Keeping Christ in Christmas

On Saturday December 12, I walked ten miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) with about 135 other people in the 56^th Annual Christmas Peace Pilgrimage. I’m not certain when I started participating in this yearly walk, but I’ve been doing it at least since 2002 (I remember hearing the speaker listed for that year on their website). I have only missed a couple of the walks since that time.  We walk on the shoulder of Route 191 most of the way. Some drivers beep to show their support; others call out positive comments. This year, just before our first rest stop, one driver called out “I hope you’re keeping Christ in Christmas.” I guess, for some people, if they see a large group of people with signs that read “Peace”, they assume those folks must be liberals, radicals, or socialists and most likely atheists. If there had been time, we could have told him that the walk is sponsored by a lot of Christian churches and religious groups; that we stop at three churches along the way to rest and enjoy some refreshments; that we end the walk at the Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, where we sing a couple Christmas carols. Here’s a picture of the group getting ready to move on from the second rest stop at First Baptist Church, which provided us with hot chocolate.

Every year when I get to the end of the walk my feet, legs and hips are hurting quite a bit and I wonder whether I should do the walk the next year. And as the date approaches for the next walk (2^nd Saturday in December), I wonder if I really want to put my body through that again. But, I always push those thoughts aside and head out for the walk. I do it for 3 reasons. First, more than 100 people walking down Route 191 just before Christmas carrying signs that read “Peace” is a good witness to the Christmas message of “Peace on earth, good will to men [and women]”. It was especially relevant this year with all the political talk about bombing ISIS and refusing entrance to refugees and all the fear being spread by some politicians. Second, as I walk, it is an opportunity to think about the importance of peace in our world and to consider ways that I can help foster that peace. Third, it is an opportunity to get together with others for whom bringing about peace is important. I always see people whom I recognize from previous walks. But there are also people participating for whom this is their first time doing the walk. During this year’s walk, I spoke with people I know and people I had just met. Here’s a link to the Christmas Peace Pilgrimage website. You can see pictures from this year’s walk by clicking on the Gallery link.

On Sunday, my wife Pat and I spent much of the day at the Christmas Market at Assumption Church in Morristown, NJ. This was another good Christmas season event. Pat had been asked by our friends, Sergio and Johanna Burani, to come to sell some of the books she has written. The catch? Vendors were asked to donate 50% of their profits to Africa Surgery. Sergio and Johanna are regular fundraisers for Africa Surgery and all the profits from Photos bySergio go to support Africa Surgery. Pat and I had read information about this charity on its website, so we knew that the organization helps coordinate surgery for children and adults living in Sierra Leone. On the website, we watched the video “The White Man on the Bicycle” about Tom Johnson, the founder. And at the end of the Christmas Market, we had the opportunity to talk with Tom about his organization. Tom had spent time in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps volunteer. We usually think of Peace Corps volunteers as being right out of college. However, Tom told us he was 38 years old when he joined the Peace Corps. After leaving the Peace Corps, he returned to Sierra Leone a number of years later and at the end of his trip, he left some money to help a couple people obtain surgeries they needed. That was the beginning of a mission that has helped hundreds of people there. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been devastated by years of war. Tom showed us pictures of a child with a severe curvature of the spine related to tuberculosis. Untreated, this condition could result in paralysis. But, with the help of Africa Surgery, this young man will be able to lead a pretty normal life. Tom spends most of his year in Morristown, raising money and obtaining supplies for Africa Surgery. But he told us he spends 4 to 5 months a year in Sierra Leone, coordinating resources to provide the needed medical services. In fact, he told us he was leaving within the week to go there. Africa Surgery provides essential services to some very needy individuals. I like the idea of donating to a charity that I have a direct or indirect connection to. At the Christmas Market, Pat donated all of her profits to Africa Surgery. Although the Christmas Market is a relatively small operation, it raised $8000 for Africa Surgery. I encourage you to take a look at Africa Surgery’s website.

It’s now less than a week until Christmas day. We’ve done most of our shopping. Practically all the credit for that goes to Pat, who has spent a lot of time on-line ordering gifts, shopping in stores and wrapping gifts. While giving gifts to our loved ones is an important part of the season, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to spend some time thinking about the more spiritual aspects of Christmas and to be reminded that we are all God’s children and that Jesus came to show God’s love to all of us. Merry Christmas to all.

