Seminaries: Liberal or conservative? - Page 5

hwriggles4 · #61 Jun 10, '12, 10:39 am

Building on to the last thread, a few seminaries I would recommend are:

1) Mount St. Mary's in Emmittsburg, Maryland
2) St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, PA.
3) St. John Vianney in Denver, CO.
4) Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT

On a personal note, I spent four days at St. Charles during my own discernment, and I was pretty impressed. Being an older guy (40), I felt comfortable there. There was a good group of seminarians between 30 and 40. I also know a recently ordained priest in my diocese who attended Vianney in Denver who was ordained at 40 years of age. He is a solid priest too. For those of you who don't know, Vianney in Denver was started under the leadership of then Abp. Chaput (the old seminary in Denver closed in 1985).

Goodbye, Good Men did a breakdown of many of the problematic seminaries in the United States. Some of these problematic seminaries have either been cleaned out or closed altogether. Goodbye Good Men mentioned Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, which began a positive transformation when Bishop Vigneron was appointed as rector circa 1995. Fr. Groeschel mentioned the positive turnover one evening on Sunday Night Live. The Atheneum (aka Mount St. Mary's of the West) in Cincinnati (the author of Goodbye Good Men is from Cincinnati) seems to have had some positive turnover as well. I met some seminarians from there at the 2007 March for Life who were "on fire". Last year, I met a seminarian from Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, which according to him, has seen a much positive transformation since it's heterodox days of the 1980's.

I hope St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore has had some cleanout. That was mentioned in Goodbye Good Men, as was the seminary in Cleveland. I do know a few dioceses stopped sending seminarians to Baltimore, but there were quite a few dioceses known for watering down that sent seminarians to Baltimore. Likewise, I hope the seminary in Cleveland has had some turnover for the better (I've heard Cleveland had a fairly large ordination class for 2012, which sounds positive. Cleveland got a new bishop circa 2006).

One poster mentioned St. Vincent's Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. I found out Scott Hahn has taught a class there. I've also been told in recent years that St. John Vianney Seminary in Miami has started turning over for the better (I heard that place was in the same league (or worse) as St. Mary's in Baltimore).

Didn't mean to put a dissertation, but I thought this would help. Goodbye Good Men came out in 2002, and I read it then. I'm glad I wasn't an 18 or 21 year old seminarian in the 1980's. I would have been lost.