It costs an average of $55,000 to educate and form a seminarian each year. In the Diocese of Columbus, there are currently 37 seminarians.
Sixteen young men entered seminary in the last year. Should the trend continue in the years to come, the diocese will face increasing costs to fund the tuition, room and board, health insurance, living expenses and cost of formation programs for its seminarians.
The diocese is calling on the faithful to offer prayerful and monetary support as they face this “good and growing need” to help alleviate immediate budgetary concerns due to the growing number of seminarians.
The Diocese of Columbus recently launched “A Good and Growing Need” campaign to raise money for the cost of educating and forming each seminarian. Parishioners and benefactors are encouraged to make a donation to support the formation of their future priests through their parish or online at www.ColumbusCatholicGiving.org/Seminarian-Support-Fund.
During the weekend of February 24-25, seminarians will visit parishes across the diocese and a second collection will be taken at Mass for this fund.
In a year, the diocese spends $44,700 for each seminarian’s tuition and room and board, said Father William Hahn, the diocesan vicar for clergy.
A man typically spends seven or nine years in seminary, depending on whether he enters after graduating high school or after earning a college degree. Should a seminarian spend nine years in seminary, the cost is more than $400,000 for his tuition and room and board alone.
It also costs $5,300 annually to insure each seminarian without health insurance coverage. The diocese covers the cost for those who cannot remain on their parent’s insurance due to age or other factors.
Typically, a seminarian begins his day around 6:45 a.m. with prayer and Mass. After breakfast, seminarians have a couple of classes in the morning. More classes are offered in the afternoon, as well as time for study or recreation.
A seminarian’s living expenses and books cost the diocese $2,800 a year per individual. Each seminarian is given a $200-a-month living stipend. The men do not have jobs because of the rigors of their academic work.
Seminarians make a daily Holy Hour and have evening prayer, which concludes around 5:30 p.m., and formation nights are held several evenings per week that include conferences given by the rector or spiritual director.
Seminarians spend one day a week off campus for pastoral work. This includes serving at a soup kitchen, school or parish. Each year, there is a different focus, so one year for a seminarian might be dedicated to hospital ministry, and the next year, teaching.
Saturdays are typically work days. Seminarians spend the day working on campus, such as raking leaves and taking care of the lawn.
Sundays include Mass, brunch and spending time together. Community events are also offered each weekend.
Aside from expenses during the academic year, there is a cost for each seminarian to partake in a summer formation program. Seminarians typically spend two or three summers in a formation program, which costs an average of $2,100 a year per person.
Some men, typically those at the graduate level studying theology, participate in a local Spanish immersion program during the summer. The program is offered every two years.
Seminarians in the program take Spanish classes in the morning and engage in missionary work in the afternoons, such as going door to door with the Missionary Servants of the Word and sharing the Word of God with Latino communities.
The immersion prepares seminarians to serve in a Spanish-speaking parish one day and shepherd their Latino brothers and sisters. Some seminarians also travel out of the country for a foreign Spanish immersion program.
This summer, seminarian Zachary Goodchild, who is studying theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum and is in the third stage of seminary (configuration stage), will go to Peru for a foreign immersion experience.
Deacon Daniel Colby, a seminarian expected to be ordained to the priesthood in May, will spend the summer serving a Latino community in a Spanish immersion in Texas.
Seminarians can also enroll in a summer formation program offered by the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska to help them grow in holiness through daily prayer, spiritual formation and discernment.
In the case of the local Spanish immersion program, summer housing is also an expense. In the past, the diocese rented the Saint Paul’s Outreach (apostolate) ministry house on the Ohio State University campus for the seminarians to live in for the duration of the summer program.
It is costly for each seminarian to participate in summer formation programs, but it is considered important for their formation to equip the men for the work they will do as priests.
When they are not participating in a formation program, seminarians spend eight to 10 weeks of the summer at a parish. In this case, the parish pays the seminarian a stipend and there is no additional cost to the diocese.
Father Hahn said a seminarian will typically spend a summer each at an urban, suburban and rural parish. This gives the seminarian a feel for parish life in each area of the diocese.
