By Brooke Wasserman
BRIDGEPORT—The Diocese of Bridgeport will this fall become home to a new online center designed to empower the clergy to become better preachers who can communicate the faith with greater clarity, depth, and inspiration. This serves the diocese’s ultimate goal to give the laity spiritual insight and guidance to enrich their faith.
The St. Jerome Center for Preaching and Biblical Studies will launch on September 30, the feast day of St. Jerome.
The Center is named after St. Jerome (ca. 340—420), who was a Christian priest, Doctor of the Church, historian, translator, theologian and confessor. He is especially known for his translations of the Bible into Latin, as well as his teachings on Christian morality and life. St. Jerome’s dedication to preaching and instructing on how to live a moral Christian life inspires clergy to hone their preaching skills to better reach the faithful.
The St. Jerome Center will launch four programs this fall. Three of these programs are intended for clergy, and one is tailored to laity. The clergy-directed programs seek to help priests and deacons improve their preaching skills and assist in making their homilies more inspirational, insightful, and relevant.
The first of the programs for clergy is the Preaching Intensive for Priests, which is a week-long course in Rome that helps priests improve homily content, structure and engagement. The course will be taught by the Dominicans from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). The bishop will accompany a cohort of eight to 10 priests on this educational trip early next year.
During the morning sessions, participants will study some of the great preachers in the Roman Catholic tradition, such as St. Augustine, learn new ways to structure engaging homilies, and learn how to preach about controversial topics in a Christ-centric way.
Participants will tour Rome each afternoon and visit a site related to the morning session for a time of prayer and reflection. Each priest will preach at least once during the week at Mass or Vespers and receive structured feedback from the instructor and their peers.
The second clergy program is the Certificate in Preaching for Deacons program. This program consists of five courses on the essential pillars of preaching over nine months: Foundations in Preaching, Liturgy and Preaching, Scripture and Exegesis, Pastoral Sensitivity, and Personal Integration and Spirituality. The program will be taught at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in the Dominican preaching tradition.
According to Deacon Patrick Toole, diocesan chancellor and the executive director of the St. Jerome Center, “It also gives them an opportunity throughout the nine-month program to practice what they are learning by preaching and getting feedback from their instructors and peers.” Participants will preach and receive formal feedback during each course. Those deacons who successfully complete all five courses will receive a certificate in preaching. The first cohort of fifteen deacons will start this program in the fall of 2024.
The last of the new programs dedicated to clergy is the Language Enhancement Training Program, which is designed to assist non-native English-speaking clerics in refining their speech for more effective communication. This comprehensive training program consists of 14 weeks of personalized, one-on-one coaching sessions focused on pronunciation, intonation, and clarity. Each participant will undergo an initial evaluation with an expert language coach to tailor the program to their specific needs. After the program, clerics will be able to communicate more clearly and effectively with their parishioners, which according to Deacon Toole “is essential to the Center’s goal of helping people become more engaged with the Liturgy of the Word at Mass.”
The Center’s efforts are not just for clergy. The program designated for the laity is called the St. Jerome Bible Study Program. Launching next year, five parishes will pilot this program of weekly parish-based Bible study focused on the upcoming Sunday readings. Deacon Toole hopes that “by studying the Mass readings, participants will have a deeper level of engagement during the Liturgy of the Word and be able to make scripture more relevant in their daily lives.”
The St. Jerome Bible Study Program is offered in partnership with the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Participants will use resources from the St. Paul Center to interpret the Sunday readings within our Roman Catholic tradition. Deacon Toole says, “We are thrilled to launch the St. Jerome Center and to offer both clergy and laity alike a closer connection to scripture, and become better pilgrims of hope within our community.”
