The Coming Vocation Explosion

Where the vocations are




by Tim Drake Wednesday, National Catholic Register, September 8, 2010 

Take a look at some of the good news coming from various seminaries across the U.S. and you’ll find that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the Church.

The St. Paul Seminary is welcoming 33 new seminarians this fall, bringing its total number of men studying for the priesthood to 92. It’s the largest group the seminary has had since 1981. The seminarians for the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis are from 14 dioceses and three foreign countries.

“Our strong enrollment reflects the growing number of men who are answering God’s call to the priesthood,” said Monsignor Aloysius Callaghan, rector of the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. “Their witness offers hope for the future of our Church.”

The Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minn. currently has more men in formation than it has had in more than 40 years.

Meanwhile, at Sacred Heart School of Theology – a seminary for men over the age of 30 – in Franklin, Wis., has accepted their largest enrollment class in 20 years. Forty-two new seminarians have signed up for the fall, putting enrollment at 210. The incoming class is nearly double last year’s.

“A lot of guys…[have] decided that all this stuff they’ve been chasing all of their lives is not as important as they thought it was,” said Father Thomas Knoebel, vice rector for the seminary.

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