Life of a college seminarian

Blog of a Roman Catholic Seminarian

It has been a while since I posted last time.  I was quite busy with my term paper for Though St. Thomas Aquinas.  I stayed busy over Thanksgiving break writing it and was up late on Monday morning trying to finish it.  I did finish it and got it done at about noon on Monday.  My next project is a small modern philosophy paper and then my term papers for modern and metaphysics.  Almost less than one month and I will be in Rome.  It's hard to believe but it'll be a great time for prayer and relaxing.  The Vatican released the document conerning same sex attraction and candidates for seminary.  I have posted it below and feel free to comment.

INTRODUCTION

“In continuity with the teaching of Vatican Council II and, in particular, with the Decree ‘Optatam Totius’ on priestly formation, the Congregation for Catholic Education has published various documents with the aim or promoting a suitable, integral formation of future priests, by offering guidelines and precise norms regarding its diverse aspects. In the meantime, the 1990 Synod of Bishops also reflected on the formation of priests in the circumstances of the present day. … Following this Synod, John Paul II published the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation ‘Pastores Dabo Vobis’.”

“The present Instruction does not intend to dwell on all questions in the area of affectivity and sexuality that require an attentive discernment during the entire period of formation. Rather, it contains norms concerning a specific question, made more urgent by the current situation, and that is: whether to admit to the seminary and to holy orders candidates who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies."

AFFECTIVE MATURITY AND SPIRITUAL FATHERHOOD

“According to the constant Tradition of the Church, only a baptized person of the male sex validly receives sacred ordination. By means of the Sacrament of Orders, … the priest, in fact, sacramentally represents Christ, the head, shepherd and spouse of the Church. Because of this configuration to Christ, the entire life of the sacred minister must be animated by the gift of his whole person to the Church and by an authentic pastoral charity.

“The candidate to the ordained ministry, therefore, must reach affective maturity. Such maturity will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood towards the Church community that will be entrusted to him.”

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE ORDAINED MINISTRY

“The Catechism of the Catholic Church distinguishes between homosexual acts and homosexual tendencies. Regarding acts, it teaches that Sacred Scripture presents them as grave sins. The Tradition has constantly considered them as intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law. Consequently, under no circumstances can they be approved.

“Deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which are found in a number of men and women, are also objectively disordered and, for those same people, often constitute a trial. Such persons must be accepted with respect and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

“In the light of such teaching, this dicastery, in accord with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called ‘gay culture’.”

“One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.

“Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem - for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate.”

DISCERNMENT OF THE CHURCH CONCERNING THE SUITABILITY OF CANDIDATES

“The desire alone to become a priest is not sufficient, and there does not exist a right to receive sacred ordination. It belongs to the Church - in her responsibility to define the necessary requirements for receiving the Sacraments instituted by Christ - to discern the suitability of him who desires to enter the seminary, to accompany him during his years of formation, and to call him to holy orders if he is judged to possess the necessary qualities.

“The formation of the future priest must distinctly articulate, in an essentially complementary manner, the four dimensions of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. In this context, it is necessary to highlight the particular importance of human formation, as the necessary foundation of all formation.”

“Bearing in mind the opinion of those to whom he has entrusted the responsibility of formation, the bishop or major superior, before admitting the candidate to ordination, must arrive at a morally certain judgement on his qualities. In the case of a serious doubt in this regard, he must not admit him to ordination.

“The discernment of a vocation and the maturity of the candidate is also a serious duty of the rector and of the other persons entrusted with the work of formation in the seminary. Before every ordination, the rector must express his own judgment on whether the qualities required by the Church are present in the candidate.”

The spiritual director, though bound to secrecy, “represents the Church in the internal forum. In his discussions with the candidate, the spiritual director must especially point out the demands of the Church concerning priestly chastity and the affective maturity that is characteristic of the priest, as well as help him to discern whether he has the necessary qualities. The spiritual director has the obligation to evaluate all the qualities of the candidate’s personality and to make sure that he does not present disturbances of a sexual nature, which are incompatible with the priesthood. If a candidate practices homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director, as well as his confessor, have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination.

“It goes without saying that the candidate himself has the primary responsibility for his own formation. … It would be gravely dishonest for a candidate to hide his own homosexuality in order to proceed, despite everything, towards ordination. Such a deceitful attitude does not correspond to the spirit of truth, loyalty and openness that must characterize the personality of him who believes he is called to serve Christ and His Church in the ministerial priesthood.”

CONCLUSION

“This Congregation reaffirms the need for bishops, major superiors, and all relevant authorities to carry out an attentive discernment concerning the suitability of candidates for holy orders, from the time of admission to the seminary until ordination. This discernment must be done in light of a conception of the ministerial priesthood that is in accordance with the teaching of the Church.

