Master in Pastoral Leadership and Management with Special Focus on Youth Ministry

The Master in Pastoral Leadership and Management with special focus on Youth Ministry prepares experts in the field, both on a theoretical and practical level, by enabling them to know and discern the condition and reality of the youth, and to plan, coordinate, and promote activities in the various youth sectors. It trains specialists in human and spiritual formation and in the educational-pastoral service for young people, aware of the factors that make up their identity, relationships, life plan, and growth.

The curriculum is composed of foundational Catholic theology courses and courses that address the pyscho-spiritual needs of the youth, including courses that train professionals in planning, organizing, and coordinating youth ministry at the level of the local Church in the parish and diocesan settings, Catholic and non-sectarian schools, religious congregations, and ecclesial movements.

Academic Prerequisites

To get accepted to the professional degree Masters program, applicants must have a government-recognized (civil) bachelor’s degree with at least 12 units of undergraduate (college) theology courses. Moreover, they must have attained at least a general undergraduate average of B (2.5 or 85) with no grade of “failure” or “condition”. Those without undergraduate theology courses will be required to complete them first in LST before taking graduate courses.

Course Work

This program requires at least four semesters of full-time course work in which the student must complete successfully fifteen (15) master’s level courses according to the following categories:

FOUNDATION COURSES (5 courses)

TMP 201 Revelation-Faith

The first part of the course makes a historical and systematic survey of the theology of revelation (not the New Testament book, but the self-disclosure of God to humanity) and its development from: Scripture, the Church Fathers, the age of the Enlightenment, the advent of the Church Councils, with particular focus on the Christ-event and on Dei Verbum, and from theological reflections by contemporary theologians regarding the words and deeds of God in the Son and the Spirit, disclosed to and received by the world, and proclaimed in the words and deeds of the Church as a community constituted by the constantly revelatory Trinity. The course will also include a discussion on religious pluralism and the unicity and universality of the Christ-event in a multi-creedal, multi-cultural world, including the question of ongoing revelation. The second part of the course studies and analyzes the notion of faith beginning from the Scripture, the Church Fathers, pertinent theologians and Church councils. It will conclude with a discussion on the crucial dynamic of faith and grace in the life of the individual, and more importantly, in living as community, as Church.

TMP 202 Fundamental Moral Theology

This course seeks to give a historical, practical, and pastoral approach to the study of fundamental moral theology. It presents the historical richness and diversity of the Church’s moral tradition, seeking to provide the student with an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the resources of the tradition. By tracing the history of the development of the Church’s moral teaching, the syllabus seeks to relate the Church’s ongoing moral discernment with the development of the Church’s self-understanding as it journeys through human history. Through the use of cases, the course will illustrate methods of moral analysis, the application of moral principles, the dynamics between magisterium and conscience, and pastoral approaches to difficult moral cases especially taking into account the social and cultural realities in the Asian context.

TMP 203 Christian Worship

The course is an introduction to the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church. It studies the nature and scope of sacred liturgy based on its Christological and ecclesiological foundations. The history of liturgy and the liturgical renewal of Vatican II are considered, as also liturgy’s ministerial, hierarchical, communal and communication dimensions. Key principles of sacramental theology are explained including the imperatives of inculturation, in view of further study of the individual sacraments.

TMP 204 Christology

Prerequisite: TMP 201 Revelation-Faith

The course gives a survey of the Christian understanding of Jesus Christ as first witnessed to in the Bible and later systematized by Christian tradition. The question of methodology in studying Christology is broached, after which the course focuses on Jesus’ public ministry, with its emphasis on the proclamation and inauguration of the Kingdom of God, and culminating in the Paschal Mystery. The course ends with conciliar Christology, especially that of Chalcedon.

TMP 205 Ecclesiology

Prerequisites: TMP 201 Revelation-Faith and TMP 204 Christology

This course attempts a systematic study of the €œPeople of God, Body of Christ, and Temple of the Spirit as taught in Scripture and elaborated in Church teaching. It will present the major themes of Vatican II’s ecclesiology, situating them in the council’s historical context and giving more emphasis to €œcommunion ecclesiology which, according to the Extraordinary Synod of 1985, is crucial to a proper understanding of Vatican II’s teaching on the Church. The course will also consider such questions as: the interrelationship between the Church and the Kingdom of God, between the Church and other religions; ecumenism, evangelization and mission, renewal and reform, and Mary as the most illustrious member of the Church.

