Holy Ghost Preparatory School

Founded in 1897 as Holy Ghost Apostolic College, a six-year seminary for the education of the Holy Ghost Fathers and Brothers, our school (HGP or "Ghost" to its students and neighbors) recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its designation as Holy Ghost Preparatory School. Located adjacent to the busy I-95 corridor in metropolitan Philadelphia, Holy Ghost Prep attracts students from more than 100 elementary feeder schools from throughout metropolitan Philadelphia counties and New Jersey.

HGP today is a vibrant community of nearly 500 young men preparing for college and adult life through a challenging program which stresses the cultivation of students' unique gifts and talents, academic excellence, and generous service to the poor. We continue to be mindful of our founding history as a seminary as we seek to form young men morally, intellectually, and spiritually in the Spiritan tradition.

Holy Ghost Preparatory School, founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, the Spiritans, is a private Catholic school dedicated to the quality education of college-bound young men. With Christ at the center, Holy Ghost Preparatory School aspires to form young men morally, intellectually, and spiritually in the Spiritan tradition. This tradition fosters the development of community in "one heart and one mind," the cultivation of each student's unique gifts, academic excellence, and generous service to the poor.

Holy Ghost Preparatory School is a Roman Catholic secondary educational institution founded by the members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, the Spiritans. Holy Ghost Preparatory School serves God by serving each student through a commitment to excellence in liberal arts and sciences education and through a deep concern for moral, spiritual, and ethical values, grounded in the traditions of Roman Catholicism and the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

It is a description of the early Christian community of believers, united in faith, prayer and good works. This is the cornerstone of the institution. It is the mission of the school to form the heart, mind, and soul in the teaching and values of the Roman Catholic Church and the Spiritan Tradition. This Tradition, arising from the charism of the founding Congregation of the Holy Spirit, calls for a particular concern for the poor and oppressed. Thus, One Heart and One Mind describes the total educational experience at Holy Ghost Prep: faith in Christ, love for the Church and its traditions, and service to the poor in the spirit of the Gospel.

We at Holy Ghost Preparatory School reject the notion that the basic purpose of education is job training. We firmly believe in the value of the study of arts and sciences in the development of a thinking person whose beliefs and values are not subject to the whims of current opinion, but rather are based on a knowledge and critical evaluation of the past and its lessons for the present. We strive to develop a student who is capable of approaching an issue with an appreciation of its complexity and a rejection of the superficial, the simplistic or the merely expedient.

The liberally-educated mind should be able to bring to a discussion knowledge and insight from several disciplines and synthesize these in a genuine quest for truth. Holy Ghost Preparatory School pursues the truth, and sees God in all that it undertakes. It is our age-old belief that a solid, Catholic education in the modern era must seek to inculcate in each student a firm appreciation of and an unwavering fidelity to the beliefs and principles taught by Christ through the Catholic Church while also imbuing within each student a deep respect for the beliefs of others. Such an education must strive to fill a student with a sense of humanity and justice, a concern for the downtrodden and oppressed, and a Christ-like love for all people.