"Papal visit triggers “tsunami” of New York seminary applications"

The good kind of tsunami:

St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, New York, has received dozens of applications following Pope Benedict’s visit, the New York Daily News reports.

"It's been like a tsunami, a good tsunami of interest," said Father Luke Sweeney, the Archdiocese of New York's vocations director. “I've been meeting people all week and have a lot of e-mails I haven't had the chance yet to respond to. It has been incredible.”

The dire side:

For the first time in 108 years, the seminary had been preparing for a year with no students. Only 23 seminarians are expected to be ordained for New York City over the next four years. A study carried out by Catholic World Report claims the archdiocese’s ratio of priests to congregation members is among the worst in the country.

Hope:

“We were hoping the Pope would convince many who were considering the priesthood to make the next step. It looks like he did,” he said

“One said he came, saw the crowd, heard what the Pope said and then called us," the priest said. "He said his questions and concerns were answered when he heard him speak.”

Let's all pray for these brave young men.

Help an Eastern Rite Seminarian

I often get requests along these lines, but it's rare that someone has done the legwork to where it's easy for me to pass on their request. He's been accepted as a seminarian but needs to pay off his college debt.

• Real Clear Religion explains the situation
• The young man speaks on Catholic Exchange
• His website: http://www.helpmebecomeapriest.com/

If you don't feel able to help his financial plight, please keep him in your prayers.

A seminarian blogs his experience of the Papal Youth Rally

In his own words:

Due to the generosity of my bishop, I was able to attend the Youth Rally at St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers NY during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the USA.

I found this particularly amusing:

Here is a diagram to 1) give you a better idea of where I was and 2) put my stellar paintbrush skills on display. The yellow part is the buffer zone between the crowd and the Pope (there was actually Gold carpeting laid down here. The white at the top is the stage, and the white at the bottom is the gathering space.

Go visit his blog for the rest of his on-the-ground reporting!

Media: Vocations video from America's largest college seminary

St. John Vianney is the largest college seminary in the USA (150+ men). I have many friends studying there now. Some of the students and priests have just released a high-quality video introduction to "SJV":

Part 1:

Part 2:

Feel free to pass these vidoes along (with a tip to AmP, if you please).

More about the project: One of my friends tells me that it was put together over the course of this school year, to explain what a college seminary is and promote vocations, especially to men in highschool.

Funny Video: Deacon Payne - Seminary Formationator

Via The Whappsters (and others), "Deacon Payne - Seminary Formationator":



Of course, this is another permutation of Office Linebacker and it's Christian counterpart, Evangelism Linebacker.

Having attended for two years a school where seminarians were in formation, and having many seminarian friends, I can totally see a group of these guys getting together to make a video like this one. Very funny stuff. The part where the priest starts experimenting with some wacky liturgical innovations? Priceless!

The seminarians of Saginaw have a blog!

The fine guys who are studying to be priests for the diocese of Saginaw now have a blog of their own up and running.

Also, the diocese of Saginaw has a nice page up with pics and a report from this year's March for Life, which Bp. Carlson attended.

Here's a picture of him at the March. The fellow to his right is Chris, one of the Saginaw Seminarians. And in this picture you can see Rich, a good buddy of mine and also a seminarian of Saginaw.

They both recently became fourth degree Knights of Columbus, passing me up. Good men!