REQUIRED PROFESSIONAL COURSES (8 courses)

TMP 256.05 Discernment and Spiritual Direction

The course is a study of Ignatian discernment in the context of spiritual and retreat direction. It begins by clarifying the meaning of discernment and traces the development of the idea and practice of discernment in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The course then studies the rules of Ignatian discernment as presented in Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and considers their applicability to concrete decision making situations (viz., vocation discernment, communal discernment). The course then concludes with a discussion of the process of maturing in both prayer and discernment.

TMP 267 Pastoral Psychology and Counseling

The course offers a basic understanding of psychological realities and an experience of the basic helping skills for individual counseling, as an aid to pastoral care in the Philippine context. The first part of the course deals with the psycho-dynamics of personality development, intrapersonal and interpersonal, normal and abnormal, and relevant cultural factors. The second part of the course treats the principles of a humanistic-Christian approach to individual pastoral counseling, focusing on basic helping skills. The course ends with metapersonal (societal) dimensions of pastoral care from a psycho-spiritual viewpoint.

TMP 251.10 Organizing Catechetical Leadership Programs Practicum

Prerequisite: TMP 280 Catechesis

This course involves designing a training program for catechists and then actually implementing the program in a particular parish or youth context (in a supervised practicum).

TMP 251.11 Organizing Youth Ministry Practicum

Prerequisite: TMP 251.03 Advanced Pastoral Methods: Fundamentals of Youth Ministry

This course involves designing a ministry program for the youth and then actually implementing the program in a particular parish or youth context (in a supervised practicum).

TMP 251.03 Advanced Pastoral Methods:

Fundamentals of Youth Ministry

The course introduces the students to the wide and articulated horizon of the action of the Church in relation to the youth from the epistemological, methodological, and historical point of view as well as content. 1. An initial look: What is youth ministry? 2. The horizon within which to understand youth ministry. 3. Studies on youth ministry within the practical “€œconstellation” of theology. 4. Historical aspects and post-conciliar developments. 5. Models of youth ministry: some articulations worldwide. 6. The contributions of the Synod on the Youth and of Christus vivit on youth ministry. 7. Synthesis.

TMP 280 Catechesis

This is an introductory course in Catechetics, the science of understanding, appreciating, and doing the catechetical ministry of the Church, a privileged and indispensable component of evangelization. Being introductory, this course aims at leading the students to grasp the basic and fundamental principles of Catechetics and catechesis, in particular, the intrinsic relationship of evangelization and catechesis. It accompanies the students to foster appreciation and love for the ministry of catechesis and the catechists as well as the spirit of collaboration with Christian community and the catechists. It expects the students to deepen their understanding of the principles governing the ministry of catechesis by writing a research paper or to apply the same principles in a catechetical project and document it through a narrative report.

Concretely, this course is an in-depth study of the Directory for Catechesis (DC 2020) produced by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (PCPNE). It aims at understanding the concepts and insights of the Church regarding New Catechesis for the New Evangelization and to contextualize them in the catechetical ministry of the Church in the Philippines and in Asia.

TMP 256.03 Apostolic Spirituality

This course offers a theological exploration of apostolic spirituality in terms of its three-fold dynamic as conversion, commitment and communion. The apostolic orientation of each dynamic is considered from its biblical foundations, subsequent historical developments and its various anthropological, Christological, ecclesiological, sacramental and eschatological aspects. Since apostolic spirituality seeks to encounter God who labors in every person and in everything, the course concludes with a strategy of discernment to help persons grow as a contemplative in action today.

TMP 268.08 Special Topics in Marital and Family Counseling: Child and Adolescent Counseling

Prerequisite: TMP 267 Pastoral Psychology and Counseling

This course will review the different theories of development as they relate to counseling and clinical work with children and adolescents. In the process, the interplay of the biological, social, cognitive, and environmental factors that may cause or influence the severity of the emotional, behavioral, and adjustment problems of children will be explored. Counseling and clinical procedures, treatment methods and counseling approaches and techniques for specific cases such as children of separated parents, adopted children, sibling rivalry, abused and traumatized children, etc. will be the main topics of the course.

Structured experiential activities, small group sharing, role playing, reflections on one’s own childhood and adolescent experiences, and lecturettes are some of the learning approaches that will be used in teaching the course.

