For more detailed information, contact Fr. Alfaro, the Dean of Men at: jalfaro@svdp.edu.

It is from the parochial community that each seminarian comes as a candidate and it is to the parochial community that each candidate goes as a priest. Thus, the Seminary hopes to foster a sense of what the church, as the community of God's people, is.

By participation in community life, the candidate shares in the responsibility and benefits of the seminary. Community life means working, praying, studying, celebrating, playing, and living together. 

A true sense of respect and charity is an underlying premise of community life: Love is patient; love is kind, love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. 

Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Cor. 13:4-7). 

At St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Thursdays are Community Days. The Seminary expects that all seminarians participate in different activities such as Rector's Conferences, Town hall meetings, music practices, and communal celebrations. As a future priest, the candidate will be expected to be a leader of community and a public person.

The seminary would be remiss in its responsibility if it did not train the candidate in these two specific areas. With this vision, and within the contexts of the immediate community and various pastoral settings, the candidate is expected to exhibit qualities of leadership and to act as a public person. 

Additional requirements for seminarians in human formation are as follows:

House Jobs

The community life is dependent upon each seminarian's contributing his time and talent for the common good. To this end, each seminarian is assigned a house job, which should take at least two hours of work weekly. The house job is assigned by the Student Council and approved by the Rector or the Dean of Human Formation. 

Class Responsibility

There are certain times during the semester when a class is expected to assume responsibility for communal oriented events. Some examples are community dinners; workdays for Board of Trustees' meetings; participation in the annual fund-raisers, such as Friends of the Seminary.