Venegono Inferiore, Seminary and Faculty of Theology of

VENEGONO INFERIORE, SEMINARY AND THEOLOGICAL FACULTY by. — A modest municipality in the province of Varese, it attained renown in Italy and abroad when (1927) the Church of Milan built there, as a tribute to Pius XI, an important building (see aerial view at V. SEMINARIO), serving jointly as the home of the secondary-school seminary, transferred from Monza, and of the theological seminary, transferred from the ancient establishment built in Milan by s. Carlo himself.

The students of the two united seminaries number approximately five hundred. The secondary-school section is equipped with a chemical-physical experimental laboratory, a mineralogical and zoological museum, and oversees the regular operation of two highly modern observatories, meteorological and seismographic. The principal Library, supplemented by special libraries for the students of both sections, contains approximately 80,000 volumes, including a considerable number of incunabula, and receives, by exchange or subscription, more than two hundred Italian and foreign journals. The theological section houses the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Milan. Established by Gregory XIII in 1580, at the request of s. Carlo, and suppressed by Maria Teresa of Austria in 1774 for political and hegemonic reasons, it was restored by Leo XIII in 1892, at the request of the archbishop of Milan, L. Nazzari di Calabiana, and opened to theologians from all the seminaries of Lombardy. Among its students and teachers have been illustrious cardinals (Maffi, Minoretti, Ruffini) and prelates (Orsenigo, Cazzani, Tredici, Bernareggi, etc.). In response to the requirements of the constitution Deus scientiarum, consideration was initially given to coordinating or incorporating the Theological Faculty with the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, which might have

(photograph by J. Damaye)
VENDÔME – Façade of the abbey church of the Most Holy Trinity, illuminated at night (15th century).

It would have given it broader development and scope of action; but this project, having so far failed for various reasons, remains only a possibility for the future. Confined within the Seminary, the Faculty of Theology was therefore obliged, in its new statutes, approved by Pius XI in 1938, to reconcile two aims which, if not opposed, were certainly very different: the aim of a faculty, namely, to train scholars, and that of a diocesan seminary, however large, namely, to provide professional training for pastors devoted to the care of souls. For this twofold purpose, the Curriculum studiorum in the new statutes was divided into two periods: the first, lasting four years, although having most of its chairs distinct from those of the seminary courses, was predominantly institutional in character and concluded with the « licenza »; the second, lasting two years, was monographic in character and was compulsory for anyone intending to obtain the « laurea ». Thus the Faculty of Theology of V. acquired the distinctive feature of having six courses. From 1902, the College of Professors of the Faculty had undertaken the preparation and direction of the journal La scuola cattolica (v.).