ELECTIVE COURSES (choose 2 courses)

TMP 267.07 Pastoral Group Process

The course will give opportunity for students a) to make a review and survey of the different theories in group counseling (Person-Centered, Psychoanalytic, Gestalt, Hypnotherapy, etc.); b) to experience these theories in a small growth group in class; and c) to facilitate a small pastoral growth group outside class. The students will learn how to use the Structured Learning Experiences (SLE) and Process-Observation-Analysis (POA), which are important in facilitating groups.

TMP 222.11 Church and Mission: Animation as a Paradigm for Youth Ministry

The three Management Paradigms, generally applicable to Youth Ministry, have been broadly termed as: ‘Scientific Paradigm’, ‘Human Relations Paradigm’ and ‘Human Resource Paradigm’. This course is an invitation to make a paradigm shift in Youth Ministry and attempts to encourage youth ministers to move to the fourth Animation paradigm with its specific styles. Such a paradigm is based on life and on love for life and emphasizes the ‘spiritual character’ of human nature and desires to initiate the young towards the fullness of life for all through the process of conferring meaning.

Such a paradigm invites individuals to a shared vision, challenges them to contribute to the accomplishment of these shared objectives and to become part of the mission and enterprise that transcends their individual tasks. Animation offers individuals purposes and principles that lift them, ennoble them, inspire them, empower them, and encourage them to be their best selves. The ultimate and overall intent of this paradigm is to give back to the young the joy of a full life and the courage to hope.

TMP 211.93 Old Testament Seminar IV:

Biblical Perspectives on Vocational Accompaniment

This course has two parts: a brief survey of vocation in the biblical narrative and an exegesis of some texts to explore elements of vocational accompaniment. In the first part, the structure of call narratives is revisited. Insights are drawn from both Old Testament and New Testament vocation stories. In the second part, these vocation stories are re-read with an eye to elements that support the person being called in his or her vocation.

TMP 231.04 Special Moral Theology I: Medical/Sexual Ethics

Prerequisite: TMP 202 Fundamental Moral Theology

The course builds on the students’ knowledge of fundamental moral theology and introduces the students to Catholic approaches, principles, and moral norms related to sexual ethics and bioethics. The course will be divided into two parts. The first part will take up sexual ethics while the second part will take up bioethics. For each part of the course, a discussion of basic approaches, methods, and specific church teachings will be followed by case applications. The course aims to develop the students’ skills in addressing pastoral and moral cases involving sexual ethics and bioethics.

The Chairperson may validate the following elective as a Professional Course:

TMP 231.04 Special Moral Theology I: Medical/Sexual Ethics

Comprehensive Examination

After completing his/her course work, the student must pass a written comprehensive examination. The students must be registered with the Ateneo de Manila University to take the comprehensive examination. Note: one cannot register for comprehensive examination while still on course work or still have an incomplete grade (INC) in his/her course work.

The comprehensive examinations are scheduled once each semester and in the Intersession. Students who cannot take the comprehensive examination during the regular schedule must wait until the next examination period. Those who cannot complete the two parts of the examination at the schedule must repeat the entire comprehensive at the next examination period.

The examination has two parts, scheduled on separate dates: Part I covers the foundation courses (Revelation-Faith; Christology; Ecclesiology; Fundamental Moral Theology; and Christian Worship); and Part II covers the courses the student has taken in his/her area of concentration.

The two parts of the exams are graded separately. The passing grade for the comprehensive examination is 2.5 (B). In case of failure, only one retake is allowed. Students who fail the retake are dropped from the program.

Capstone Project

Capstone project refers to an investigative project, an action-based research, an integrative paper on a social problem that culminates in the production of knowledge or the implementation of a project. This encourages students to apply what they have learned to realworld issues or problems. This is taken at the end of their academic program, after passing the Comprehensive Exam. A capstone project marks the culmination of the student’s professional master’s program.

If a student will not be able to complete the project in one semester, the student will have to re-enroll the capstone project up to oral defense and submission, provided that he/she does not exceed his/her residency.

A student is conferred candidacy status upon his/her enrollment in Capstone Project.

Application

All applications are done online. Please visit the link https://ateneo.edu/ls/graduate/how-apply for instructions.

For application deadlines: https://ateneo.edu/ls/graduate/application-deadlines