The then bishop of the Diocese of Tarazona, Demetrio Fernández, inaugurated the academic year alongside, among others, the then metropolitan archbishop of Zaragoza, Manuel Ureña, and the diocese’s vicar, Juan Manuel Melendo. Also attending, representing Tarazona City Council, was PP councilman Luis María Beamonte.
The fifteen students who made the reopening possible were of different ages, nationalities and academic levels. Two of them were studying for their baccalaureate at Tarazona High School, and all would receive the training needed at the seminary to become priests. The program comprised two years of philosophy and a further four years of theology.
The restoration of the Major Seminary made Tarazona the second city in Aragon, alongside Zaragoza, where this training could be pursued. The center was headed by rector Juan Manuel Melendo and depended on Madrid’s San Dámaso University Center.
The initiative was also pioneering in the region. Tarazona was the first diocese in Aragon to reopen its Major Seminary after it had stopped offering these studies in 1969, when its students had to move to Vitoria to complete their training. Until 2006, the facilities had been used as a diocesan residence and as a home for some students from the Sagrada Familia School.
Fifteen students thus returned to the Tarazona building a training role it had lost decades earlier. This is how we reported it in Aragón Digital 20 years ago, when Tarazona restored its Major Seminary and once again began training future priests in the city.
