On Saturday evening, August 11, the Serra Club of Fort Worth hosted its annual dinner for our seminarians prior to the new school year. This event followed our annual seminary convocation at the Cedarbrake Retreat Center in the Diocese of Austin. This year we have 29 seminarians, from philosophy, pre-theology and theology. Approximately 20 were able to be present for the dinner, the rest having returned earlier for orientation preparation, finishing Clinical-Pastoral education, and also our seminarians in Rome and Mexico. This year we have 8 new seminarians with 13 inquires already for next year. Our seminarians are in formation for priestly ministry at the following locations: Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas; St. Joseph in St. Benedict, Louisiana, for philosophy; Assumption in San Antonio, Texas; St. Mary’s in Houston, Texas; Theological College at the Catholic University of America, The North American College in Rome; and the Seminario Hispano in Mexico City. A number of these seminaries, along with others in our country, now have waiting lists, and thus applications have to be in early. Our experience, like a number of other Dioceses, is that the trend for candidates is younger. When I spoke to all of them, I reflected that in some ways, this is a challenging time to be a priest, but it is also a time when the Lord is calling priests to be “saints and heroes” of the Faith, and that is their call. We thank the Serra Club for their generosity and for their help in building a "culture of vocations," and for the generosity of the people of the Diocese of Fort Worth in responding with giving hearts to help our local Church provide for their education.
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| Bishop Kevin Vann enjoys a congenial moment with seminarians (left to right) Rijo Philip, Brett Metzler, Maurice Moon, and Daniel Cochran during the Serran/Seminarian Dinner held Aug. 11 at St. Patrick Cathedral in the new Pastoral Center. Photo by Joan Kurkowski-Gillen |
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| A group picture with the seminarians. Photo by Joan Kurkowski-Gillen |