Next week I will be visiting St. John Vianney Seminary in Saint Paul, MN. It is a Vianney Visit Day from November 16-18, 2006. This is from their website:



Anyone going?

Or, does anyone have any opinions of St. John Vianney Seminary?

I am very familiar with SJV. I know that it is a good place. Fr. Baer is a good priest and a good rector. I was a classmate of two of the Spiritual Directors, Frs. Klockman and Tollefson. They are both great priests as well.

I can't speak to the current formation process as I have been away from UST since 1998. Although I can say that I know that it is better than when I was at UST. But much of that has to do with the change in rectors. Fr. Baer is much more orthodox than Fr. Christensen.

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I was at UST from 2002-2006 and SJV is AMAZING! The formation is seriously impressive. As a Catholic Studies/Latin major, I had tons of SJV guys in my classes and 11 out of 17 of our fall Rome semester group were guys in SJV -so I got to know them pretty well. In fact, Pio Nino here on PM was one of those guys -you could pm him. So, I can tell you, SJV is AWESOME! If I were a man, I would have wanted to be there for the formation!

And yes, Fr. Baer is the best rector I've ever known. He has a great devotion to orthodoxy including a deep love for Our Lady, adoration, the liturgy, and the Pope and ALL the teachings of the magisterium -he is not embarrassed of being Catholic and he'll tell you so! He challenges the men to grow in Christ.

One of my favourite things is that SJV opens-up to other UST students and family/friends/members of the community on Thursday nights. There is an hour of adoration, evening prayer, and then a Marian procession through campus with singing followed by the Angelus at the Grotto. Then, there's Team Vianney and Theoketos (on certain nights) followed by mass where we hear some stupendous preaching.

I'm super-excited you'll be up for a visit. SJV is AMAZING!