Kenrick-Glennon Seminary - Official Web Site.
Posted on 05/20/2008 1:14:24 PM PDT by NYer
CNA).- Archbishop of St. Louis Raymond L. Burke will ordain nine men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of St. Louis on Saturday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.
It is the largest ordination class for the archdiocese since 1987.
Some credit Archbishop Burke for the boom in seminarians. A frequent visitor to the seminary, the archbishop sometimes drops by unannounced for lunches with the students.
"He's the center and the core of this whole thing," archdiocesan vocations director Rev. Michael Butler said to the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Archbishop Burke explained that he decided vocations would be one of his priorities.
"A bishop's principal responsibility is to provide priests for the people in his pastoral care," the archbishop said in an interview last week from Rome. "Ordinations have to be absolutely right at the top of my priorities."
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that Archbishop Burke has a habit of inviting each student at the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary for a walk near his residence. “The walks,” as the seminarians call them, are opportunities for the young men to have heart-to-heart talks with their archbishop.
Seminary officials organize the walks using time sheets. When new sheets are posted, seminarians rush to sign up.
“It's like when you throw pellets at the Japanese fish at the Botanical Gardens," said ordinand Edward Nemeth, 26. "Guys falling over each other to get their names on the list.”
There are more than 100 men enrolled at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, more than half of whom are studying to be priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Monsignor Ted Wojcicki, president of the seminary, said he hopes to enroll 120 students next year.
All of the ordinands have earned master of divinity degrees and master of arts degrees in theology from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.
Kenrick-Glennon Seminary - Official Web Site.
Kenrick is really nice. Went there to observe an Ordination years ago. The Basilica is absolutely beautiful too.
What a beautiful building. I love that sort of Art Deco/Mission style architecture.
It’s not complicated. Orthodoxy increases vocations. Unsurprising, really.
In so many dioceses, vocations suffer because of an apparent aversion to doctrinal fidelity, clearly stated.
God bless Archbishop Burke. May God grant us a hundred more bishops like him (and a hundred fewer Mahonys).
Archbishop Myers will also be ordaining nine men to the priesthood on Saturday.
Forty years ago, many priests turned against the priesthood many other stopped recruiting seminarians. It has been left to the laity to take up the slack. But when officers desert en masse, is it any wonder that the troops depart in large numbers also.
I don’t know how many are ready to be ordained but we have 11 seminarians in our diocese and it is small in population.
Archbishop Burke will be coming out here to Oakland, CA, this August to speak at a conference about the Papal Encyclical “Humanae vitae”. Woo Hoo!! Many at my Latin Mass Parish are already making plans to attend.
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