What would you say are the most traditional American seminaries?

[TrueLight]

That is some serious mortification. If it were a choice between being cut off from the web or, say, sleeping with a rock for a pillow as St. Francis did, I don’t know. Might take the rock!

I’d have to agree with you. In fact, the next time I fast, I shall have to include fasting from the Net, which will be extremely hard, I promise you.

I should say personal browsing, since I have to use the internet for my job.

 

[LiveCatholic]

I am discerning a vocation, and I want to know what the most traditional American seminaries are. I am specifically asking about seminaries that mostly serve diocesan priests, that is, I don’t need Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary of the FSSP as a suggestion. I am quite familiar with and fond of the seminaries of the Extraordinary Form-only groups already. I want to know about the other seminaries, ones that are not generally specific to a single group or order.

I already know a good bit about the Pontifical College Josephinum, and I am quite attracted to that seminary already. Can you suggest others in this vein?

This is probably best evaluated by considering the following variables:

(1) Daily devotions. (ex: Mass, holy hour, rosary, communal prayer, spiritual readings, &c.)

(2) Professors (especially laymen, who are not anchored to the Church by their ordination)
(2a) Their academic backgrounds–since you’re going to be their ‘intellectual descendent’ its best to know where they received their formation, since the influences worked on them will soon be working on you.
(2b) Their scholarly interests–as this is the meat of their work, it literally speaks volumes about their own preferences.

(3) Incidents of abuse/controversy–unorthodox or seminaries of dubious virtue are generally well-known.

(4) The bishop of the diocese–good bishops generally do not permit unruly seminaries.

Also, don’t let size or reputation sway you. Your grandfather’s opinion of the seminary might be quite different from its current reality. Also, the smaller, close-knit seminaries might have something to offer that the larger ones don’t.

(4) comes into play again, as mentioned by other posters, because most dioceses have a 1:1 or 1:2 relationship with a single or couple of seminaries… so you’d essentially be choosing a diocese if you were actually going to commit to attending the seminary of your choice. Further, I’ve noticed that the ‘other’ seminaries that you might go to are for special purposes: in my own diocese we send Polish seminarians to an ethnic Polish seminary in Michigan and exceptional seminarians to the Pontifical North American College.

Good luck and God bless.

 

[catholictiger]

This is probably best evaluated by considering the following variables:

(1) Daily devotions. (ex: Mass, holy hour, rosary, communal prayer, spiritual readings, &c.)

(2) Professors (especially laymen, who are not anchored to the Church by their ordination)
(2a) Their academic backgrounds–since you’re going to be their ‘intellectual descendent’ its best to know where they received their formation, since the influences worked on them will soon be working on you.
(2b) Their scholarly interests–as this is the meat of their work, it literally speaks volumes about their own preferences.

(3) Incidents of abuse/controversy–unorthodox or seminaries of dubious virtue are generally well-known.

(4) The bishop of the diocese–good bishops generally do not permit unruly seminaries.

Also, don’t let size or reputation sway you. Your grandfather’s opinion of the seminary might be quite different from its current reality. Also, the smaller, close-knit seminaries might have something to offer that the larger ones don’t.

(4) comes into play again, as mentioned by other posters, because most dioceses have a 1:1 or 1:2 relationship with a single or couple of seminaries… so you’d essentially be choosing a diocese if you were actually going to commit to attending the seminary of your choice. Further, I’ve noticed that the ‘other’ seminaries that you might go to are for special purposes: in my own diocese we send Polish seminarians to an ethnic Polish seminary in Michigan and exceptional seminarians to the Pontifical North American College.

Good luck and God bless.

one thing to keep in mind don’t consider applying to a diocese applying to colleges and just apply to as many as possible, if you have the opprituinity to choose, pick one and stick with that, and a lot of times the diocese kinda has to invite you to join their diocese as a seminarian especially if you are not a member of a church in their diocese. Most cases you will join what ever diocese you live in. For example I live in BR, so I joined the BR diocese. Sometimes guys join diocese that they don’t really “belong to” One of my brother seminarians joined a diocese that wasn’t his own because his own didn’t do military chaplincy so another bishop invited him to join his diocese as a seminarian so he could be a military chaplin. His dad was in the military so he didn’t really have a home. Also a seminarian changed diocese from the diocese he was living in before he joined, to the diocese he grew up in.

again don’t treat seminary application like a college application, it is a completely different animal.

I haven’t read it in a while but pick up the book to save a thousand souls, they have a chapter specifically on application for seminary.

if you don’t get that talk to your vocations director and see what he suggests.

There are a lot of good seminaries out there that may not be as traditional as you like, but will form you into a great priest.

Trust God will lead you down the right path and that Holy Mother Church will make the right decision as far as your formation and God willing ordination.

 

[Futurepriest21]

YoungTradCath, This is a bit late, but you could always look into the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. It is the only Pontifical seminary outside of Italy.

"The Pontifical College Josephinum is a four-year, Roman Catholic liberal arts college and graduate school of theology founded by Monsignor Joseph Jessing in 1888 and located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. The seminary prepares its students to become priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Students come from U.S. dioceses that do not have their own seminaries, as well as dioceses from around the world.

The Josephinum was granted pontifical status in 1892 by Pope Leo XIII, recognizing her unique mission of forming priests for the international Church. The seminary’s vision, as set forth by its Rector and Board of Trustees, is: “Forming Renaissance Priests: Spiritual Fathers for the New Evangelization.” ’ - Unigo.com

The Josephinum has four chapels, three located in the main academic building and Theologate, and one in the college of liberal arts. First year college seminarians are entitled to wear the cassock for Mass and special occasions, depending on the occasion it will be the Roman Cassock (which you must obtain), or the Pontifical Cassock.

Pontifical Cassock of PCJ - 2.bp.blogspot.com/-1_v3o-Kgcmg/T498awvs2qI/AAAAAAAAL04/mGHz4nwCoc8/s1600/Josephinum_1-580x355.jpg

Pax Tecum