John Goyette, '90
Professor of Philosophy

Alumni Profile -- (Spring 1999 Newsletter)

A good priest gets people to think. But John Goyette, Ph.D. (Class of ‘90), Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, gets priests to think. Indeed, into his hands is entrusted the faith of our fathers.

"John’s thinking is making a very important contribution to this generation and the next generation of priests that will touch people,"said Bishop Allen Vigneron, who doubles as rector of the seminary and as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Detroit. "The single biggest contribution he has made here is in helping us see the worth of reading primary texts. He had shaped his own teaching that way, and he ended up taking the lead in revising our whole philosophy curriculum."

John Goyette has helped shape the curriculum of a seminary which is the training ground for future priests of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The seminary is home to 90 seminarians, about half from Detroit. As more and more bishops see Sacred Heart’s commitment to excellence in education and orthodoxy, seminarians are coming from four other Michigan dioceses as well as from Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, and South Dakota. Not surprisingly, the seminary is growing, and vocations are slowly making a comeback.

A priest, to be effective in modern times, must be something of a scholar, says Goyette. "There are so many problems with modernity, that the only way to see them and to explain them is through the study of philosophy," he says. "Not enough priests are sufficiently grounded in philosophy, and the Church itself now realizes this. The intellectual crisis that occurred following Vatican II is one lingering problem that Pope John Paul II is determined to fix. We can see this from his recent encyclical Fides et Ratio."

Bishop Vigneron concurs that a sound philosophy program is indispensable in helping to shape future priests. "Philosophy provides the kind of natural wisdom that has enabled and will continue to enable us to understand the mysteries of our faith. It makes us think through points of contact and the truths of creation," he said.

For his own small part in restoring the intellectual tradition of the Church, Goyette spearheaded a "Great Books curriculum" at the seminary. Since arriving there four years ago, Goyette has helped overhaul the entire philosophy component of the curriculum by rewriting course syllabi to include primary source materials instead of the secondary sources or summaries that previously were used.

He met with such enthusiastic response from his students that he started incorporating more and more original texts into the curriculum. Other faculty members joined him in this endeavor, which Bishop Vigneron and the Dean enthusiastically embraced. Of the 20 full-time faculty members, Goyette is among the one-third who are lay.

Bishop Vigneron has since promoted Sacred Heart Seminary throughout the Midwest, highlighting its strong philosophy program. The feedback so far has been positive. Many bishops now send their seminarians to Sacred Heart principally because of this new emphasis on philosophy. "We’re getting three or four new seminarians a year now," says Goyette.

Goyette’s history of philosophy courses now include works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. The crowning course of the curriculum integrates philosophy, theology, literature, and psychology, in which students read such works as Plato’s Symposium, Aristotle’s Ethics, Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life, and papal encyclicals such as Casti Cannubii and Humanae Vitae. Every seminarian who passes through toward ordination must now pass through this coursework. A bachelor of arts degree in philosophy is now a prerequisite to becoming a priest at Sacred Heart.

Goyette came to Sacred Heart while finishing his doctorate in philosophy from The Catholic University of America. While there, he was the recipient of the Penfield Fellowship award and two other scholarship awards for his work in philosophy. He wrote his dissertation on "The Nature of the Theoretical Life According to Aristotle: Wisdom, Politics and Philosophy." He also studied classical Greek, French, and German.

Goyette says he never would have gone into philosophy had he not come to Thomas Aquinas College. "It really put me on the right track. The whole seminar method and the emphasis on primary texts really gives you a broad understanding of the whole intellectual tradition and the fundamental problems and questions that have always been discussed by the great minds."

Goyette met his wife, Rebecca (nee Mathie), at the College. Once classmates together, they now raise four small children together. Given what he is doing, both at home and at the seminary, he is destined to be a father of fathers.