St. John's Seminary is a
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
graduate seminary
A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...
in
Camarillo, California
Camarillo ( ) is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 70,741, an increase of 5,540 from the 65,201 counted in the 2010 Census. Camarillo is named for brothers Juan and ...
.
History

St. John's Seminary began teaching seminarians on September 12, 1939.
Juan Camarillo, Jr. donated of land from his
Rancho Calleguas
Rancho Calleguas was a Mexican land grant in present-day Ventura County, California given in 1837 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Pedro Ruiz.
The grant was south of Rancho Las Posas, east of Rancho El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia, north ...
on March 3, 1927, with the specific desire to have the land used for a seminary named for
St. John the Evangelist.
On January 14, 1938,
John J. Cantwell announced the planned construction of the seminary. The
first accredited St. John's in 1976; it had previously been accredited by the American Association of Theological Schools and the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC ( )) provided accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern ...
.
Beginning in 1961, St. John's granted bachelor's degrees through its subsidiary St. John's Seminary College. Following a 2002 report from a task force appointed by Roger Mahony, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles closed the undergraduate portion of the seminary. Only 12 seminarians graduated in 2002, and the Archdiocese chose to focus solely on graduate training. The task force also scheduled a 2005 review to see if St. John's should be entirely closed with
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...
taking over the school's functions; this shutdown has not come to pass. The diocese agreed to sell most of the seminary's land, including the area used for undergraduate study, in 2004, for a price which was dependent on the sort of zoning approval the land would receive. The seminary now seeks to become self-sufficient rather than relying on the archdiocese's funding. Toward that end, they are seeking to have an area formerly used as an undergraduate campus developed into between 270 and 290 houses for people 55 and older.
Library
The campus of St. John's has two libraries: the
Edward Laurence Doheny
Edward Laurence Doheny (; August 10, 1856 – September 8, 1935) was an American oil tycoon who, in 1892, drilled the first successful oil well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field. His success set off a petroleum boom in Southern California, a ...
Memorial Library and the Carrie Estelle Doheny Memorial Library, named for an oil tycoon and his wife who were noted Roman Catholic philanthropists. The Edward L. Doheny Library, inspired by the
Cathedral of Mexico City, houses the seminary's collection of theological books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials, as well as the Seminary Board Room and other meeting spaces. The Carrie E. Doheny Library was the library of the undergraduate program until it was discontinued in 2002; since then it has been used to house the seminary's philosophy books as well as offices and classroom space.
For nearly half a century, the Edward L. Doheny Library also housed the collection of rare books and other treasures donated to the seminary by Carrie Estelle Doheny in 1940. The collection was sold at auction in 1987 in order to fund the Doheny Endowment to support seminary functions.
Academics
St. John's offers the
Master of Divinity
For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...
degree as a
first professional degree
A professional degree, formerly known in the US as a first professional degree, is a degree that prepares someone to work in a particular profession, practice, or industry sector often meeting the academic requirements for licensure or accreditatio ...
for seminarians.
If interested in theological studies and research, eligible seminarians can also concurrently earn a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
.
The seminary offers a
Master of Arts in Pastoral Ministry for non-seminarians who are interested in
lay ministry
Lay ministry is a term used for ministers of faiths in Christian denominations who are not ordained in their faith tradition. Lay ministers are people who are elected by the church, full-time or part-time. They may have theological degrees and tr ...
.
Sexual abuse scandal
Alumni of St. John were accused in the
sexual abuse scandal, which broke into public in the late 20th century, of molesting underaged boys and young men. Of the approximately 625 St. John's graduates to be ordained by the Los Angeles Archdiocese between 1950 and 2005, by 2005 65 had been accused in the sexual abuse scandal, reflecting a rate higher than what studies have found for U.S. priests in general. A seminary spokesman noted in November 2005 that California had extended its statute of limitations on molestation lawsuits, making more cases possible for prosecution. He suggested that a wave of publicity on molestation by priests had made St. John's graduates targets of such accusations. Four days later, the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' ran a letter to the editor from St. John's rector, Helmut A. Hefner. He said that substantial reforms had been implemented in the seminary in terms of recruitment and assessment of students. He noted that changes had been made; as a result, from 1985 to 2005, only two of the 155 priests ordained at St. John's Seminary for the Los Angeles archdiocese had been accused of sexual misconduct.
