program for Priestly Formation (6th edition). It takes place in a revitalized and expanded structure on the historic grounds of the original St. Mary’s Seminary in downtown Baltimore. The McGivney House welcomes candidates from all dioceses and is not limited to candidates destined to enter St. Mary’s Seminary & University, but is the recommended program for those who will come to St. Mary’s.
St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute (EI) was founded in 1968 by St. Mary’s Seminary & University, America’s oldest Roman Catholic seminary, in cooperation with ecumenical leaders. St. Mary’s is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. The Ecumenical Institute encourages people of all denominations to explore theological studies in a serious, open-minded, and supportive environment. All EI programs are available wherever you are - on campus in Baltimore, and on-line.
The Ecumenical Institute invites people of all denominations into theological study that pursues excellence and promotes ecumenical understanding and respect. All EI programs are available wherever you are - on campus in Baltimore, and on-line.
St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute has a rolling admissions policy. Students may apply at any time for admission by submitting the appropriate materials.
The Ecumenical Institute offers accredited graduate theological programs for two master’s degrees, several graduate certificates, and introductory explorations.
The post-master’s Certificate of Advanced Studies in Theology (CAS) is designed for individuals who possess a master’s degree in theology (e.g., MAT.), ministry (e.g., MACM), divinity (e.g., MDiv), or a related field and who desire to continue their theological education with a general or focused program of study.
The Doctor of Ministry program roots ministry in the mission of God, the ways God is working in your context, in your ministry, and in you.
Students have a host of resources available to support their theological education, from free parking and a great library to writing assistance and advising.
St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute offers accredited graduate theological education that is intellectually rigorous, personally enriching, and professionally empowering.
More than 750 alums of St. Mary's Ecumenical Institute are making a difference in Baltimore, in Maryland and D.C., West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and around the world.
General communication and individual contacts
It is the mission of the Center for Continuing Formation to encourage bishops, priests, deacons, and lay ecclesial ministers to engage in human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral growth and to enable processes of growth that are ongoing, complete, systemic, and personalized.
Forming Supervisors for Vocational Synthesis implements the vision of the Program for Priestly Formation (6th edition) for the final stage of preparation for the priesthood.
Conference space rentals include a large room that will seat as many as 58 and smaller rooms that will seat from 4 to 30.
St. Mary's Center for Continuing Formation offers and hosts a variety of continuing formation programs for priests in the spirit of the Bishops' new Basic Plan for the Ongoing Formation of Priests.
St. Mary’s Seminary & University’s Pinkard Scholars is the cornerstone of Youth Theological Studies at SMSU.
For more information about any of our conference facilities or space rentals, please contact our offices directly.
The Marion Burk Knott Library of St. Mary’s Seminary and University is the largest specialized theological library in the Baltimore area, with additional materials in the areas of philosophy, psychology, pastoral counseling and church history, among others. The library receives over 390 periodicals and maintains a collection of 20,000 volumes of bound periodicals. Other holdings include newspapers, microfilm, and audio-visual materials.
The Associated Archives at St. Mary’s Seminary & University opened in the spring of 2002. Located on the campus of the nation’s first Roman Catholic seminary, this program brings together the archives of the Archdiocese of Baltimore (est. 1789), St. Mary’s Seminary & University (est. 1791), and the Associated Sulpicians of the United States (U.S. Province est. 1903), making it one of the most significant repositories for records relating to the early history of the Catholic Church in the United States.
Click here for more information about hours and visitor policies.
This section was created to provide researchers with a brief description of the open collections in the archives of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, St. Mary's Seminary & University, and the Associated Sulpicians of the United States.
The Associated Archives at St. Mary’s Seminary & University has developed a genealogical policy responsive to individuals researching their Catholic roots.
We facilitate personal integration of the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions necessary for authentic priestly witness and service in the image of Jesus Christ.
After his Computer Science undergraduate degree (University of Exeter) and several years as a BBC software engineer in London, Dr. Aspray left for a new career in academic theology. He first completed two Master’s degrees, one in Biblical Studies at Regent College, and the other in Systematic Theology at the University of Cambridge. He remained at Cambridge for his PhD in philosophy of religion, now published as Ricœur at the Limits of Philosophy (CUP: 2022). He then spent four years teaching and researching at the University of Oxford before joining the faculty of St. Mary’s in 2023.
Dr. Aspray is a philosophical theologian interested in the way Christian belief and practice interact with the concerns and questions of contemporary Western society. His current research project focuses on the Christian ethics of refugees and immigration. He is passionate about making theology accessible and relevant to the lives of those without an academic background, both Christian and non-Christian.
Dr. Aspray has lived in various places around the world, including two years in Ecuador, one year in France, and three years in Canada. He is married to Silvianne, an academic theologian from Switzerland, and together they have two daughters, Estelle and Celine.
