The newly-appointed dean of Te Kupenga — Catholic Theological College, Dr John Evangelista, has big dreams for the college, and for Catholic education in New Zealand.
“Hopefully this will be the seed for the future Catholic University of New Zealand,” he said. “We have a rich history of Catholic education here in New Zealand, very good primary and secondary schools. Why not a university?”
Dr Evangelista, a medical doctor who earned a Licentiate in Theology at the University of Navarre and the Roman College of the Holy Cross in Rome, is inspired by the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who said that Catholic education “nurtures the soul of a nation”.
“If you could imbibe Christian values into sciences, mathematics, the arts, history and everything else, it [would] make a big difference,” he said.
Dr Evangelista said he may not see a university happening in his lifetime, but he can sow the seeds for now.
This means, he said, starting with small things like offering a teacher training programme, or a leadership course.
“Aside from our level 5,6,7 courses in theology, we plan to introduce a master’s programme in theology, because a lot of RE directors in Catholic schools and principals are looking for higher education, in terms of theology, that will help them in their teaching and their career,” he said.
He said they are looking at offering micro-credentials and non-accredited courses, as well as starting a continuing professional education programme.
Since he started working at CTC, they have put together a three-year strategic plan, which has been endorsed by their governance board.
“This is putting in the foundation for what we would like to happen in the future,” he said.
The first point in this plan is to increase awareness of CTC.
“Only a very limited number of people really know what we’re doing since the merger only started in January, 2020. We still need to tell people what we are doing and what CTC is all about,” he said.
Dr Evangelista said another priority is succession planning to “future-proof” the college.
“A lot of our senior lecturers are close to retirement or are at retirement age. The median age really would be about 64-65 years old. We have to prepare so that in the next five years they would have already trained their successors,” he said.
Dr Evangelista said they have also embarked on a marketing campaign to increase the number of enrolments.
At a dinner with the Holy Cross seminarians, Dr Evangelista said he has committed to try to ensure that there will always be a place at the college to form seminarians, as they “are the lifeline of the Church”.
“We need more priests in New Zealand, and we have to make sure they are well-formed. There has to be a good training ground for their academic formation,” he said.
Dr Evangelista said the college will be supporting the bishops in their endeavours, such as providing academic formation to 14 men preparing to be deacons for Auckland diocese.
“Whatever we can do to help the bishops in this, [such as] the formation of the lay catechists, we will do so as well,” he said.
“We are also thinking of continuing education and formation of the clergy and lay people.”
Dr Evangelista encouraged lay people to study theology.
“This second semester, I’m quite pleased that we have five or six new students who are all lay, married people. They just want to know
more about their faith. That’s why they have enrolled in the Bachelor of Theology course. And these are the people who, later on, will be helping in the parishes, and will be the lay leaders who will change the community in a way,” he said.
He added that theology can be studied just out of love for God.
“At the end of the day, what is theology?
“It is being closer to God. You want to study theology, first and foremost, because you want to enrich your knowledge of God, so you’ll love God better and serve him better.”
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