In a world shaped by alienation and distraction, seminarians are learning to embrace silence, prayer and true community.
“Hey, Mom,” my son John began on a phone call, “Isaac’s seminary is only seven hours from Ann Arbor. We should visit him.”
We were planning a trip from Bismarck to Michigan to see my 99-year-old dad and for me to be interviewed by Dr. Ralph Martin with Renewal Ministries in Ann Arbor. After John’s call, we added a stop in St. Louis to visit the youngest of our 10 children, who just entered Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. My 6-year-old grandson, Xavier (oldest of daughter Teresa’s four children) would join us when we picked him up in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. He loves playing Wii Bowling with his great-grandpa and had what he described as “the best day of my life” attending a University of Michigan football game. He was excited to see his beloved Uncle Isaac.
Upon arrival, Isaac gave us a tour of the beautiful seminary, making introductions along the way, and he joined us for dinner. The next morning at Mass, the chapel was filled with the 14 first-year seminarians. The Gospel reading was Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus says to Peter: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
In the homily, Father Fadi Auro spoke about such a mission.
“Not by your own skill or ingenuity,” he said. “That doesn’t even catch fish, let alone men. If you desire to catch men, you must bring your empty nets to Jesus and listen to him. First in the shallows and then in the depths. He will fill the nets himself because of who he is and who you are to him.”
Later, Father Auro agreed to an interview for the Register to share more about this new world into which my son had entered. My husband, who had died unexpectedly in May, was overjoyed when he learned Isaac was applying for seminary. We understood it was not a guarantee that he would become a priest, but that he should simply be open to God’s call.
As a matter of fact, during our interview, Father Auro explained: “If a young man discerns the priesthood is not for him, it’s not a failure but a success.” He is the Director of Pre-Theology, Assistant for Formation and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Kenrick-Glennon, where he once attended as a seminarian. The first year of seminary is called the “propaedeutic year” — a year of formation focusing on spiritual and human growth, he explained. It has changed from when he was in seminary because the world has changed.
Father Auro was ordained a priest in 2012, just as the iPhone was insidiously taking hold of the culture after its introduction five years earlier. Today, almost everyone has one, yet it fuels an addictive culture in many harmful ways. Add online video games, which suck up untold hours, and you often get young men deformed by the culture to some extent. That’s why a fast from technology is part of the first year.
“We take away electronics except on Saturday for a few hours,” Father Auro said. “I thought it would need to be more of a sell, but they are very happy about the technology fast. I think intuitively they know how much time it takes away from them. They learn to be in community with each other without escaping. They learn to be in solitude with God without escaping. They experience the things that were getting drowned out and reflect on their story and how God has moved them.”
Father Auro’s role is divided into teaching philosophy and serving as a formation adviser. Formators serve as mentors to assist each seminarian to grow into being a priest, if that is what he is called to. “If a seminarian lets God in and moves with God, then he is going to grow to whatever God has planned for him,” Father Auro said.
A lot of people think of a seminary as being an educational facility or monastery or educational boot camp. “It is none of these things,” Father Auro explained. “It’s about a relationship. The bishop entrusts men of his diocese to a seminary to help [each] develop and grow into a Catholic man — and a priest, if that is what God has called him to. The most important relationship in seminary is his relationship with God, and all other relationships are at the service of that relationship.”
“In the last 10 years,” he said, “emphasis is turning more to the human dimension as the foundation for the other dimensions and the spiritual formation as the integrating factor. This first year really shapes the imagination and affords the gift of time and of being with God. Work is at the service of that. Before all that, I am a beloved son of God.”
There are academic courses but no grades in the first year.
“Getting grades is not a motivation to do something,” Father Auro said. “Doing it because you love it is a better motivation. Intellectual work is all in a contemplative mode.”
The first-year seminarians have their own kitchen and cook breakfast every day, and dinner once a week. “We want them to be less institutionalized,” Father Auro said. “We want men who are going to take care of the Church and not rely on the Church to take care of them.” He noted that we are entering into an Apostolic Age as Christendom fades. “The men cannot be formed as they were before. Self-efficacy has to be a lot stronger.”
Father Auro referred to two books compiled by Msgr. James Shea, president of the University of Mary: From Christendom to Apostolic Mission and its sequel, The Religion of the Age. The books identify our culture as having gone from a Christian culture to one hostile to the faith. It requires an apostolic zeal such as that of the first Christians. The second book describes our circumstances and looks deeper into what we must do to be converted out of the culture to fully embrace our Christian faith.
“The shift in formation is because we are preparing the men to be priests to minister to this age,” Father Auro explained. “We trust the Lord. He’s always going to provide for the Church and he’s sending us good men. That confidence has to be key. The Lord is going to take care of the Church. As long as we are doing the things he intended for the Church, we will always have what we need, and more.”