“Let bishops, episcopal conferences and major superiors look to see that the constant norms of this Instruction be faithfully observed for the good of the candidates themselves, and to guarantee that the Church always has suitable priests who are true shepherds according to the heart of Christ."

posted by: ajurban at 08:49 | link | comments (7) |

Well, our visit ended yesterday.  Overall I think it was a very good visit, not a ton of visitors, but that allowed for us to engage them a little bit more.  Please continue to pray for them and their vocational calling.  I will either be doing Totus Tuus this summer or working at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, NE.  I would like to be in Omaha but I am willing to do Totus Tuus again.  The Knights of Columbus are working together with the University of St. Thomas football team today to put on a pancake feed.  The profits will go to a local foodshelf run by the Franciscan brothers of Peace.  These friars are amazing, they rallied to help save Terri Schiavo's life.  They do prison ministry and they rock.  After my shift at the pancake feed I will be going to the library to work on my 15 page research paper that is due in less than 8 days.  I am working on Aquinas' treatise on the angels and what other authors have said in response to these questions in the Summa Theologiae.  It is also my parish feast day today so I ought to celebrate somehow.  We shall see.  One last note, I have added a link to Jeff Ostrowski's website.  He is a young man from Kansas who has done a lot to promote the Tridentine Mass.  His website is simply amazing.

posted by: ajurban at 09:38 | link | comments (1) |

This week is packed full of stuff.  I am in charge of fixing the walls on our floor.  Some holes have been made and they need to be fixed before our visitors come through this weekend.  I've got a metaphysics test this Friday, I have already started studying and I probably will do at least an hour or two each day.  I have been feeling much better.  I am not too tired today, yesterday was a struggle.  My alma mater (high school) won their second football championship.  Go Knights!!!  I also have three papers due within the next 3 weeks.  One very minor one and the other two are my term papers, fun, fun, fun.  Praise God.  St. Albert, pray for us.

posted by: ajurban at 09:21 | link | comments |

The Letter to the editor in the Argus Leader (November 9):

Every time I see or hear the word "religion," people automatically think of Christianity. There is a difference, a big difference.

Religion says "do this, or that, you can't do this or that." Religion also keeps us out of heaven. God hates religion. Religion is praying to statues, having tradition, pomp and circumstance, and so forth. Christianity is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The pharisees had religion, and Jesus rebuked them. Jesus said "follow me." That's Christianity.

To put it even more simply, religion is man trying to reach God, but Christianity is God reaching man.

Sylvester F. Birchem Sioux Falls

The response published today (November 14)

In responding to Sylvester Birchem's Nov. 9 letter, I would have to say that God does not hate religion.

Within the Jewish religion there are rules to aid those who follow the faith. The same thing is done through laws in our society. The traditions of any religion are necessary. If a religion goes without traditions then there is no continuity.

If tradition is made void, then scripture is denied.

Also, it seems as if Birchem is referring to Catholic liturgy by saying that pomp and circumstance and praying to statues is not necessary. Within the Catholic faith, the statues we have are meant to remind us of Christ, because that is what drove the saints to do God's work in a magnanimous way. We also ask them to pray for us, we do not pray to them. The pomp and circumstance is necessary for one main reason - in any form of worship the best should be done whether it be music, preaching and so on.

I do agree that there is a distinction between religion and Christianity, but Christianity envelopes all denominations and a religion is more specific, because there are distinct beliefs for each religion.

Anthony J. Urban Sioux Falls

The Argus Leader left out a little bit from my letter, the part that was left out said that if God hates religion, then why did his Son practice one on earth?  They also left out my criticism on the line from Mr. Birchem's letter: "Christianity is having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ"  The traditional me and Jesus approach does not work too well.  We are members of Christ's Body, the Church.

Blessed be God!!!

 

posted by: ajurban at 09:03 | link | comments (3) |

Well, now that Sioux City has a bishop, we might be pretty darn close to getting one.  I hope it works out.  Praise God

posted by: ajurban at 07:59 | link | comments |

Here is a link for our upcoming Eucharistic procession.  We will be collaborating with St. Paul Seminary.  Finally we are getting together to evangelize this campus.  Praise God.  I have been working quite a bit on this procession.  I am glad that we chose the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo since he is the patron of seminarians.  If anyone who reads this blog is in the Twin Cities area you are more than welcome to visit the seminary for this event.  St. Martin de Porres, pray for us.

posted by: ajurban at 08:24 | link | comments |

Here is my vocation story that I mentioned in a couple of posts below.  I gave this reflection on October 25th during our Mass that was celebrated by Monsignor Callaghan, rector of St. Paul Seminary.  I attribute my vocation to Bishop Robert Carlson, Fr. James Mason, and the many priests that have influenced me and the many prayers that are offered daily for men and women discerning a vocation to the priesthood and religious life.