Courses Taught
Selected Publications
Monographs
Aspray, B. Ricœur at the Limits of Philosophy: God, Creation, and Evil (Cambridge University Press: 2022).
Journal Articles
Aspray, B. ‘Paul Ricœur and Metaphysics’, Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies 15, no. 2 (20 December 2024): 207-26.
Aspray, B. ‘Jesus Was a Refugee: Unpacking the Theological Implications’, Modern Theology 40 no. 2 (2024).
Aspray, B. ‘Faith, Science, and the Wager for Reality: Meillassoux and Ricœur on post-Kantian Realism’, International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 84, no. 2 (15 March 2023): 133–56.
Aspray, B. ‘New Challenges to Character Education’, Journal of Character and Leadership Development 10, no. 2 (2023): 49–59.
Aspray, B. ‘A Throne Will Be Established in Steadfast Love’: Welcoming Refugees and the Davidic Kingdom in Isaiah 16:1-5’, Open Theology 7 (2021): 426–44.
Aspray, B. ‘How Can Phenomenology Address Classic Objections to Liturgy?’, Religions 12, no. 4 (April 2021): 236.
Aspray, B. ‘Y a-t-il une métaphysique ricœurienne ?’, Crossing: The INPR Journal 1 (2020): 73-83.
Aspray, B. ‘“No One Can Serve Two Masters”: The Unity of Philosophy and Theology in Ricœur’s Early Thought’, Open Theology 5, no. 1 (2019): 320–332.
Aspray, B. ‘“Scripture Grows with its Readers”: Doctrinal Development from a Ricœurian Perspective’, Modern Theology 35, no. 4 (2019): 746-759.
Chapter Contributions
Aspray, B. ‘A Greater Hope’, in By Strange Ways: Theologians and Their Paths to the Catholic Church, ed. Jonathan Fuqua and Daniel Strudwick (Ignatius Press, 2022).
Aspray, B. ‘From Exegesis to Allegory: Ricœur’s Challenge to Biblical Scholarship’, in Reading Scripture with Paul Ricœur, ed. Joseph Edelheit and James Moore (Lanham: Lexington Press, 2021).
Aspray, B. ‘Transforming Heideggerian Finitude? Following Pathways Opened by Falque’, in Transforming the Theological Turn: Phenomenology with Emmanuel Falque, ed. Martin Kočí and Jason Alvis (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020).
Translations
Emmanuel Falque, ‘The All-Seeing: Fraternity and Vision of God in Nicholas of Cusa’, Modern Theology 35, no. 4 (2019): 760-787. Translated by Barnabas Aspray.
Paul Ricœur, ‘From One Testament to the Other’, Modern Theology 33, no. 2 (2017): 235–42. Translated by Barnabas Aspray.
Dictionary Entries
Three entries (‘Friedrich Nietzsche’; ‘Biblical Hermeneutics’; ‘Transcendence’) in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Andrew Louth, 4th ed., (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
Online Resources
Favourite Quotations
“You are not compelled to form any opinion about this matter before you, nor to disturb your peace of mind at all. Things in themselves have no power to extort a verdict from you.” – Marcus Aurelius
“I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them.” – Orson Scott Card
“If the truth offend, better so than that it remain concealed.” – St. Jerome
Fr. Dennis Billy, C.Ss.R. serves as Professor and holder of The Robert F. Leavitt Distinguished Service Chair in Theology at St. Mary’s. From 1988 to 2008 he taught at the Alphonsian Academy of Rome’s Pontifical Lateran University and is now a Professor Emeritus of that institution. From 2008 to 2016 he was scholar-in-residence, professor, and holder of the John Cardinal Krol Chair of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. He also serves as Fellow and Karl Rahner Professor of Catholic Studies at the Graduate Theological Foundation in Sarasota, Florida.
Fr. Billy is an American Redemptorist of the Baltimore Province. He comes from Staten Island, New York, and was educated there through high school in local Catholic schools. He holds an A.B. in English from Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire) and studied for the priesthood in the Redemptorist seminary system. After his priestly training, he went on to earn a Th.D. in Church History from Harvard Divinity School, an M.A. in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto, an M.M.R.Sc. in Moral Theology from the Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven in Belgium, an S.T.D. in Spirituality from The Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum, Rome), and a D.Min. in Spiritual Direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation.
Father Billy has authored more than 50 books and published over 400 articles in a variety of scholarly and popular journals. He is also very active in retreat work and in the ministry of spiritual direction. Fr. Billy is an advisor to the Board of Directors at Notre Dame Retreat House in Canandaigua, NY. In 2017, he was awarded a three-year grant by the Templeton World Charity Foundation to develop a program on the topic “Spiritual Direction and the Moral Life.”
