Catholic Theological Institute Port Moresby

A Brief History of CTI

What is now Catholic Theological Institute (CTI) is the end product of a process going back to 1963.

The Catholic bishops of the region had, over the years, made different arrangements for the training of candidates for the Roman Catholic priesthood.

In 1961 the bishops decided on a more fixed policy. In keeping with Catholic practice, this meant the setting up of their own major seminary.
Consequently on 1 March 1963, Holy Spirit Regional Seminary was opened in Kap (near Madang) under the auspices of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD)

At about the same time (in fact a little earlier), the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) had opened de Boismenu Seminary at Bomana. This was for the training of members of the MSC for the priesthood.
In 1968 Holy Spirit Seminary moved from Kap to Bomana and later in the year the two seminaries joined. In effect, what had been de Boismenu Seminary now became an affiliate college of Holy Spirit Seminary.
Later other congregations moved to Bomana. The result was that there were eventually seven affiliate colleges, with each congregation sending their candidates to Holy Spirit Seminary for priestly training.

At this time therefore Holy Spirit Seminary provided board and lodging for candidates for the diocesan priesthood as well as academic formation for both diocesan and religious candidates.

In 1994 there was a Roman visitation conducted by the then Bishop George Pell (now archbishop of Melbourne).

One of Bishop Pell's recommendations involved an institutional change, which is in keeping with similar changes in seminaries in other parts of the world and which had been already mooted for Bomana. In effect Holy Spirit Seminary now became two institutions. One institution was to cater for the spiritual dimension of priestly formation. The other, which would eventually come to be called CTI, was given the task of the intellectual formation of the candidates.