Seminary Highschools And Such

[littleflower+JMJ]

[quote name='thedude' post='1267850' date='May 8 2007, 12:59 AM']Why was it closed?[/quote]

Financial reasons that wasn't even from them......the diocese had to cut back somewhere and they choose the school as one of the things to close down. It was going so great too! I know of several guys who probably would have become priests if they had attended it after all.

[kenrockthefirst]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1267209' date='May 7 2007, 04:28 PM']Let's not be too handsoffish, though, now. I think it's perfectly natural that there be this understood idea within the family that at least one of the kids is probably going to go for the religious or priestly vocation... I think there should be a high degree of prestige within the family understood as coming with that choice, too.[/quote]

This is what initially triggered my question. I overheard a priest's conversation regarding the fact that back in the day, it was understood, particularly in large families, that someone would become a priest, and that, as you suggest, there was a high degree of honor or prestige that would accrue to the family as a result of that.

What I'm thinking of in respect of my own sons are, for example, Samuel's mother dedicating him to the Lord, or John the Baptist's parents. There is a definite sense of sacrifice in the thought that a particular "branch" will not bear any fruit. Ultimately, however, the call must come from God. The question is, how can I be sensitive to that, and more importantly, how can my boys be sensitive to that?

[Veritas]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1266392' date='May 6 2007, 09:36 PM']so say I want to raise my future family somewhere where the following would be available and plausibly visible options for my children:

-seminary high schools
-fully habited (so they'd be visible hehe) religious orders

is that possible anymore? are there any seminary high schools left on the earth? I don't want the only possible option for one of my children who might receive the call of God to the seminary to be to wait until after high school or after college before the seminary would even consider allowing him to discern through study.[/quote]

+

Chicago. Quigley is real solid, at least the last I heard.

[url="http://www.quigley.org/"]http://www.quigley.org/[/url]

[-I---Love]

I spent some time on the Quigley website - quite disappointing. I could be wrong, but from the website I certainly wouldn't send my kids there.

[Maggyie]

I do believe the last year of operations for Quigley was '06. They're closed now, I think.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='Maggie' post='1278044' date='May 20 2007, 01:38 PM']I do believe the last year of operations for Quigley was '06. They're closed now, I think.[/quote]
No, according to their website they're still open.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='MissScripture' post='1278361' date='May 21 2007, 01:43 AM']No, according to their website they're still open.[/quote]

The last day of class was this past Thursday. The archdiocese is selling their office building and moving operations to the Quigley building. At least the chapel stays.

The big question is what is going to happen to the endowment fund (I have heard that it is more than $10 million).

I hope this isn't a way of getting $$$ for lawsuit settlements.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='-I---Love' post='1278008' date='May 20 2007, 11:53 AM']I spent some time on the Quigley website - quite disappointing. I could be wrong, but from the website I certainly wouldn't send my kids there.[/quote]

Speaking as a Quigley alumnus, may I ask you to elaborate?

Edited June 10, 2007 by Norseman82

[Norseman82]

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1292015' date='Jun 10 2007, 04:01 PM']Speaking as a Quigley alumnus, may I ask you to elaborate?[/quote]

for I---love

[bonoducchi]

An article regarding the closing of Quigley last Friday from the Washington Post.

[url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061501894.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...7061501894.html[/url]

[Veritas]

[quote name='thedude' post='1267832' date='May 8 2007, 12:42 AM']I think the way I would go about it is having sure they had a lot of close interaction with religious. As long as they are around them and know they are normal people, I think they would give a religious vocation serious thought. I think that is mostly what we need - to tell young people that religious are not "different" people unlike ourselves and that it is a wonderful vocation that should be considered by all. I think there is a tendency to view it, even among the lay faithful (not just the world at large), as weird and something that is to be somewhat discouraged for their children. I'm not sure we need to necessarily say "I hope one of you becomes a religious, but if you don't that is fine," but let kids explore all that the religious life is. I think the problem is that too many Catholic parents don't understand it either, which is the root of the problem.[/quote]

+

1. Invite your priest over to dinner, seriously. All my good Catholic friends with kids have priests over for dinner. The priests love it, and it is good for the kids. This way they grow up naturally realizing that it is an option.

2. Have your boys be altar servers. Again, they see the priest in a low pressure environment. Cut flowers with your girls and bring them to Saint Joseph, protector of Virgins and say a little prayer.

3. Have your kids do lots of activities on/about/with the saints. Coloring books, stories, paper dolls... Most of them were priests or religious. No pushing here, just room for natural inclination to grow.

