With many prayers offered for an increase in vocations to the priesthood, it appears the Lord has answered His faithful people’s pleas.
This academic year, 16 men in the Diocese of Columbus began studies for the priesthood at two seminaries. The number is one of the highest in recent years.
Father William Hahn, the diocesan vicar for clergy, believes prayer is a reason for the significant increase.
“People are praying a lot more after Real Presence Real Future,” he said. “I think, the Church in Columbus, we had a sense of the importance and the need for priests, and I think, this last year, there’s been an intensification of prayer for vocations. I think the Lord is responding to that – a cry for new priests.
“The priests themselves are doing a lot more promotion in their parishes, too.”
Father Hahn also credits the current seminarians from the diocese for the positive effect they have had on young men discerning the priesthood, especially the new class.
“There’s such a good, strong group of seminarians,” he said. “It’s a really healthy environment right now, and guys that are really on fire and also very open to the other guys coming in.”
Evangelization and vocations are two of Bishop Earl Fernandes’ priorities, Father Hahn said, and he suspects young men are responding to the bishop’s leadership and focus on the two initiatives.
For the 16 men who entered seminary this fall, their formation will be different from years past.
The Church recently restructured the formation of seminarians into four stages: propaedeutic (preliminary instruction), discipleship, configuration and vocational synthesis.
Church guidelines call for an additional 12-36 months at the beginning of seminary, known as the propaedeutic stage, Father Hahn said, which is a new way of preparing men.
“Every man going into seminary will be starting in this propaedeutic stage, which is more like a time of prayer, living in community, easing them into seminary, not real heavy academics, but because of that, what that does is adds one to three more years onto the process,” he said.
“After three years, they have to have reached the formation goals and benchmarks. So, basically, at each stage now, there’s human and spiritual benchmarks. So, in the propaedeutic stage, that might be, does he have the ability to live with others in way that’s not confrontational?”
The second stage, discipleship, corresponds academically with the college program, so men will study for their philosophy degrees. By this point, a man is actively building up the community .
Father Hahn said the formation stages are “different from before when it was academics drilled in. Now, it’s more about what’s the human and spiritual maturity.”
“So, a man could finish all of his philosophy work, have everything done but not have met those benchmarks, and he won’t move on in the process until he does.”
After meeting the benchmarks for the discipleship stage, which lasts two to five years, seminarians will proceed to the third stage of formation.
“The third one’s configuration, so that’s configured to Jesus Christ, the leader and priest, so that’s leadership, virtues, and that’s usually when they’re studying theology at that point.”
Vocational synthesis, the final stage, is when a seminarian has completed his studies and all of the benchmarks and demonstrates the virtues of a leader.
“Now, they’ll be ordained a deacon and then be put into a parish for six months, called the synthesis stage, and it’s easing them into the priesthood,” Father Hahn said. “So, they’re not yet fully priests, but they’re a father figure in the parish, and then, after six months, they’ll be ordained a priest.”
With the change to the vocational synthesis stage, Father Hahn said, men will no longer complete a pastoral year, which is a year spent assisting at a parish between the second and third year of theology.
The change with the vocational synthesis stage will not happen immediately, Father Hahn said, as it will likely be another year or two.
“These next few years we’re going to be slowly implementing it,” he said.
The change in formation led to additional changes this year.
For the first time in more than a decade, the diocese sent half of the new class of seminarians to study at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in Cincinnati.
“We realized it probably wouldn’t be healthy for guys to be seven to nine years in the same institution,” Father Hahn said.
Bishop Fernandes was involved with Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, which was formerly known as the Athenaeum, during his time in Cincinnati. The bishop previously served as the seminary’s academic dean, and he currently serves on the board of the Josephinum.
Father Hahn said Bishop Fernandes is well-connected with both seminaries and comfortable sending men to either institution.
“The new model is that anybody coming into seminary without an undergraduate degree will work on that at the Josephinum, so they get their philosophy degree. Then, they’ll go down to Mount St. Mary’s for the theology.
“Anybody coming into the seminary already with an undergraduate degree will start at Mount St. Mary’s, do their philosophy work and propaedeutic and then come back to the Josephinum for theology.”
Father Hahn said he believes the change will benefit the Columbus diocese’s future priests.
“It’s healthy to have two different perspectives. It enriches the whole experience of their academic formation.”
While Father Hahn believes the change is beneficial, seminarians also voiced their desire to remain in community while studying at separate institutions.
“One worry among the guys was they really enjoy being all together at the Josephinum, so they’re worried about the community of the seminarians by having half of them in one place, half at the other,” he said. “So, they’re already trying to work through ways they can get together during the year.”
Father Hahn said the diocese will continue sending men to Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts, which is for men who are studying for the priesthood at an older age. Deacon Jason Fox, a seminarian from the diocese, is finishing his final year at the seminary.