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This certificate is for ministry leaders working with young people who are having a hard time navigating the questions and the current climate of human identity and sexuality. The topics of sexual orientation, identity, and love boil down to three fundamental questions written on every human heart: who am I, what was I made for, and where am I going?
This certificate in Theology of the Body using Christ’s words through the lens of Pope Saint John Paul II, will leave you with...- a philosophical, theological and anthropological understanding of the human person
- a better understanding of the philosophy of your audience in order to be a more effective minister
- answers to the questions: who am I, what was I made for, and where am I going?
- the ability to deliver Theology of the Body talks and comfortably teach on Christian love and human sexuality
- the ability to respond in love and truth to challenging moral questions
- an experience of personal growth and conversion
Click here to download a flyer
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Sessions
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September 4, 2024
This session is a general introduction to the philosophical foundation of Theology of the Body, which is Pope St. John Paul II’s response to fundamental errors in philosophy, anthropology and ethics in a world struggling to encounter authentic love and human sexuality. This session will help you understand the audience to which you are ministering and lays the groundwork for why Theology of the Body matters in our lives and ministries and how it can be used.
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October 2, 2024
Participants will reflect on St. Pope John Paul II’s catechesis on Genesis which flows from Christ’s response to the Pharisees when they ask challenging moral questions. Christ takes us back to God’s Plan “in the beginning” for a proper understanding of man and answers the questions, who am I and what was I made for? This session provides clear answers to modern confusion about sexuality and gender through the words of Christ.
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November 6, 2024
Turning to the Sermon on the Mount, St. Pope John Paul II uses Christ’s words about sexual immorality (Mt 5:27-28) as the starting point to discuss the deep impact of sin on the human person and how men and women relate to one another, God, and nature. This session offers a path to the rediscovery of our own dignity through Christ and the nuptial meaning of the body.
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December 4, 2024
Following the discussions offered in the previous two sessions on the human person as God created him to be (“original man”) and as he is after the Fall (“historical man”), Session Four looks to the redemption of the body after this life (“eschatological man”). Beginning with Christ’s response to the Sadducee’s question about marriage and the resurrection, St. Pope John Paul II guides our understanding of earthly marriage and the celibate vocation in the context of their ultimate fulfillment in the resurrection of the body. This session helps answer the questions: where am I going, how will we be different in the resurrection, and what does that have to do with how I live my life today?
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February 5, 2025
Following the work of St. Pope John Paul II in the second half of his “Theology of the Body,” this session will allow participants to enter more deeply into the meaning of marriage in “The Dimension of Covenant and of Grace." Following John Paul II's reflections on St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, we will explore marriage as a "great mystery" (magnum sacramentum), as a sacrament of the New Covenant, and as the primordial sacrament from "the beginning." We will discuss the relationship between the redemptive and spousal dimensions of love, and thus properly understand the sacred order (hierarchy) within the family, as well as how marriage remediates concupiscence and is a path of Christian perfection.
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March 5, 2025
This session continues our study of Part II of the Theology of the Body. "The Dimension of Sign" explores the body as a "sacramental sign" and how the body "communicates" a language, which, like all language, is governed by the categories of truth and falsity. When the body communicates "truth," the person is "in the truth." However, the body can also speak lies. This is related to what St. John Paul II calls the "prophetism of the body." The body is created to express God's Truth and Love in the world, and be a "herald" of God's covenant with humanity. This leads to the last section of the Theology of the Body, which elaborates on St. Paul VI's encyclical Humane Vitae in light of the Theology of the Body.
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April 2, 2025
After concluding Theology of the Body content, this session will serve as an overview of the content learned. Also, an opportunity for participants to ask questions, receive guidance from a panel of pastoral experts and address practical needs.
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Meet the Experts
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Timothy P. Fortin, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophical Theology, earned an M.A. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and an M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, VA. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Italy.
His doctoral dissertation is titled “Fatherhood and Perfection of Masculine Identity: A Thomistic Account in Light of Contemporary Science.” Dr. Fortin’s areas of specialization include the philosophy of psychology and the philosophy of fatherhood. Among his classes are History of Philosophy I, Philosophy of Being, and Philosophy of Nature.
