Students at the Seminary of Christ the King are permitted to use cell phones and to access the Internet whether by means of cell phone or by computer. The seminary has two computers with access to the Internet available to students from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm daily. While these electronic media can be of real benefit, they can also serve as distractions and as obstacles to serious study, human and spiritual growth and even as occasions for serious sin. The exercise of virtue as suggested in the document The Church and Internet issued by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in 2002 is of great help in wisely using these media: “Prudence is necessary in order to see clearly the implications – the potential for good and evil – in this new medium and to respond creatively to its challenges and opportunities. . . . Fortitude, courage, is necessary. This means standing up for truth in the face of religious and moral relativism, for altruism and generosity in the face of individualistic consumerism, for decency in the face of sensuality and sin. And temperance is needed – a self-disciplined approach to this remarkable technological instrument, the Internet, so as to use it wisely and only for good.”
Seminarians at the Seminary of Christ the King are required to observe the following directives with regard to their use of cell phones and Internet and to sign the covenant at the bottom of this page.
Every seminarian with a cell phone is held accountable to the seminary for its proper use. Seminarians are not to carry cell phones with them when they are on the seminary campus. Cell phones are to be kept turned off except when they are being used and are not to be used in one’s room as this disturbs the silence which should prevail in the residence. Calls are not be made nor solicited after 9 pm in keeping with the seminary rule of nightly silence. The Internet capability of cell phones is not to be used for entertainment purposes and never for gaining access to or transmitting sexually explicit material.
Each seminarian is to sign the log sheet each time he accesses the Internet on the computers provided by the seminary. Seminary officials daily monitor the names of Internet sites visited by seminarians using the seminary computers. Seminarians who use the seminary computers understand that by so doing they make an implicit agreement that allows seminary officials to monitor their use of Internet.
Technology Use Agreement