Ubi vadis Fr. Michael Beers?

This important clarification was sent to me recently regarding the reassignment of Fr. Michael Beers, currently the Dean of Ave Maria University's Pre-Theologate:

Dear Fellow Bloggers:

Earlier today, Naples News.com reported that Bishop Robert Carlson was starting a new seminary in Bay City, Mi. He certainly is not doing this and asked me to say so on the " Saginaw Seminarians Blog." I wrote up a short story explaining what was happening and hoped some of you may link to the story so that the rumor ends before it goes too far. Thank you so much and keep up the great work you do with your blogs, I enjoy reading all of them.

In Christ,

Saginaw Seminarians

I think this is probably the cause of the confusion: a press release sent by Fr. Beers that was prepared by his diocese (which he sent around the Ave Maria University email lists this Saturday).

The relavant passages:

"Rev. J. Michael Beers, Ph.D., S.S.L., 57, a priest of the Diocese of Allentown and Dean of the Pre-Theologate at Ave Maria University, Naples, has been assigned by his bishop, Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, D.D., to a new post in the Diocese of Saginaw, where he will be the founding director of a new house of priestly formation and rector of the Shrine of St. Joseph in Bay City, Michigan.

... Asked for his reaction to his new assignment, Fr. Beers said: "I am extremely grateful to my ordinary, Bishop Cullen, for his great generosity in releasing me for service to the Church in Saginaw. I have always lived my priesthood with the motto: Nil sine episcopo (Nothing without my bishop). I am his faithful son, he is a successor of the Apostles, through my bishop I have my union with Our Lord. The apostolic succession of our bishops is the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

Furthermore, I look forward to the challenges of starting a new seminary and my collaboration with Bishop Carlson, who has been my friend for nearly fifteen years. I first met him in 1993 when I was interviewed to be rector of St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the bishop then served as an auxiliary bishop. I taught Latin to his seminarians last summer, I look forward to working with them fulltime."

The sentence in bold represents either a typo, a slip of the tongue or imprecise word usage. At any rate, its easy to see how a newspaper like the Naples News could have missed the distinction between a seminary and a house of formation (presuming this press release is what they based that claim in their story upon). The Saginaw Seminarians blog adds this endorsement of the seminaries where future priests for that diocese are studying:

"Bishop Carlson also added that he has been "very pleased" with the seminaries the diocese is currently employing and said that "Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit will continue to be the main seminary the diocese uses along with the others: Mundelein, Holy Apostles, and St. Paul."

Putting aside where Fr. Beers is going, it still represents a loss for AMU, but I'll leave others to discuss that fact.