4. PRAY FOR YOUR LOCAL PRIESTS, RELIGIOUS, SEMINARIANS and the POPE! Have pictures up and pray WITH YOUR KIDS for Father so and so and Sister so and so, in their ministry of such and such. Again, no pressure here, just involvement and good exposure.

5. Bring your kids to daily Mass once or twice a week. This way, they learn it is not something we "have" to do on Sunday, it is something we "get" to do!

6. Pray the Rosary with your kids (not the whole thing while their little). There is an awesome EWTN tape/dvd you can order. Pray for vocations.

7. At dinner, have everyone ask for the intercession of a saint after the meal prayer.

Yes, SUGGEST that they might have a calling, but you must encourage your children to discern. DO NOT PUSH THEM INTO A VOCATION. That is part of the reason we had so many priests leave the priesthood in the 1970's and so many bad priests right now pushing for married priests and women "priests".

Edited June 18, 2007 by Veritas

[Aloysius]

[quote]Yes, SUGGEST that they might have a calling, but you must encourage your children to discern. DO NOT PUSH THEM INTO A VOCATION. That is part of the reason we had so many priests leave the priesthood in the 1970's and so many bad priests right now pushing for married priests and women "priests".[/quote]

I totally disagree with that assessment. The priests who left the priesthood in the 70's either entered it with the assumption that the Church was going to let them all get married and use birth control one day, or developed that expectation some time after their entrance into the priesthood. It's hippy nonsense to say they somehow realized that they had been pressured by their families and decided they had to be true to themselves; most, if not all, left for selfish reasons and/or because their political agendas in the Church had been defeated by Rome.

I agree not to push any one or the other of them into some type of calling; but the understood prestige paradigm gives a sort of incentive... a basically understood assumption that whichever of them steps up will be bringing honor to the family and will have much prestige for that decision. No one ever left the priesthood because their family offered prestige to whichever sibling became a priest... even if some might've justified such things to themselves later in that manner, they probably actually left for many other reasons and then needed to explain to themselves why they never should have been there anyway.

[Veritas]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1298387' date='Jun 19 2007, 10:51 AM']I totally disagree with that assessment. The priests who left the priesthood in the 70's either entered it with the assumption that the Church was going to let them all get married and use birth control one day, or developed that expectation some time after their entrance into the priesthood. It's hippy nonsense to say they somehow realized that they had been pressured by their families and decided they had to be true to themselves; most, if not all, left for selfish reasons and/or because their political agendas in the Church had been defeated by Rome.

I agree not to push any one or the other of them into some type of calling; but the understood prestige paradigm gives a sort of incentive... a basically understood assumption that whichever of them steps up will be bringing honor to the family and will have much prestige for that decision. No one ever left the priesthood because their family offered prestige to whichever sibling became a priest... even if some might've justified such things to themselves later in that manner, they probably actually left for many other reasons and then needed to explain to themselves why they never should have been there anyway.[/quote]

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Have you ever spent time in the seminary, studied with seminarians, or had friends, who were or are seminarians? Young men, especially good Catholic teenagers, are apt. to do things to please their parents -especially their fathers. When young children and young men know something of what will make their parents happiest and what will garner the most respect, they are very easily led to do something that they aren't really called to do. This causes a lot of suffering. This, in addition to the reasons you mentioned above, led many men into the priesthood without the real foundation -namely, the call- to sustain it. My point is, let's avoid that mistake. Let's encourage discernment, let's encourage God's will, recognizing the very real possibility of priesthood or religious life.

Perhaps it's only semantics, and we are on the same page.

[Norseman82]

Jeszcze raz...

[quote name='Norseman82' post='1292015' date='Jun 10 2007, 04:01 PM']Speaking as a Quigley alumnus, may I ask you to elaborate?[/quote]

for I---love

[missionarybelle]

The washington post article said "Its closure will leave just seven preparatory seminaries with a combined enrollment of about 500 students in the United States. This, at a time when the number of priests in the United States has dropped from nearly 59,000 in 1975 to about 42,000 last year."

so I guess there are 7 petit seminaires

St. Laurence high school in WI
[url="http://www.stlawrence.edu/"]http://www.stlawrence.edu/[/url]

Cathedral Preparatory Seminary in NY
[url="http://www.cathedralprepseminary.com/"]http://www.cathedralprepseminary.com/[/url]

2 of them. I found a few which were closed by now. one of them even proudly listed among it's alumni, a man who was a leader in the gay and lesbian rights movement. that's where i really would want to send my boys.