Tourette Syndrome & Studying for the Priesthood

[Bryan_V.Hewing]

I am a 30 year old male and I have been working on being accepted to the Seminary to Study for the Priesthood for a Diocese or Relighious Community or Order since 2002. Unfortunately, I have been rejected by a large number of Religious Orders and Communities I have inquired with have rejected me due to a disorder I have called Tourette Syndrome.
Does anyone know of a Diocese or Religious Community that would be willing to look at and/or accept men with Tourette Syndrome or look at a candidate for Admission without using Tourette Syndrome as an impediment?.

 

[Al_Masetti]

If you believe that you have a vocation to the priesthood, keep up with your search.

Be prepared to accept some limits on whatever priestly faculties that may be granted.

I can think of one priest who was going to be denied ordination because of his poor scholastic record. But they decided he could be ordained, with two caveats… he could not preach and he could not say any Masses in public. They gave him a job answering the door at a monastery.

Maybe you have heard of him. His name was Bernard.

His religious name was Father Solanus Casey.

And he is or soon will be canonized a saint.

Look him up on the internet.

I think he lived in Detroit or Cleveland or some such place.

---

I have a friend who is a priest. He had a terrible time getting accepted into a seminary. He was retired, a widower, older fellow. But he persisted.

 

[Bryan_V.Hewing]

Do You have any suggestions of Relligious Communities that I could check into?

 

[joeysmom]

Bryan V. Hewing:

Do You have any suggestions of Relligious Communities that I could check into?

Maybe you can contact the Legionaires
of Christ legionariesofchrist.org/
and ask them if they can refer you to a seminary…that is if they won’t consider you. I don’t know too much about Tourette Syndrome but it is treatable/controllable, isn’t it?
If you feel called to the priesthood, talk to priests about your vocation, and especially pray before the Blessed Sacrament. I will pray for your intention too.

 

[Al_Masetti]

Bryan V. Hewing:

Do You have any suggestions of Relligious Communities that I could check into?

Have you contacted Franciscans for the Renewal? This is the group that was set up by Fr. Benedict Groeschel.

www.franciscanfriars.com

There are large numbers of NEW religious orders that are fast growing. Ask if they have a list of the new religious orders; once upon a time, Fr. Benedict said there were a couple of hundred of them. There may even be an association of the new religious orders. Contact info:

USA & Canada
Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, C.F.R.
St. Joseph Friary
523 W.142 St.
New York, NY 10031

(212) 281-4355

 

[GloriaPatri4]

Bryan V. Hewing:

I am a 30 year old male and I have been working on being accepted to the Seminary to Study for the Priesthood for a Diocese or Relighious Community or Order since 2002. Unfortunately, I have been rejected by a large number of Religious Orders and Communities I have inquired with have rejected me due to a disorder I have called Tourette Syndrome.
Does anyone know of a Diocese or Religious Community that would be willing to look at and/or accept men with Tourette Syndrome or look at a candidate for Admission without using Tourette Syndrome as an impediment?.

Dear Bryan,

This seems like a good question for the Ask an apologist category.

 

[Bryan_V.Hewing]

Emailed the Legionaries of Christ Vocations Office last (mid week) . .Still waiting for a Reply. Keep the prayers AND suggestions of Religious Orders coming.

 

[Shoshana]

Bryan V. Hewing:

Emailed the Legionaries of Christ Vocations Office last (mid week) . .Still waiting for a Reply. Keep the prayers AND suggestions of Religious Orders coming.

Bryan, would you like me to add you rname to the thread of Perpetual Prayer for Priests/Seminarians/Vocations…we a few men already listed and there are a number of us praying on this thread…already over 12,000 posts. Lots of prayers going up. What’d’ya think?

 

[Bryan_V.Hewing]

Fine By me. . . .the more the merrier.

 

[Bryan_V.Hewing]

Anyone know of any other religious orders to apply to , especially of the newer ones that are croping up in the past few years?

 

[Big_B]

I am a 30 year old male and I have been working on being accepted to the Seminary to Study for the Priesthood for a Diocese or Religious Community or Order since 2002. Unfortunately, I have been rejected by a large number of Religious Orders and Communities I have inquired with have rejected me due to a disorder I have called Tourette Syndrome.
Does anyone know of a Diocese or Religious Community that would be willing to look at and/or accept men with Tourette Syndrome or look at a candidate for Admission without using Tourette Syndrome as an impediment?.

That was me in 2005. I am now 32 and living in Florissant, MO and am in conversations with a a Vocations Director. Does anyone know of any priests and/or current Seminarians who have Tourette’s Syndrome so I can try to alleviate his concern about Tourette’s Syndrome. I have been racking the Internet :banghead: trying to find such a person. By the way . . .I can Relate to Fr. Casey, considering that I had a 2.19 GPA when I got my B.A. in 1999. and my God Bless you all … keep praying that His concerns will be alleviated and I will be accepted to the seminary, hopefully this Fall. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, the patron Saint of Ireland:shamrock2:.

 

[Cloisters]

All of our proposed Cloister Outreach Foundations will have Individualized Formation Programs should the applicant require it.

I think any program would have to take into consideration the severity of your Tourette’s. If you’re not able to hold the chalice and/or paten steady, you might be disqualified from the priesthood.

Please feel free to contact me off-board. Cloister Outreach does plan to have its own seminary somewhere down the road–for our brethren who are following Jesus further into their vocations.

HTH.

Blessings,
Cloisters

 

[Big_B]

All of our proposed Cloister Outreach Foundations will have Individualized Formation Programs should the applicant require it.

I think any program would have to take into consideration the severity of your Tourette’s. If you’re not able to hold the chalice and/or paten steady, you might be disqualified from the priesthood.

Please feel free to contact me off-board. Cloister Outreach does plan to have its own seminary somewhere down the road–for our brethren who are following Jesus further into their vocations.

HTH.

Blessings,
Cloisters

I was a Eucharistic Minister for nearly a decade with no problems whatsoever before the pastor asked me and everyone else in the parish to focus on one ministry so that more people would be doing the vairous ministries that occur during mass. I am primairly lookiong to see if anyone knows of Current Priests and /or Seminarians who have Tourette’s Syndrome currently. This is so that I can show the Vocations Director that people with Tourette’s can go to seminary and perform priestly duties with very few, if any problems at all.

 

[mahalia]

God bless you for your desire to follow your vocation!

First of all, I advise you praying and fastening for your vocation.
Try to talk to a vocation director in your diocese, if you have those in the US.
I believe you can enter a religious community, and become a brother.

I will pray for you!

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Fine By me. . . .the more the merrier.

Have you contacted Mother Angelica’s affiliate men’s order?

About a decade ago I was watching her show when a young man with a learning disability who had dropped out of high school called her program asking her to pray for him. He was pretty despondant.

Her response was “Keep praying, and if it comes to it, come to Irondale and we will make you a brother!”

All things being equal, might I suggest that you invest in a roll of stamps and send out a letter that reads something like:

Dear Father,

My name is X, I am interested in pursuing a call to the priesthood.

I have Tourette Syndrome and wish to know if this would be an impediment to a vocation. Please let me know, and pray for me either way.

Then mail them out, hand it to the Holy Spirit, and keep praying!

It is worth a shot!

You are in my prayers!