One summer during college seminary years is dedicated to working in a secular environment. Father Hahn said this provides seminarians with a sense of what a typical parishioner deals with working in the world.
Seminarians are also given an opportunity to attend events to grow in faith and love for Christ, Who they will one day represent as they serve in persona Christi, meaning, in the power and place of Christ Himself.
Last summer, a group of seminarians traveled to Lisbon, Portugal for World Youth Day, which is a global gathering and celebration of young people’s faith and participation in the Catholic Church.
Several seminarians also attended the Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ SEEK24 conference held in January in St. Louis. The annual SEEK conference is an opportunity for seminarians to meet and interact with thousands of young people from across the world.
Father Hahn said the conference is also a good opportunity for vocation promotion. The seminarians traveled with Ohio State University students in the Buckeye Catholic ministry. A number of vocations to the priesthood have come out of Ohio State, he said.
This summer, seminarians will travel to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July. The Eucharistic event is the culmination of a three-year initiative seeking to rekindle devotion to the Eucharist in the United States.
The men also typically take a pilgrimage during seminary. Some have participated in El Camino de Santiago, or, The Way of St. James, which is a pilgrimage to the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela, where St. James is buried. The pilgrimage offers seminarians a cultural experience.
Support for “A Good and Growing Need” campaign allows the diocese to continue sending seminarians to these events, enabling them to grow in the faith that they will one day give back to the many souls they serve.
Recently, the Church restructured priestly formation to include four stages of seminary: propaedeutic (preliminary instruction), discipleship, configuration and vocational synthesis.
Stages are based on an individual’s formation. A seminarian progresses to the next stage by meeting human and spiritual benchmarks rather than academic requirements.
The beginning stage, known as the propaedeutic stage, lasts a minimum of 12 months. It begins mid-August and is completed mid-August the following year, but it can last for up to three years depending on how a man progresses.
A seminarian might take several classes during the first year, but the stage is mainly based on spiritual and human formation. Seminarians in this stage spend time developing their prayer life, discerning and doing spiritual reading.
The men also practice detoxing from the culture. While technology has its benefits, Father Hahn said it has had a profound negative effect on this generation.
Seminarians do not use social media or technology, such as smart phones, for certain periods of time in the propaedeutic stage, and they are taught how to use media more responsibly.
They also meet regularly with a spiritual director – a priest who hears their confessions and helps them grow in their spiritual life – and a formation director, a priest who works with them to develop plans and goals for each area of formation, Father Hahn said.
With the addition of the propaedeutic stage, an extra year is added to seminary formation, but Father Hahn said it is important for men to spend a year focused on discernment, as it is better for a man to discern out of seminary early rather than later in his formation.
Should a man discern out of seminary after his college years, for example, the diocese would have invested at least $200,000 or more in his formation by that point. The propaedeutic stage could save the diocese money in the long term by providing an initial year of discernment.
Some men are hesitant to enter seminary for fear of having a stigma if they discern out. However, Father Hahn said, it is most important that a man follow God’s will for his life, whether he discerns that is in or out of seminary.
Currently, 27 of the 37 diocesan seminarians are studying at the Josephinum. Eight men are in Cincinnati studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology.
It is the first time in more than a decade that diocesan seminarians are studying there. Going forward, seminarians will spend half of their time in seminary at the Josephinum and the other half at Mount St. Mary’s.
Studying at two different institutions gives the men different perspectives and enriches the experience of their academic formation, Father Hahn said.
One seminarian, Deacon Jason Fox, is completing his studies at Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts before his anticipated ordination to the priesthood in May. The seminary is designed for men discerning a call to the priesthood at an older age.
The diocese pays for seminarians to visit the Holy Land and Rome during seminary. Father Hahn said it is important for them to visit the Holy Land because it is the place where Christ walked and Rome because it is the center of the Catholic Church.
At the beginning of the next academic year, two diocesan seminarians will have the opportunity to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome to enrich their academic formation, but that could present additional costs.
To continue to provide these new opportunities, programs and places of study to form seminarians, the diocese needs the backing of the faithful with their prayers and monetary contributions. To learn more, visit www.ColumbusCatholicGiving.org/Seminarian-Support-Fund.
