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Seminarians rely on CSA tuition support

By Robert Delaney
Of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 6, 2005

DETROIT — Catholic Services Appeal funding for the seminary and additional money to assist seminarians "just shows how much support the people of God have for those studying to be priests," says Sacred Heart Major Seminary student Phil Ching.

Ching, 22, graduated last Saturday from the seminary's college division with a bachelor of arts in philosophy. He will begin work toward a master of divinity – and ordination four years from now – when he returns to the seminary in the fall.

Phil Ching will enter the graduate division of Sacred Heart Major Seminary this fall. He anticipates being ordained a priest in 2009.

At a very basic level, the CSA funds the operating budget for the seminary, as it does for most of the ministries of the Archdiocese of Detroit. But CSA funds also make possible other benefits for seminarians studying to become priests for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

As an undergraduate seminarian, Ching has also benefited from $1,000 a year in tuition assistance made possible by CSA support, plus a $100 a month stipend for expenses that just began this academic year.

When he enters the seminary's graduate division this fall, his tuition – which will jump from the $9,412 he paid in his last undergraduate year to $14,600 a year – will be entirely covered by the CSA, leaving only his room and board ($6,250) to be paid by Ching. That policy was instituted in the 1980s by Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka after he became concerned that the time spent working at outside jobs was distracting seminarians too much from their studies.

"That means quite a lot, because tuition here is not really affordable. As seminarians, we're taught to count our blessings, and we look at it as a very serious gift," Ching says.

Of 29 undergraduate seminarians at Sacred Heart, 15 are studying for the Detroit Archdiocese; of the 38 in the theologate (graduate school), 16 are studying for Detroit.

Ching grew up in Royal Oak, attending the grade school and high school of National Shrine of the Little Flower. He says he recalls first expressing an interest in the priesthood when he was in second grade, but adds that his mother has said he expressed interest even earlier.

A youth conference he attended at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio in between his freshman and sophomore years in high school revived his sense of vocation, he says, adding that as a senior he began making concrete plans to enter seminary.

As to his hopes for his eventual priestly ministry, Ching says he just wants to be open to whatever kind of ministry the bishop will assign him to.

Helping to nurture the vocation discernment process before a prospective future priest even enters seminary is the archdiocesan Vocation Office, another ministry funded by the CSA.

"We're the initial intake point. We arrange discernment weekends at the seminary – three a year – plus two overnight retreats, and seminary Night of Reflection evenings, all held at the seminary, says Fr. James Bilot, director of the Vocation Office.

While its primary job is promoting vocations to the priesthood, the office also collaborates with the vocation officers of the vowed religious communities, not only to direct men who might be better suited to becoming a religious order priest to some possible communities, but also to refer people discerning vocations as religious brothers or sisters.

"We work together. After all, we're all part of the Church," Fr. Bilot says.

The office also works with Catholic high schools and grade schools to put on vocation awareness days, and arranges the four annual Junior High Vocation Days every year at the seminary. "It's for seventh-grade boys and girls – they meet with seminarians and religious brothers and sisters, and the cardinal or one of the auxiliary bishops celebrates Mass for them in the seminary chapel," he explains.

CSA dollars also make possible special programs and promotional efforts, such as the Try It On campaign of several years ago. That 2002 campaign resulted in four men entering seminary in 2002 and five in 2003, and there are five people exploring religious communities because of it, Fr. Bilot says. Just this year, he adds, two more men have expressed interest who had initially been identified during Try It On activities.

Fr. Bilot says he not only appreciates the fact that his office is funded by the CSA, but is also grateful for the assistance he received as a seminarian. "It helped me to become the priest I am today," he says.