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Born to Krystyna and Andrzej Tomczyk in Szczecinek, Poland, Father Pawel Tomczyk has an older sister, Agnieszka. Father Tomczyk began his studies in 2009 at the Theological Institute of the Missionaries of St. Vincent in Krakow, Poland. After completing two years of undergraduate studies in philosophy, he immigrated to the United States to continue his formation to the priesthood.
He obtained a Master of Arts in Theology with distinction from SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, MI. During his stay in Michigan, Father Tomczyk discovered his interest in Christian ethics, which led him to the writing of his master’s thesis on the morality of lying. In Fall 2013, he was transferred to the Theological College Seminary in Washington, DC, where he completed his formation to the priesthood and earned his doctorate in moral theology two years later.Father Tomczyk was ordained a priest on May 23, 2015, for the Diocese of Paterson. He currently serves on both the academic faculty and the formation faculty of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology and assists at Holy Spirit Parish in Pequannock on weekends. In June 2022, he was appointed ICSST's Director of Pastoral Formation, effective July 1, 2022.
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Jill Cherrey has been involved in marriage ministry for over 30 years with a special emphasis on the Theology of the Body for the later half of that time. She is currently the Coordinator of Marriage Ministry and Natural Family Planning for the Diocese of Paterson at St. Paul Inside the Walls and previously did similar work for the Archdiocese of Newark for ten years. She earned a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Psychology from Minot State University, Minot, ND., and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from the University of Oklahoma, Norma, OK. Jill has studied Theology of the Body at the Theology of the Body Institute and is a certified Natural Family Planning instructor. She and her husband, Jim, gratefully have three beloved children.
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After receiving certification as an instructor of Pope St John Paul II's Theology of the Body in 2014 from the Theology of the Body Institute, Cindy began sharing this life-changing message in parishes, marriage prep programs, and on retreats. She continued her studies and received a Masters of Arts in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH.
Today, she weaves the message into her core Theology and Christian Spirituality classes at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the School of Spiritual Direction where she is an adjunct professor. Cindy enjoys directing others in their prayer life and in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. Cindy has been married 37 years to her wonderful husband, Tom. They are the parents of 5 beautiful adult children and have 3 grandchildren.
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David Hajduk, Ph.D., has more than thirty years of experience in religious education and pastoral ministry, including youth, family life, and pro-life ministries. He did his doctoral work in Theology at Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England, and wrote his dissertation on the thought of St. John Paul II. Since 1998, he has been a member of the Theology Department at Delbarton School in Morristown, NJ, and has served as an Adjunct Professor of Moral Theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology at Seton Hall University since 2008, teaching courses on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and sexual ethics, and on the Theology and Spirituality of Marriage & Family. In 2019, Hajduk became the Director of Theology for Array of Hope, a ministry of the New Evangelization that shares the beauty and truth of the Catholic faith through high quality media and events. He is responsible for reviewing and creating program content, writing blogs, and giving talks. Hajduk is the co-producer of Array of Hope’s A Reason for Hope podcast, featuring interviews with renowned Catholic personalities, and segments unpacking the truths of the Catholic Faith.Hajduk is an acclaimed and versatile speaker, specializing in topics related to the sanctity of life and marriage, theological anthropology, and the philosophical and theological foundations of the contemporary “crisis of truth.” Hajduk is the author of God’s Plan for You: Life, Love, Marriage & Sex (Pauline Books & Media, 2006, 2018), a book for teens on St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body which received the Catholic Press Association of the United States & Canada Book Award in 2007, and Healing the Culture and the Family According to John Paul II (Arouca Press, 2022), an academic work demonstrating how John Paul II’s theological anthropology was constructed to remedy a collection of errors of Cartesian Rationalism John Paul II referred to as a “New Manichaeism.”David resides in Belvidere, NJ. He and his wife, Shannon, have 11 children and homeschool.
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Eniola Honsberger earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from Rutgers University in 2008 and immediately began her career in education. Her teaching role shifted from teenagers to young adults when she began formation for engaged couples on the beauty of Theology of the Body and the Sacrament of Marriage for the Office of Family Life in the Archdiocese of Newark.Eni earned a Masters of Arts, in Christian Ethics from Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ. Eni continues to serve as the Director of the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of Paterson for the last 11 years where she oversees Marriage Preparation, Natural Family Planning, Marriage Enrichment, Bereavement and Ministry to the Separated and Divorced. Eni has been married to her husband, Brian for 15 years and they are parents to 3 beautiful boys.
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