‘I will give you shepherds’

by Father Brian Kane,

Rector of St Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward
Director of Seminarians: Diocese of Lincoln

In 1992, in the apostolic exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis, Pope St. John Paul II wrote, “The formation of future priests, both diocesan and religious, … is considered by the Church one of the most demanding and important tasks for the future of the evangelization of humanity.” St. Gregory the Great Seminary took its motto from the title of that apostolic exhortation, translated, I will give you shepherds, when the seminary was founded by Bishop Bruskewitz in 1998 in Seward.

This weekend, you are invited to help us continue that important mission by participating in the Bishop’s Appeal for Vocations through your prayer and financial assistance.

It has been a tradition across the diocese for more than 35 years to distribute posters and cards with photos of all Lincoln seminarians. Those photos are a visible reminder to pray for the men who have heard the call of Jesus to “come, follow me.” 

It is inspiring to visit the homes of families who place the photos in their homes as a reminder to pray for the seminarians each week by name; it is inspiring to know that parents talk to their children about one day following in the footsteps of the men who today are discerning a call to follow Christ in the priesthood. Children in our schools pray for our seminarians each morning and see their faces on posters in their classrooms. It is reassuring for seminarians to know that they are supported and prayed for each day. To discern a call to the priesthood today is not easy. The promise of support and prayer helps ease some of the burden so that seminarians can better listen to the quiet voice of Jesus.

For 25 years, men from the Diocese of Lincoln, as well as from other dioceses and religious orders across the United States, have discerned a call to the priesthood at St. Gregory’s. This fall, the seminary welcomed 12 new men to begin their formation and discernment for the priesthood, including six from the Diocese of Lincoln. Most of the men who come to St. Gregory’s are in their first of up to nine years of formation on the path to the priesthood. Their goal is to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy. Others arrive with a college degree and set out to study philosophy for two years as preparation for four years of theological studies and formation at a major seminary before ordination.

In 2015, Pope Francis issued an update to Pastores Dabo Vobis: Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, or Ratio, to address the continued need for seminary formation to serve men in the modern world. Pope Francis spoke of his desire for the Ratio to lay out a serious journey of formation: “It means guarding and fostering vocations, that they may bear mature fruit. They are ‘uncut diamonds,’ to be formed both patiently and carefully, respecting the conscience of the individual, so that they may shine among the People of God.” Each national conference of Bishops uses this universal document to update the program for formation in their respective countries. This summer, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released the Program for Priestly Formation (PPF), Sixth Edition. The new PPF will guide St. Gregory the Great Seminary’s plan for formation.

The Ratio and the PPF identify four stages of formation in the journey of discernment and preparation for ordination. The PPF says, “Discipleship is a lifelong journey of following Jesus Christ; this is certainly the case for the priest. Throughout his initial and ongoing formation, he continually learns to listen more attentively to the voice of the Master who calls him.” It lays out four stages of formation: Propaedeutic, Discipleship, Configuration and Vocational Synthesis. “Thus, formation serves him best when it can be experienced as an ever advancing journey of conversion and growth.”

St. Gregory the Great Seminary is home for the first two stages of formation.

In the Propaedeutic stage, “the man is introduced to the life of the Church as a community in which excellence of character is nurtured, to the practice of daily participation in the Holy Mass, to love for Sacred Scripture, to the prayer of the church (the Liturgy of the Hours), and to the basic elements of the Christian faith as he discerns attentively and purposefully his potential vocation to the priesthood in the presence of a supportive community of fellow seminarians and formators.” It is an opportunity for the seminarian to grow in deeper self-awareness so that he may be better prepared to enter more fully into formation.

In the Discipleship stage, “systematic formation as a disciple of Jesus Christ is the aim. The seminarian develops his principal strengths and grows to identify, acknowledge, and begin to overcome his shortcomings.” It is during this stage that he also receives his intellectual formation in philosophy as preparation to study theology later in the seminary.

The stages of formation are meant to help a man discern if he is called, or if he is not called, to the priesthood. Men who enter the seminary but later discern they are not called to the priesthood receive a solid formation that will help them enter into another vocation, especially marriage and fatherhood.

Seminarians often talk about the love they have for the community in which they live at Saint Gregory’s. The PPF says, “Community is an integral aspect of formation. The gift of vocation appears in a Christian community (usually the family); it is fostered and developed in the seminary community, with a view to serving the people of God in the community of the presbyterate (priesthood).”

While a lot of emphasis is placed on the formation of seminarians, the PPF also speaks about the importance of those who have been entrusted the responsibility of formation. “Relationships characterized by trust are essential for accompaniment to be successful. The program of formation should explore and outline the concrete ways in which the trust can be encouraged and safeguarded. Above all, those conditions should be sought and fostered, which can, in some way, create a peaceful climate of trust and mutual confidence: fraternity, empathy, understanding, the ability to listen and to share, and especially a coherent witness of life.”

At St. Gregory the Great Seminary, we are blessed to have priests, sisters and lay faculty and staff who are committed to this important goal of accompaniment.

We are looking forward to sharing more about what is happening at St. Gregory’s and how we are forming men, as Pope St. John Paul II said, “for the future of the evangelization of humanity.”

St. Gregory the Great Seminary cannot fulfill its mission without the prayerful support and financial assistance of the faithful of the Diocese of Lincoln through the Bishop’s Appeal for Vocations. We thank you for your generosity.