

To advance in our mission, we have updated our strategic plan to guide us toward 2030. What follows is the fruit of discernment from August 2023 to December 2024, organized around four strategic directions.
Advance theological education that connects tradition with innovation and roots academic excellence in the most pressing needs of the Church and world. As part of a Jesuit, Catholic university, the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) is committed to academic excellence in theological studies that serve the current and future needs of the global Church. Our efforts in teaching and scholarship aim at bringing Christian theology into conversation with contemporary issues, because an essential aspect of our mission is to educate both lay and ordained leaders for learned ministry in the Church. While maintaining our commitment to an intellectual tradition infused with principles of Ignatian spirituality, we will advance in a spirit of innovation and sensitivity to the needs of our times. Between the CSTM and the Theology Department, Boston College has the largest Catholic theology faculty in the United States, with over 70 professors. It is consistently ranked among the top three Catholic universities in the world for theology, divinity, and religious studies. With partners such as the affilliate members of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium, the Theology and Ministry Library, the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies (IAJS), and other vital centers and institutes, we are in a strong position to move forward in this strategic direction.
Faculty Chairs and Research Fellowships
Development of Faculty as Formatores
Intercultural Teaching and Learning
Interdisciplinary Theological Scholarship
Spiritual Direction and Retreat Training
Curriculum Integration
Data at the Service of Mission
Agile Academic Programs
Online Education
Collaboration among Jesuit Theological Centers
Form leaders to be spiritually deep and learned humans who will build up, educate, and minister to communities in a wide range of places and cultures.
Commitment to integrated student formation is one of the most distinguishing features of the Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM). By renewing and deepening that commitment, we will serve a worldwide Church in a time of dynamic change. Grounded in our Jesuit charism, the riches of Ignatian spirituality, and the Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus, we will foster new opportunities for intellectual, spiritual, and human growth and a deepening of pastoral sensitivity. Through these formative encounters, which acknoweldge that our students come with many different experiences, identities, and hopes, CSTM will prepare graduates to lead communities in increasingly intercultural contexts.
Boston College has explicitly championed formative education as part of its vision, and its own strategic plan names formation as central to its institutional culture. In 2023, members of the CSTM faculty published a book on Formative Theological Education, which traces various aspects of this vision in a theological context. Given such institutional and intellectual resources, we are in a strong position to move forward in this strategic direction.
Culture of Synodal Leadership and Co-responsible Ministry
Leadership and Management for Ministry
Lay Formation Plan
Residential Formation Communities
Ongoing Alumni Formation
Discernment of Needs
Program Development
Liturgical Life
Access to Retreats and Spiritual Direction
Deepen commitments to local church communities that present specific opportunities for solidarity, learning, and promise for growth.
As a school that prepares people for various forms of ministry, the Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) regards experience with local parishes/communities (whether in the Archdiocese of Boston or in other parts of the world) and theological reflection in context as vitally important to our educational mode. In the United States, a significant increase in the proportion of Hispanic Catholics, especially among younger cohorts, presents crucial opportunities for learning how to be Church in the twenty-first century. Given such a context, we will deepen partnerships with communities that offer specific possibilities for muturally beneficial progress toward the fulfillment of our missions.
In the last few years, CSTM has achieved significant growth in a number of key areas. With a $15 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, we have established Nuevo Momento, a capacity-building program for leaders of U.S. Hispanic Catholic organizations. Our programs in Continuing Education have reached out to tens of thousands of people eager for ongoing growth. We are in a strong position, therefore, to move in this strategic direction.
Pathways to Degree Programs
Master of Arts in Ministerial Leadership (M.A.M.L.)
Region I: Identification of Needs
Adaptive Design
Partnerships with Select Local Churches
Multilingual Formation Program
Design distinct tracks for practical and pastoral areas (e.g., Spirituality Studies, Parish Formation, Annulments, Bible Study Facilitation).
Focus a track on developing leadership skills within distinct communities around the world.
Community Engaged Learning
Supervised Ministry Opportunities
Elevate global vision of the church as central both to the Clough School of Theology and Ministry and to our mission, culture, and heritage as a Jesuit, Catholic international theological center.
As the mission statement of the Clough School of Theology and Ministry (CSTM) makes clear, "We are an international theological center that serves the Church's mission in the world." A large part of both the student and faculty population comes from countries outside North America; students return to positions of significant leadership in their communities at home. As a result, the CSTM has a high impact on the global Church. Just as important, however, the international makeup of students, faculty, and alumni greatly benefits the formation of the whole school community. It makes for a rich learning environment, where we have a taste of what it means to be a People of God.
At this moment, the Society of Jesus itself is launching a new Collaborative Theology Initiative (CTI) that intends to form and sustain more robust working relationships among the Jesuit schools of theology throughout the world. It will better prepare students to contribute to theology as a work of the Society of Jesus and minister to the global Church of the twenty-first century. We are in a particularly strong position, therefore, to move forward in this strategic direction.
Global and Synodal Church
Immersive Encounters
Mission and Vision of CTI
CTI Faculty and Curricular Developments
International Student Recruitment
Alumni Network
Collaboration with Jesuit Organizations
International Student Accompaniment
Curricular and Pedagogical Renewal