As I looked at the new posters that went up a few weeks ago that feature the seminarians studying for the Diocese of Kalamazoo, I came to the realization that it has been a while since I have said anything about our seminarians. The diocese had one ordination to the priesthood this summer. We also accepted two men into the seminary system for the diocese. When I counted up the numbers for this year, they were split evenly: Four men in theology and four men in the college program.
I was pleased to see that we have one candidate for priesthood this year: Paul Thuantho. When I was the pastor at St. Joseph in Battle Creek for a short time, he was one of my faithful high school servers and part of the Burmese community that had settled in Battle Creek. The final year that I was there, he made his application to the seminary and was accepted. Now, all these years later, he is approaching his ordination to priesthood. Please keep him in your prayers as well as the other seven men who are studying for the priesthood. May the Lord also send us more vocations to the priesthood as well!
It's both good and bad that we are ordaining only one priest a year. Just so far this year, we lost four of our retired priests (Fr. Consani, Fr. White, Fr. Naas, and Fr. Fernando). After enjoying several years of multiple priests here at St. Catherine, now there are only two of us. I know that people have grown excited that I have 3 car stalls being built on the rectory. Unfortunately, we need to have the priests available to have the cars to fill those 3 stalls. Somehow, even though I took the last step to priesthood 32 years ago as I was ordained a transitional deacon, I’m still one of the younger priests in this diocese. Every time I cite this statistic, it causes me to squirm a bit, and I’m sure that many of you respond in the same way.
Let us use this opportunity, as we pray for our seminarians, to also pray for those who might be considering a call to priesthood. If there is someone that is considering this, please come and talk with me, Fr. Joseph, or any other priest that you know. God is still calling men to the priesthood. But in the midst of a busy world, it’s sometimes hard to hear that call. I always appreciated all the support I received as a seminarian. May we support our seminarians through prayer and in other ways.