I had the pleasure of knowing Fr Steve when he was at the Newman center at KU (the St Lawrence Catholic Campus Center). He was a great man, a fantastic priest. Good article. May God lead the school to whatever his plan is.
Great article and interview....really appreciate these sorts of pieces. I'll be praying for Fr. Steve and the Josephinum...and for God to send us more good men who will respond to the call to become holy priests.
An interesting conversation. As one from a very conservative diocese,much to my chagrin, our Bishop has established a very conservative minor seminary and then most of the guys go to the Josephinium. I have personally witnessed two very normal men become two very clerical priests. My personal belief is that formation should take place in the “real world” with emphasis on dealing with their own sexuality. Formation in class,yes, but also in a parish rectory where getting up at two in the morning to administer the sacrament of the sick,etc.seems more in tune with a seminarians future reality. The “ ontological change” might be re- evaluated.
It's a failure in the Catholic imagination to speak of modernity and postmodernity as the options in which the Church must define itself. The Antiochian Orthodox Church where I live has sixty new catechumens a month, mostly Protestant and some Catholic, and embarks on large campus projects every few years, without mentioning other premodern institutions rapidly reshaping Europe. Perhaps the reason why seminaries are shrinking and rectors are speaking of a poor Church has to do with, as one example, Catholics lacking the imagination to bring back ad orientem worship universally. It is simply the direction the Church prayed for close to two thousand years and where our Lord will return from. It's a worthwhile exercise to step outside of the present conversation in Catholicism such as whether the present GIRM supports ad orientem worship or the wisdom of a propaedeutic year, momentarily, and consider that what one considers conservative or liberal is a far cry from the enchanted, porous world of the Middle Ages, the height of Christian civilization, where we, as Catholics, shared the same world as our Orthodox brothers. It was a world where the primary concern of the local parish priest was not how to do ministry with less money, but protecting the relics and blessed sacrament at his church from the clamoring parishioners who believed with all their hearts, if they stole the relic or blessed sacrament, their mother would be healed. I hope in our present circumstances a smaller Church is not a necessary condition to true spirituality.
I had the pleasure of knowing Fr Steve when he was at the Newman center at KU (the St Lawrence Catholic Campus Center). He was a great man, a fantastic priest. Good article. May God lead the school to whatever his plan is.
Great article and interview....really appreciate these sorts of pieces. I'll be praying for Fr. Steve and the Josephinum...and for God to send us more good men who will respond to the call to become holy priests.
An interesting conversation. As one from a very conservative diocese,much to my chagrin, our Bishop has established a very conservative minor seminary and then most of the guys go to the Josephinium. I have personally witnessed two very normal men become two very clerical priests. My personal belief is that formation should take place in the “real world” with emphasis on dealing with their own sexuality. Formation in class,yes, but also in a parish rectory where getting up at two in the morning to administer the sacrament of the sick,etc.seems more in tune with a seminarians future reality. The “ ontological change” might be re- evaluated.
It's a failure in the Catholic imagination to speak of modernity and postmodernity as the options in which the Church must define itself. The Antiochian Orthodox Church where I live has sixty new catechumens a month, mostly Protestant and some Catholic, and embarks on large campus projects every few years, without mentioning other premodern institutions rapidly reshaping Europe. Perhaps the reason why seminaries are shrinking and rectors are speaking of a poor Church has to do with, as one example, Catholics lacking the imagination to bring back ad orientem worship universally. It is simply the direction the Church prayed for close to two thousand years and where our Lord will return from. It's a worthwhile exercise to step outside of the present conversation in Catholicism such as whether the present GIRM supports ad orientem worship or the wisdom of a propaedeutic year, momentarily, and consider that what one considers conservative or liberal is a far cry from the enchanted, porous world of the Middle Ages, the height of Christian civilization, where we, as Catholics, shared the same world as our Orthodox brothers. It was a world where the primary concern of the local parish priest was not how to do ministry with less money, but protecting the relics and blessed sacrament at his church from the clamoring parishioners who believed with all their hearts, if they stole the relic or blessed sacrament, their mother would be healed. I hope in our present circumstances a smaller Church is not a necessary condition to true spirituality.