Very Reverend Monsignor, Reverend Fathers, Brother Seminarians,

This is my vocation story:

I grew up in Sioux Falls with my parents and my two siblings.  Growing up my family went to Mass on Sunday and prayed before meals and that was the extent of my faith life for quite some time.  I lived a rather carefree childhood.  But my vocation story really begins during my sophomore year in high school.  It was during that year I attended a typical confirmation retreat.  At that time in my life I had a bad relationship with my parents, and I was oblivious to the fact that God had a plan for my life.  I was not involved in too many things, church or otherwise, up until then.  At the time I was very uninterested in my faith, because I had not yet seen the riches of having a life focused on Christ and his Church.  I went to this retreat just to get it over with for confirmation.  Another reason I went to this specific retreat program was because my brother had gone through the same retreat and had enjoyed it.  Throughout the retreat I encountered normal people who had a strong faith life.  I left that retreat feeling somewhat changed; but I was still holding on to many things, things that would change within a short period of time.

Throughout the next six months I began to take some small steps towards God, I began participating in my parish youth group.  One of the nights that we met there was a Franciscan Friar from Loretto, Pennsylvania that spoke about the vocation of religious life.  At that time I had not thought about my vocation, I thought that I was supposed to get a job, get married, and be happy with that.  I had not thought of the priesthood or religious life at all.  Not too long after that I was invited to a dinner at the Bishop’s residence.  This dinner was very casual and it consisted of Bishop Carlson and a few priests sharing their own vocation story.  The night concluded with Bishop Carlson giving each of the young men a medallion inscribed with a simple but powerful prayer: Lord give me the gift of a generous heart.  However, at the time, I was not able to act with a generous heart.  I was still caught up in my own desires.

During the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, I attended a Steubenville youth conference.  I had grown in my faith in small steps, I was interested in the rosary and other simple devotions, but I was still holding back from God.  At the conference there were many talks to help young Catholics grow in their faith.  Within some of those talks I heard the witnesses of both adults and youth about encountering God through the Sacraments and most especially confession and the Holy Eucharist.  It was during that conference I let go of the many things that I was carrying with me.  For the first time I had truly surrendered to God and confessed my sins.  The result was a zeal for my faith but I had no clue as to how I should focus this new zeal.  I then thought back to when I received the medallion from Bishop Carlson.  I prayed that God would give me a generous heart so that I could serve Christ and his Church in whatever way possible.  My involvement in the Church grew and through my service I began to think about a vocation to the priesthood.  However, this began to fade when I started dating someone in my youth group.  As time went on my girlfriend and I mutually realized that this relationship was not going to work.  After breaking up I did not go back to thinking about the priesthood. 

During my senior year of high school I made the decision to go to a state college and be a teacher.  However, God had different plans for my next two years.  In the last couple of months of the school year I e-mailed Fr. Jim Mason, the vocation director, to talk about an interest in the seminary.  The meeting went pretty well and by the end he had a folder with applications and handed it to me.  I took the folder home and looked at it for a while and then decided that I should pray about this before making any decisions.  My prayer led me to decide that I should at least give it a try, that way I would have nothing to regret.  I applied and got accepted.  I was on my way to seminary.

Over the past two years of being in the seminary, I have learned many things about my self that I did not know were there.  I never thought that as a college student I would be helping inner-city children with their homework or sitting next to a woman dying in hospice.  I never thought that I would see five o’clock every morning to get and pray before our Lord.  I can say that I have grown in many ways.  I am still unsure of what God is calling me to, but I pray that I might do God’s will with a generous heart.  I would like to pass this bit of advice on to you from a priest in my diocese.  He told me that the way I live my life as a seminarian today will be the way I live my priesthood out.  The way I live, work, and pray now, will be the actuality of my ministry in the Catholic priesthood.

 

posted by: ajurban at 21:23 | link | comments |

Well, not too much is going on right now, I haven't been feeling the greatest lately.  I've been having some pain in my 'good' shoulder and have been very tired.  Maybe I got too much sleep this past weekend.  I now have two large papers that I need to get going on.  One of them is due in about 3 weeks and it's a 15 page research paper for Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.  The other is a 7-10 pager on the hylemorphist account of the human person.  We have a 40 hours devotion this coming weekend.  We will be having it with the St. Paul Seminary and I pray that many fruits will come from it.  All Saints, pray for us.

posted by: ajurban at 21:16 | link | comments |