Fr. Riccardo said that in his time at the institute, the curriculum dealt with the practical issues that prepared him for a life of ministry.
"The Scripture is never abstract. And moral theology, quite frankly, is not abstract," he said. "I would not describe what we got there, by any stretch of the imagination, as abstract. It was one of those things where I couldn't wait to first apply this to my own life, and then to run to tell others."
Fr. Ashley in particular led his students to engage with many different scientific texts.
"We were reading sociology," Latkovic said, "we were reading modern scientists, we were reading different people, Christian, non-Christian, Protestant," but always "through the lens of the Catholic tradition, St. John Paul II's theology, and so on."
That experience helped Latkovic develop a course on technology while teaching at seminary, something he probably would not have done without his prior education from Fr. Ashley, he said.
"He had a deep interest in science, and a variety of fields in science," Brehany said. "He was very much rooted in the world of many practical issues."
It was all in the spirit of "engaging modernity, engaging the culture," Latkovic said, which he has carried with him into his teaching at Sacred Heart seminary today, "trying to see the good fruits, the good things that are out there."
The institute prepared its first students to evangelize the society they lived in, yet many of the social problems in the years after Familiaris Consortio and the foundation of the institute are still present today.
"I think that the John Paul II Institute as founded, it seems to me that the vision and goals are even more relevant today than when they came into being," Brehany said.
The original mission of the institute is still needed, he said, "a confidence that the teachings of the Church are true and well-founded, a constructive approach to appreciating them more, and taking that understanding out, taking that faith out in a very constructive manner, and doing it with excellence."
"The whole legacy of the program is giving us the tools, the way of thinking properly" to face current-day problems, Latkovic said. "I don't see John Paul II's thought being limited to one particular era."
"We've had troubled families, we've had to administer pastoral care to families for centuries. Not much has changed there. But I see John Paul II's thought as part of the perennial philosophy," he said.
Alumni of the institute now teaching bioethics and moral theology, or ministering to married couples or living in religious life, have counted the deep theological curriculum, the professors, and their engagement with contemporary issues as formation for their respective vocations.
"I did feel prepared intellectually to engage with anybody," Brehany said, but "the spirit was to do it constructively" without apologizing for the Church's teachings.
Fr. Riccardo draws upon his time at the institute in his priestly ministry.
"I can still remember a day really studying and praying with John Paul's words," he recalled. "I literally felt like my spine got strong, as I was just praying with truth, and understanding what it is the Scriptures are revealing and what God's plan is," he said. "I just felt like the Lord started to heal me in all sorts of areas of my life"
That has carried over into his ministry to others. "I've just seen example after example after example of marriages that have been healed, simply because of what I got there [at the institute] and what I've been able to pass on."
Mother M. Maximilia Um, F.S.G.M., provincial superior of the Franciscans of the Martyr St. George, earned a Masters in Theological Studies (M.T.S.) at the institute from 2003-05. The institute taught her about the human person and relationships, which she says helps her in her vocation as a mother superior.
It also helped her foster a contemplative outlook on life, she said. She recalled the words of her professor David L. Schindler as he spoke to the new class on why they were at the institute.
They were there to "become more fully and radically human," she said.
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.