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August 21, 2020By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Four of five new seminarians for the Worcester Diocese started classes Monday, as did some of the 23 returning seminarians, according to Father Donato Infante III, director of the Office for Vocations.
Also on Monday, Father Infante raised the possibility of an online discernment group for men considering priesthood.
Worcester, he said, is not the only diocese that has a higher number of seminary applicants this year.
Father Infante said he talked with a priest from the Providence Diocese and read a Catholic News Agency article about their spike in seminarians. The Aug. 6 article says that Providence “is welcoming eight new seminarians this year – the highest number of incoming seminarians in nearly four decades.”
Father Infante said a seminary classmate of his in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis told him they have a higher than usual number of seminarians this year as well.
Last fall Worcester had three candidates, but only one from the United States, and the previous year Worcester had five, two of them from the United States.
“What’s interesting about this class (this year) – they’re all from the U.S.,” Father Infante said. “To have five from the U.S. is different for us.”
He said he did not know whether the increased interest is because people had a lot of time to pray during the coronavirus shutdown, or whether they are coming for other reasons. Worcester’s came in different ways, whether referred by someone or pursing a long-time interest, he said.
None came from other countries, because embassies abroad are temporarily closed due to the virus, and not granting the required visas, he said. An applicant from Colombia and one from Brazil were interviewed, but the application process was halted when they couldn’t get visas, he said.
In Facebook postings, Father Infante congratulated the new seminarians: Christopher Kopacko, from St. Paul Parish in Warren; John Sullivan, a recent graduate of The Catholic University of America from St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton, and DJ Young who grew up in the Fall River Diocese and was formerly in formation for The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. These men are studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
On Facebook Father Infante also congratulated college seminarian Wylie Malcolm, an Assumption University sophomore from Connecticut, who is living at Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies in Worcester, where some of the seminarians live. Father Infante is co-director of the House.
Tuesday he told The Catholic Free Press that the fifth new seminarian is Stephen Mullaney of St. Leo Parish in Leominster, a former business owner preparing to enter Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston.
On the Vocations Office Facebook page Father Infante made a plea for gifts to Partners in Charity, which funds the office.
Last year, seminary tuition accounted for 61 or 62 percent of the office’s budget, he told The Catholic Free Press. Since tuition is set by the seminaries, he has no control over it.
He said that sometimes people ask why the diocese pays the tuition, when seminarians were responsible for it years ago.
“We want them to be free to discern,” Father Infante explained. “It’s a different world in terms of tuition and student loans;” men would be in debt a long time trying to pay these back. He said he thinks most dioceses now pay seminary tuition. (The Worcester Diocese does not pay the undergraduate college tuition of men preparing for seminary, he explained.)
“Whenever we’re encouraging people to support Partners in Charity,” or any of the Church’s work, “the greatest gift is always going to be prayer,” Father Infante said. He suggested praying that others will donate even if you can’t, praying for seminarians to persevere and be ordained, and praying for more vocations.
The Vocations Office Masses and dinners for men considering priesthood can’t be held now because of limits on the size of gatherings, Father Infante said. So he is proposing an alternative.
“We are contemplating creating a digital discernment group for those from the diocese, either currently living here or away at college, to read through and discuss ‘To Save a Thousand Souls,’” he wrote on Facebook. “If you would be interested in participating … please contact the vocation office at director@worcestervocations.com.”
“To Save a Thousand Souls” is the most common book vocations offices use, and he has distributed copies in English and Spanish, he said.
“Previously I would hand the book to people and they would read it on their own,” he said. Now, he said, he’s offering to discuss it with them in Zoom meetings, using discussion questions put together by The Melchizedek Project, which provides free copies of the book and materials for people beginning vocation discernment groups.
The book’s author, Father Brett A. Brannen, was once vice-rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and is now head of the spiritual formation program at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
The Melchizedek Project, funded by The Foundation for Priestly Vocations and the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, and run by Vianney Vocations, aims to help men “hear the call of Jesus Christ and discover their true vocation,” says the website melchizedekproject.com.
Vianney Vocations also promotes religious life, Father Infante said, noting that there is a discussion group called Avow for women. He said he was not aware of one being held in the Worcester Diocese.
“Vocations are nurtured in families, parishes, Catholic schools, campus ministries,” he said. “That’s where the renewal has to happen.”
