I entered seminary in the fall of 2011, and even though it was just a few short years ago, much has changed for Mt. St. Mary’s of the West and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. If you can find a picture of me in those days, you will notice that my hair has been steadily in retreat since about that time, but I assure you that it’s one of the less significant changes for the Church in our day.

When I began my studies, there were 36 men from four different dioceses in formation at Mt. St. Mary’s. In the past seven years, the number of seminarians and dioceses attending Mt. St. Mary’s has more than doubled, and the average age of the seminarians has plummeted. The seminary is so full of young men discerning the priesthood, that they are working to build an entire new wing to accommodate
them. This is among the best problems we could possibly have.

The increasing youth of the seminarians also means that their life experience going into the seminary is much different. Whereas Fr. Chris and Fr. Pete were more established before they heard God’s call to the priesthood, the young men preparing to serve God’s people nowadays are often looking to live in a parish over the summer rather than at a place they owned before entering the seminary. Additionally, part of the formation that future priests receive is a one-year internship in a parish or a region about halfway through their training so they can get acclimated to a parish and see what skills and gifts they have as well as what they might need to work on to be as effective in preaching the Gospel as possible.

Looking at the needs of both our parish region and the Archdiocese moving forward, we are starting a seminarian fund here in the Winton Wyoming Pastoral Region so that we can accommodate some seminarians during their summer break, and perhaps even have an intern sometime in the years to come. With all of that in mind, please consider doing the following for our future shepherds:

 Pray for them. One of the most meaningful things that happened to me throughout seminary was to run into people who recognized me from the seminarian poster and told me that they pray for me and my brothers every day. It gives us a real sense of our purpose to serve God’s people and lead them closer to Christ.

 Invite seminarians into your homes. We will be hosting four seminarians at different points during the summer. When you see them after Mass or around the parishes, please say hello and see if they’re interested in coming over for coffee or brunch after Mass. I’m sure they don’t want to just hang out with me all summer…

 Contribute to the Seminarian Fund. Because they can’t work during the school year, summer is a great opportunity for seminarians to do some work around parishes and earn money to defray their expenses. If you can, please consider donating by putting “Seminarian Fund” in the memo line of a check or on an envelope or by dropping it off in the office.

Seminarians are always appreciative of such help, and we always keep our benefactors in prayer. Keep your eye on the Flocknotes and the region’s website in the coming weeks where we will post short profiles of the young men who will be staying with us in the WWPR over the summer.

Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough