About closing Quigley…

Speaking of needing more courageous truth-tellers out there (see post below)…

I have to address this article I recently saw about the closing of Quigley.

I’ve seen and heard the story wrongly reported, and just want to make a point or two of clarification.

This AP story says:

For more than a century, Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary has prepared teenage boys for the priesthood, largely unchanged as the city around it was transformed from gritty industrial center to modern metropolis.

That is true. Quigley has a long and noble history.

But another kind of change finally caught up with Quigley.

True enough, but what was that change….?

The 102-year-old seminary – a Gothic-style building in a tony shopping district – closed recently because of a shrinking student body that has seen just one of its 3,000 graduates ordained in the last 17 years.

Whatever other reasons there are behind this, all the reporting gets that last point wrong, and it really shows a careless lack of basic research. In fact, they’re just reporting from the reporting, and not bothering to check it with an original source. There are currently about a dozen Quigley graduates in some stage of formation for the priesthood, covering roughly the past dozen years. That’s not a great number, but it’s not one young man in 17 years going forward. But this article, and many others in the media, spin the story of vocations to the priesthood in a negative spiral.

Roman Catholic preparatory seminaries have all but vanished in the United States, highlighting the church’s struggle to find men willing to dedicate themselves to the celibate priesthood.

To make celibacy in the priesthood the pivotal point here is tendentious. It is deceitful, and unfair to all the men who embrace the sacrament of Holy Orders in the fullness of its tradition. “Cultural Catholics” do that, which is why Benedict often talks about relativism.

When researching a story, reporters can selectively pick any particular source and point of view to highlight, and give it legitimacy beyond what it deserves. This one quotes Notre Dame historian R. Scott Appleby, saying:

“It’s a culture that raises a collective eyebrow at the notion of a young man or a young woman [who] would renounce sexuality or sexual self-expression,” he said.

…”raises a collective eyebrow”?

 “There’s a general skepticism about the emotional health of people who would do that voluntarily,” particularly at such a young age, he said.

Baloney.

“There’s a general skepticism…?” Appleby is assigning his own viewpoint to the general population in a transparent academic exercise of cynicism. The reporter takes it up from there… 

Within the church itself, more people began questioning the wisdom of training teenagers to become priests and forgo sex.

Within the culture even beyond the church, more people are questioning the mindlessness of allowing teenagers to engage in freewheeling sex. The reason John Paul II drew millions of young people to World Youth Day over all those years, from across the globe, is because he dared them to realize the greatness of serving others, the power of self-sacrifice, the dignity of love made perfect in chastity and responsbility.

That’s why the seminaries are growing now with men from the JPII generation. Men like those at St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul, whose motto is “Men in Christ. Men of the Church. Men for Others.”

I was talking with Fr. Burke Masters recently about the sudden burst of interest in vocations. He’s the Joliet Diocese Vocations Director, himself a former baseball star with a compelling story of “the call” to the priesthood. The example of good priests, good bishops, Benedict following JPII, are all inspiring new legions of young men. In fact, Fr. Masters and I had that discussion just after the first Mass of the newly ordained, young, Fr. Ryan Larson, an excellent example of today’s vocations. Fr. Larson has fully engaged the world, went through military training as a seminarian and hopes to serve as an Army chaplain in a few years. First, he’s serving a large suburban parish outside Chicago…as a great witness to the fire of faith and zeal for ministering to people in the culture.

Both of my sons went through Quigley. One is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Chicago, an outstanding leader, servant, and a courageous truth-teller. That says more about vocations today than these stories that portray themselves as news.

There’s news out there about the priesthood alright, but you’re not hearing the half of it.