Notable alumni
*
Tod Brown,
Bishop of Orange
The ancient residential diocese of Orange in the Comtat Venaissin in Provence, a fief belonging to the papacy, was suppressed by the French government during the French Revolution. It was revived in 2009 as a titular see of the Catholic Church. ...
*
Cyprian Consiglio
Cyprian Consiglio, O.S.B. Cam., is an American composer, musician, Camaldolese monk and Catholic priest. He is noted for his musical work to support the practice of meditation. He is the author of four books.
Life
He was born in 1958 as Phillip ...
,
O.S.B. Cam.,
Prior
The term prior may refer to:
* Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery)
* Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case
* Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics
* Prio ...
of
New Camaldoli Hermitage
New Camaldoli Hermitage (formally called Immaculate Heart Hermitage) is a rural Camaldolese Benedictine Hermitage (religious retreat), hermitage in the Santa Lucia Mountains of Big Sur, California, in the United States. The Camaldolese branch o ...
*
William DuBay, ordained in 1960, but left the priesthood after challenging Cardinal McIntyre on race relations and other matters.
*
Geoff Farrow, priest relieved of his congregation after denouncing
California Proposition 8
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage. It passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned by the ...
from the pulpit
*
Cirilo Flores, Bishop of San Diego.
*
Gustavo García-Siller
Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S. (born December 21, 1956) is a Mexican-American prelate of the Catholic Church. He has been serving as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas since 2010. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the ...
, archbishop of San Antonio.
*
William Robert Johnson,
Bishop of Orange
The ancient residential diocese of Orange in the Comtat Venaissin in Provence, a fief belonging to the papacy, was suppressed by the French government during the French Revolution. It was revived in 2009 as a titular see of the Catholic Church. ...
*
William Levada
William Joseph Levada (June 15, 1936September 26, 2019) was an American Catholic prelate who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2005 to 2012. During that time, he was the highest-ranking American in the Ro ...
, Prefect of the
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
*
Roger Mahony
Roger Michael Mahony (born February 27, 1936) is an American Catholic retired prelate who served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Fresno from 1975 to 1980 and Bis ...
,
Archbishop of Los Angeles
*
George Niederauer,
Archbishop of San Francisco
The Archdiocese of San Francisco (Latin: ''Archdiœcesis Sancti Francisci''; Spanish: ''Arquidiócesis de San Francisco'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the Unit ...
*
Justin Rigali
Justin Francis Rigali (born April 19, 1935) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. After a diplomatic and academic career in Rome, he served as Archbishop of St. Louis from 1994 to 2003. He then served as Archbishop of Philadelphia f ...
,
Archbishop of Philadelphia
*
Alexander Salazar
Alejandro Salazar (born November 28, 1949) is a Costa Rican-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Salazar served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2004 to 2018.
Salazar resigned as auxiliary bishop o ...
,
Auxiliary Bishop
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions.
...
of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, resigned in 2018, and criminally convicted in August 2023 of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years
* Bishop
Jaime Soto
Jaime Soto (born December 31, 1955) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Sacramento since 2007. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange from 2000 to 2007.
Biography
Early life and edu ...
of the
Diocese of Sacramento
* Msgr.
Francis J. Weber, archivist of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, and biographer of Archbishop
John Joseph Cantwell
John Joseph Cantwell (December 1, 1874 – October 30, 1947) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. He led the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 1917 until his death in 1947, becoming its first archbishop in 1936. Cantwell w ...
, Cardinal
James Francis McIntyre
James Francis Aloysius McIntyre (June 25, 1886 – July 16, 1979) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1948 to 1970, and was created a cardinal in 1953. He was a highly successful builder ...
, and Cardinal
Timothy Manning
Timothy Manning (Irish: ''Tadhg Ó Mongáin'') (November 15, 1909 – June 23, 1989) was an Irish Catholics, Irish Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1985. He was elev ...
See also
*
List of Roman Catholic seminaries
*
Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John's Seminary, California
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Catholic seminaries in the United States
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Education in Ventura County, California
Universities and colleges established in 1939
1939 establishments in California
Seminaries and theological colleges in California