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St. Patrick’s Seminary & University in Menlo Park, CA announces the addition of well-known and experienced Catholic apologist Mr. Patrick Madrid to the faculty in Fall 2018.  Seminarians will learn from Mr. Madrid’s many years of experience as an apologist, author, and professor of theology and apologetics.  Mr. Madrid shares: “I’m excited and looking forward to teaching Saint Patrick’s seminarians the art of apologetics because priests have to deal with countless faith-related questions, doubts, and challenges that negatively impact lay people.”

As appropriate for an institution in the heart of the Silicon Valley, STPSU will take advantage of the resources of technology for this partnership: while seminarians will meet together in the classroom at the Seminary, Mr. Madrid will join the class via video conferencing technology.  This synchronous learning will allow a high level of interaction among the seminarians and with Mr. Madrid.

In this course, Mr. Madrid will guide seminarians through some of the prevalent challenges to our Catholic faith and coach them to respond appropriately.  Such formation is essential to our future priests who are charged with evangelizing the world.  As Mr. Madrid notes: “Knowing how to engage effectively in apologetics—especially nowadays, as secularism, atheism, and scientism are becoming increasingly popular worldviews—is a necessary component in modern priestly formation.”

Academic Dean Dr. Karen C. Chan explains that this course in Apologetics comes toward the end of the seminarian’s theological formation, after he has received a solid theological foundation: “In order to explain, defend, and pass on the faith to others, our future priests need more than short sound bites.  They need not only to understand the contemporary critiques and their roots but also to respond by embodying the wisdom and beauty of the Church.  This can be done most truly when seminarians drink deeply from the Catholic tradition.”

About Patrick Madrid

PATRICK MADRID is an American author and radio personality.  He hosts the popular daily “Patrick Madrid Show,” aired nationally on Relevant Radio (M-F, 6-9am Pacific).  Before launching that show in 2014, he hosted the “Right Here, Right Now” Show, broadcast on approximately 350 AM & FM stations across the U.S., as well as on Sirius Satellite Radio, and globally via shortwave.  He is also a frequent guest on the “Catholic Answers Live” radio program.

Patrick has authored or edited 27 books on Catholic themes, including Why Be Catholic? (Random House), Life Lessons: 50 Things I Learned in My First 50 Years (Ignatius Press), Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That? And the acclaimed Surprised by Truth series.

Commenting publicly on the effectiveness of Patrick’s approach to doing apologetics, Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said, “How do you bring a friend or relative back into the Church?  First you pray.  Then, you follow Patrick Madrid’s advice in [his book] Search and Rescue.”

Patrick worked at Catholic Answers for eight years, where he served as vice president.  A veteran of a dozen formal, public debates with Protestant ministers, Mormon leaders, and other non-Catholic spokesmen, Patrick has presented countless seminars on Catholic themes, in English and Spanish, at parishes, universities, and conferences across the U.S. and around the world.

He has published numerous popular articles on Scripture, Church history, patristics, apologetics, and evangelization in various Catholic and Protestant periodicals, and he has contributed scholarly articles on apologetics in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.  He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business at the University of Phoenix, as well as a B.Phil. in philosophy and an M.A. in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum (Columbus, OH).

Patrick has served as an adjunct professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and currently teaches as an adjunct professor of theology in the graduate theology program at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Married for 37 years, Patrick and his wife Nancy have 11 children and 23 grandchildren.  His website is patrickmadrid.com.

“"1 Peter 3:15 says to “Always be prepared to make a defense (Greek: apologían, i.e., to do apologetics) to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” This exhortation is for all baptized Christians, but in a special way, it’s a vital dimension of priestly ministry, given the exigencies of contemporary cultural, social, and religious challenges."”
—Patrick Madrid