The Report from the Visitation, which was released in the fall of 2008, confirmed that DSPT’s academic program is excellent, with the students receiving a substantially complete grounding in dogmatic and moral theology. The report also finds our faculty both academically prepared and doctrinally sound.
Most Reverend Allen Vigneron, Bishop of Oakland, who also received a copy of the report, called Father Emmerich Vogt, O.P., Chancellor of the School, to congratulate and commend the School. The report from Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education read, in part:
The Visitation confirmed that the School's academic program is excellent… The majority of the syllabi reflect a feeling of sober, serious scholarship throughout, even in cases where a contemporary approach is taken to a traditional topic….A serene sense of confidence in the value and usefulness of the Magisterium's teaching and its central importance for those who are learning theology prevails. St. Thomas is given pride of place in many of the philosophy and theology courses, though at the same time the best of contemporary sources is also in evidence.
The Ethics and Moral Theology courses are noteworthy for their depth, scope and inclusion of magisterial teaching…Undoubtedly one of the strengths of the “Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology” is the ability it fosters in its students to dialogue, on the intellectual level, with contemporary society. The students seem to know the issues involved in the contemporary crisis of subjectivism and moral relativism, and are adequately trained to provide a response based on reason and affirming the existence of moral and philosophical truth.
