Father Steven Beseau, rector and president of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, was named a monsignor by Pope Leo XIV.
The announcement came Monday, April 20 during the seminary’s annual Good Shepherd Dinner. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the United States, was present and announced the conferral of the honorary titled on Father Beseau.
The monsignor designation recognizes long and dedicated service to the Church and its people. The official ecclesiastical title is “chaplain of His Holiness.”
Cardinal Pierre, who also serves as chancellor at the Josephinum, commended Msgr. Beseau for his leadership of the only pontifical seminary outside of Italy.
“It’s a huge responsibility, the responsibility precisely to receive young men who have to be accompanied, guided and who have to be helped to discover their vocation,” the cardinal said.
“You need also, when you’re a rector, to have a kind of vision. You cannot repeat things. You have to be creative, especially in a world like ours, which is not an easy one.”
Cardinal Pierre informed then-Father Beseau that he received an official letter from the Holy Father granting a request to appoint him chaplain of His Holiness.
Msgr. Beseau, receiving the award, expressed gratitude and attributed the accolade to the seminary community.
“This is a great honor,” he said. “The success that we’ve experienced here at the Josephinum is never the success of one person. It’s the success of a group of priests, professors, staff, lay people, board members – really an enormous community who lifts us up.
“If I do receive this, I receive it as a sign of affection and a recognition of this whole community, of what the Josephinum community has done.”
The Vatican limited the title “chaplain of His Holiness” in 2014 to priests who have reached the age of 65 and for those who hold certain major offices in the Roman Curia or as a vicar general or chancellor in dioceses.
There were previously three grades of monsignor until the Vatican’s changes 12 years ago.
Four priests have been designated as monsignors since Bishop Earl Fernandes was elected bishop in 2022: Msgr. Craig Eilerman, rector at Lancaster Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption; the retired Msgr. James Walter; Msgr. Mark Hammond, pastor at Knox County St. John the Baptist Parish (Danville St. Luke and Mount Vernon St. Vincent de Paul churches); and now Msgr. Beseau.
A priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, Msgr. Beseau was appointed rector and president of the Josephinum in 2019. He will lead the Josephinum through June 2027.
In August 2023, a degree from the Prefect of the Dicastery of the Clergy in Rome announced an extension of the rector’s original five-year term by three years.
The request came from Bishop Fernandes, who serves as the Josephinum’s vice chancellor, in consultation with Cardinal Pierre, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann of Kansas City and the seminary’s Board of Trustees.
During Msgr. Beseau’s tenure, the Josephinum rolled out an updated priestly formation program from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The seminary also developed a new mission statement and operational plan and an updated strategic plan, in addition to revising curriculums for the school of theology and college of liberal arts.
Prior to his appointment at the Josephinum, Msgr. Beseau served as assistant professor of moral theology at The Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati for three years. He also served as director and chaplain of the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center in Lawrence, Kansas, from 2006 to 2016 and as a parish pastor and high school chaplain.
Msgr. Beseau, ordained a priest in 1995, holds advanced degrees from the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.