The law of studies
Formation
This school takes its measure from the Church’s law for theological instruction. Students are to understand the entire Catholic doctrine grounded in divine revelation, draw nourishment for their spiritual life, and be able to announce and safeguard it. Sacred scripture is to be learned with special diligence. Dogmatic theology is taught especially with St. Thomas as a teacher.
§1Theological formation, given in the light of faith and under the guidance of the magisterium, is to be imparted in such a way that the students learn the whole of Catholic teaching, based on divine Revelation, that they make it a nourishment of their own spiritual lives, and that in the exercise of the ministry they may be able properly to proclaim and defend it.
§2Students are to be instructed with special care in sacred Scripture, so that they may acquire an insight into the whole of sacred Scripture.
§3Lectures are to be given in dogmatic theology, based always on the written word of God and on sacred Tradition; through them the students are to learn to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of salvation, with St. Thomas in particular as their teacher. Lectures are also to be given in moral and pastoral theology, canon law, liturgy, ecclesiastical history, and other auxiliary and special disciplines, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter on Priestly Formation.
Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 252.
The canon does not set Thomas over Revelation. It sets him as the teacher through whom students enter more deeply into the mysteries, always from the written word of God and from sacred Tradition. That is the work of this catechesis.