On October 19th, the Congregation for the Clergy approved the Statutes of the Seminary Maria Mater Ecclesiae of Brazil. With this approval, the dicastery confirms the formative path that, together with the associated dioceses, is being carried out at the Mater Ecclesiae, in accordance with the indications of the Ratio Fundamentalis and the Guidelines of the CNBB and links this seminary to the authority of the Congregation for the Clergy, which defined the presented text as “a qualified instrument for discernment, accompaniment, and formation of seminarians, as well as for cultivating vocations to the diocesan clergy, with a view to comprehensive formation and preparation for the exercise of the priestly ministry.”

Father André Delvaux, LC, territorial director of the Legionaries of Christ for the territory of Brazil, highlights the importance of the news and adds: “Let us thank God for this new step in the process of institutionalizing this work of the Legion, and we ask the Lord to allow us to collaborate more and more with the Church of Brazil in the formation of future priests.”

The Maria Mater Ecclesiae Seminary currently has 65 seminarians from six dioceses. Throughout its founding, 350 alumni (now priests) from 34 Brazilian dioceses and six institutes of consecrated life or religious congregations, including some Legionaries of Christ, have passed through the institution.

HISTORY

In 1998, with the consent of Saint John Paul II, a group of Brazilian bishops led by the President of the CNBB and Primate of Brazil, Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves, requested the founding of a Maria Mater Ecclesiae Seminary in Brazilian territory.

The Seminary began its activities on March 25, 2000. In its early years, the Seminary was housed in the formation center of the Legionaries of Christ in Arujá-SP.

On August 8, 2005, at the beginning of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, the then Apostolic Nuncio of Brazil, Mons. Lorenzo Baldisseri, blessed the current headquarters of the Maria Mater Ecclesiae Seminary in Brazil, located in the municipality of Itapecerica da Serra – SP.

In 2017, the Mater Ecclesiae Seminary affiliated with the Theology faculty of the Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum, the year in which the Maria Mater Ecclesiae Theological Institute (ITMME) was also established, and in 2020, it affiliated with the Faculty of Philosophy of the same Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum in Rome.