Selected Courses Taught
Service to the Church
Recommended Reading
A Favorite Quotation
The paradise of God is the heart of man. — St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Way to Converse Always and Familiarly with God
Franciscan friar Fr. William Burton came to St. Mary’s Seminary & University in 2019 as professor of Scripture after teaching at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Florida. His fundamental interest as a Scripture professor is the development of exegetical skills to guide seminarians and priests in the understanding, interpretation, and preaching of Scripture. Fr. Burton says that this “serves my particular need, as a Franciscan friar, to follow my call to live the gospel.” He made his solemn religious profession in 1987 and was ordained a priest in 1989.
Fr. Burton has worked especially hard in various ways to raise the biblical literacy level of the Roman Catholic Church. He has done this in the classroom and lecture hall, and also in guiding local parish Bible groups and in leading Bible study pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Greece, Turkey, and Italy. His recently published book, Abba Isn’t Daddy and Other Biblical Surprises, attempts to engage the typical, interested Catholic lay person in the excitement of Scripture study. To this same end he has published several audio and video series on various biblical topics. He has also been a presenter at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.
Fr. Burton has taught Scripture for twenty years; in seminary formation work his goal is to excite within future priests and permanent deacons a deep love of Scripture. “The first hurdle I always try to make easiest for students,” he says, “is to dispel the fear so many have of studying Scripture. I’m convinced that most already have the basic skills they need to begin—they just haven’t thought of using these already acquired skills in the study of the Bible. They usually find that it is far easier than they imagined and infinitely more exciting and engaging than they thought possible.”
In a piece about the book of Genesis, St. John wrote: “that we may come to know the ineffable loving kindness of God and see for ourselves the thought and care He has given to accommodating His language to our nature.” St. John
Dr. Dennis Castillo joined the St. Mary’s faculty in 2022 after more than twenty years of teaching at other Catholic colleges and seminaries. He serves also as St. Mary’s Associate Dean of Assessment and Accreditation. About teaching his discipline, Dr. Castillo says, “In my approach to Church History, I like the image St. Augustine uses in The City of God, seeing the Christian person as being in the world, but not of the world. Church History is the story of the Holy Spirit inspiring the Christian community on its pilgrimage from this world to the next. In doing so, we do not ignore the world, but rather are called to preach the Good News and aid those in need. In this journey of faith, there are many challenges and temptations. Church History is a very valuable discipline for those preparing to serve the people of God, helping us to learn from past mistakes and identifying good role models in ministry.”
Dr. Castillo enjoys all periods of Church History, seeing in each one the challenge of being a disciple of Jesus to a world in need of the Gospel. His own research has been in the fields of American Catholicism and the history of Malta. Dr. Castillo has two current writing projects. One is a history of the Catholic Church’s response to the cholera epidemics in the nineteenth century. The other is a study of the Knights of Malta and its transition in the twentieth century from being a military order back to its original hospitaller charism.
You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. St. Augustine, Confessions, Book I, Chapter I
Dr. Audra Dugandzic joins the faculty this academic year after serving as an adjunct faculty member. She is a sociologist of religion and culture specializing in American Catholicism. Her book manuscript, in progress, examines how and why the implementation of liturgical changes following the Second Vatican Council have become implicated in polarization among Catholics in the United States. Dr. Dugandzic has won competitive grants to support this work from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Religious Research Association, and the University of Notre Dame. Her peer-reviewed work on how physical-place characteristics afford religious practice has appeared in Sociology of Religion.
Dr. Dugandzic holds a B.A. in psychology and politics, with minors in philosophy and theology & religious studies, from The Catholic University of America. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied under the direction of Dr. Christian Smith. At Notre Dame, she was a Notebaert Fellow and Sorin Fellow at the deNicola Center for Ethics and Culture.
Dr. Dugandzic resides in Baltimore with her husband and two young children. She is fluent in Lithuanian.
Peer Reviewed
Book Reviews
Popular
Experience shows that it is practically impossible for any but the militant Christian to persevere in a milieu which offers him no support. … Such Christians have need of an environment that will help them. [Prayer as a Political Problem] Jean Daniélou
Dr. Gonzales completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 2015. There he worked under the supervision of Prof. William Desmond and the co-supervision of Prof. Cyril O’Regan. His dissertation was on the German-Polish Jesuit philosopher and theologian Erich Przywara, now published as Reimagining the Analogia Entis (eerdmans.com). From 2015 to 2019 Dr. Gonzales was an Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas at both their Dallas and Rome campuses. In 2019 he took a position at St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, Ireland, where he was a permanent Lecturer in Philosophy. In 2024 he joyfully joined the ranks of the theological faculty at St. Mary’s. Philosophy, Dr. Gonzales says, “deals with the most fundamental human questions, and as such, to philosophize is to be human. Seminarians must learn to philosophize in order ‘to become what they are’ (Pindar).”
