A successful seminary.

A piece on our local seminary, St. John Vianney, and the 100 or so young men studying there.  The entering class this year:  49 men.   That’s a lot.

There’s no room at SJV for what some call "the beige church" — the "whatever turns you on" spirituality that became popular in the 1970s and ’80s. In Baer’s view, the recent clergy abuse scandals had their roots, in part, in the freewheeling seminaries of those years.

"Today’s young men won’t give their entire lives for a cynical, watered-down life of church work," he says. "Either the priesthood is essential for the salvation of the world, or they’re going to go somewhere else to make a lot more money and have a lot more fun."

Exactly.  Who is going to give their whole lives for something if they don’t really believe in it? 

…SJV’s watchword is accountability. "The era of the Lone Ranger priest with a secret life has got to end," says Baer. Seminarians meet twice a week in small groups to encourage and support each other. "They take each other to task for things as small as ‘your room is a mess.’ We want them to get used to correcting their brothers."

I like that. 

"We’re normal people, average Joes," responds Kregg Hochhalter, a transfer student from the Archdiocese of Bismarck, N.D. St. Thomas football fans can attest to this. At the Tommies’ games, seminarians clad in purple T-shirts lead the crowd in rowdy cheers. Football cocaptain Ben Kessler, an SJV senior named First Team Academic All-American by ESPN the Magazine, was recently featured on Fox Sports Net. Another SJV athlete, Nick Donohue, turned down a chance to become a tennis pro to attend the seminary.

Baer still chuckles about the raucous "half prayer meeting, half pep rally" the seminarians staged after Pope Benedict’s election in April 2005. Campus security guards chased them off a roof, so they led an exuberant procession through the campus, as other students enthusiastically cheered them on.

I know one SJV seminarian — we used to attend the same parish and belonged to a young adults’ group there.  When my family switched to a parish with a more traditional reverence for the Eucharist, we ran into Chris there and were pleasantly surprised to find he’d entered the seminary.  He’ll be great for the Church, and he doesn’t fit the stereotypes.  He’s a techie, he’s got a biting sarcasm, he’s a heck of a lot of fun to have a conversation with.  All of these things are perfect for the priesthood, if you ask me.

H/t Amy Welborn.