Dr. Gonzales is also one of the twelve recipients of the grants awarded from the Widening Horizons in Philosophical Theology project, run out of the University of St. Andrews by Prof. Judith Wolfe and funded by the Templeton Religion Trust. He also has close association with the Institut Catholique de Toulouse (Catholic Institute of Toulouse, France) as an invited member of its scientific committee for teaching and research on Christian philosophy and an associate member of its unit on research in cultures, ethics, religion, and society (CERES).
Dr. Gonzales is a philosophical theologian working within the continental tradition. He is currently developing an apocalyptic Christological metaphysics that opens into a metaphysics of Trinitarian response. The outcome of his WHIPT grant is the completed first volume of the projected five-volume Metaphysics of Patmos series.
Dr. Gonzales has lived across Europe with his wife, Sarah, and their five children (Sophia, Anastasia, Melanie, Serafina, and John-Paul), including three years in Belgium, five years in France, two years in Italy, and five years in Ireland before “Coming home to a place he’d never been before” (John Denver)—Baltimore.
Active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with the love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with everyone watching. Indeed, it will go as far as the giving even of one’s life, provided it does not take long but is soon over, as on stage, and everyone is looking on and praising. Whereas active love is labor and persistence, and for some people, perhaps, a whole science. [The Brothers Karamazov] Dostoevsky
Professor Michael J. Gorman (Mike) has held the Raymond E. Brown Chair in Biblical Studies and Theology since 2012. He has taught at St. Mary’s since 1991, first in St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute and then, beginning in 1993, in both the Ecumenical Institute and the Seminary (School of Theology). From 1994 to 2012 he served as Dean of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute.
Dr. Gorman is a New Testament scholar who specializes in the theology and spirituality of the apostle Paul, the Gospel of John, the book of Revelation, and the theological and missional interpretation of Scripture. He is the author of twenty books and numerous articles, including several volumes on Paul as well as works on Revelation, John, the atonement, Christian ethics, and biblical interpretation more generally. His most recent book is 1 Corinthians: A Theological, Pastoral, and Missional Commentary (Eerdmans, 2025). He is currently working on John, the Pauline Gospel? Paul and John in Sync (Baker Academic) and Philippians: A Theological, Pastoral, and Missional Commentary (Eerdmans).
Dr. Gorman earned his M.Div. and Ph.D. at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has lectured and taught in both Catholic and Protestant churches, colleges, and seminaries throughout the United States and at institutions in several other countries, including Canada, England, Scotland, New Zealand, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Cameroon. In 2009 he was Visiting Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, and in 2016 he gave the Didsbury Lectures in England as well as the Payton Lectures at Fuller Seminary. Dr. Gorman is an elected member of the international Society for New Testament Studies, and he is on the editorial board of The Journal of Theological Interpretation. In 2020, he was honored with a Festschrift (collection of essays by other scholars) entitled Cruciform Scripture: Cross, Participation, and Mission. The title captures the heart of his approach to interpreting and teaching the New Testament theologically.
Dr. Gorman is an avid traveler who has led numerous study trips to Turkey, Greece, Italy, and France. An active United Methodist layperson, he is married to Nancy; they have three children and eight grandchildren. For more than three decades the Gormans have hosted an ecumenical Bible study and prayer group in their home. Their elder son, Rev. Dr. Mark Gorman, is a theologian and a member of the St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute faculty. Occasionally Dr. Gorman and Dr. Gorman team-teach a course. Their other two children are Ecumenical Institute alums.
I have been co-crucified with the Messiah; and it is no longer I who live, but it is the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do now live in this flesh I live by virtue of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me by giving himself for me. – St. Paul, Galatians 2:19b-20 (my translation)
Fr. Maximilian Maria Jaskowak, O.P. entered the Order of Friars Preachers in 2016 (Eastern Province, USA), and was ordained a priest of Jesus Christ on May 21, 2022. Upon completion of his license in sacred theology, he joined the faculty at St. Mary’s Seminary & University in the fall of 2023.
Selected Presentations
I thirst. John 19:28
Dr. Brent Laytham has been at St. Mary’s since 2012, when he was appointed as Professor in the School of Theology and Dean of St. Mary’s Ecumenical Institute. Dr. Laytham came to Baltimore from North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, where he taught systematic and moral theology for eleven years. An ordained United Methodist, Dr. Laytham was a pastor for eight years in North Carolina. There he became active in ecumenical endeavors, including more than a decade as Coordinator of the Ekklesia Project, many years on the board of The Liturgical Conference, and service on accreditation teams of the Association of Theological Schools.
Dr. Laytham received his Ph.D. from Duke University. His scholarship makes connections among Scripture, liturgy, theology, and culture. In 2017, he attended Harvard’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education.
Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live by the laws of justice and mercy. Wendell Berry