Easing My Way Back into "The World"

In previous blog posts about life in the seminary in the 1960’s, I wrote about changes happening in the Church at that time. Primarily, these were the result of Pope John XXIII and his convening of the Second Vatican Council to open the windows and let in fresh air, to bring the Church into the modern world. I wrote about how, before Vatican II, the emphasis was on our sinfulness and our unworthiness before God. But the Council emphasized how much God loves us. Before the Council, seminarians were kept separate from “the World” and its temptations. After the Council, seminarians and priests were expected to engage with the world and bring God’s love to others. I’ve also written about how not everyone in the Catholic Church was gung-ho about the changes.

During my last year at St. Charles College seminary (my sophomore college year), seminary life was in flux. For most of the men graduating from St. Charles, the next step would be two more years of college at St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street in downtown Baltimore. While we were still at St. Charles, we were in contact with seminarians we knew who had moved on to St. Mary’s. We heard from them how different St. Mary’s was from St. Charles – how much more freedom they had. Faculty at St. Mary’s seemed to have embraced the spirit of Vatican II more than the faculty at St. Charles.

Life at St. Charles was still very regimented. However, there was one significant change. During my freshman year of college, the faculty had allowed the establishment of a student council. During that year, we went through a process of identifying how the student council would function. Our sophomore year was its first actual year. Officers were elected to the Student Council and each class elected representatives. I was one of the representatives chosen by my class. With all the changes going on in the Church and our awareness of things going on at St. Mary’s, there was a lot of discussion at Student Council meetings about whether changes could be made at St. Charles.

The actions of the Student Council weren’t belligerent or revolutionary, but we did ask questions about why some things had to be done a certain way and why they couldn’t change. In other words, we were questioning Authority. And Authority (the Rector and the faculty) didn’t like it. At the end of the year, there was a banquet for the graduating (sophomore) class. The Rector (i.e., the priest in charge of the seminary) gave a memorable speech, the main point of which was that the graduating class should have been going out wearing clean white hats. But the hats we wore were stained with dirt because of our lack of commitment and dedication to the ideals of the seminary program of preparation for the priesthood. More memorable was the speech given later in the banquet by Ken Hallahan, the Student Council president. He talked about how individuals who are working to get things done and make a difference in life find it difficult to keep their hats white. (Most of us connected more with Ken’s comments than the Rector’s.)

I expected that the following year I would be at St. Mary’s Paca Street, like those in classes ahead of me. But, because of the faculty assessment that identified me as a troublemaker, instead the Bishop of Trenton sent me and a few other seminarians who also had bad recommendations to Christ the King Seminary at St. Bonaventure University. I would spend one year at Christ the King and then leave the seminary and finish my college career at St. Bonaventure.

Although I would have preferred to go to St. Mary’s with my fellow classmates, I think my going to Christ the King was good for me. Along with allowing me the opportunity to make some good friends in the seminary there, it also provided a nice transition from the sheltered world of St. Charles. We had our Philosophy courses at the seminary. But we also took four classes at the University with other college students. And we had an opportunity to interact with the college students at other times when we were not in class. So, I also made some friends there who were not seminarians. I continued to spend most of my time at the seminary. But I also had more interactions with non-seminary college students. When I left the seminary and transferred to the University for my senior year, the transition was easier. I also consider the next two years as part of my transition. Because my first year out of college, I taught religion at a Catholic High School just outside of Trenton. So most of my time was spent interacting with Catholic teachers and high school students. And most of my day was spent talking about religion. Following that year, I took a job working at The Bancroft School, a day and residential program for individuals with developmental disabilities. With that, my transition from the sheltered life of the seminary was complete.

Originally, I had planned to include in this blog entry some more thoughts about the changes inspired by the Second Vatican Council and how they have not borne the fruits that some would have hoped. But that will have to wait till my next blog entry.

Seminary Reminiscences from the 1960s - Part 4

I’ve written a number of blog entries about life in a Catholic seminary in the 1960’s. Here are some additional reminiscences about those years.

I entered St. Charles College Seminary as a freshman in high school. Like many boys of that age, I enjoyed playing sports. Since the seminary was a closed environment, separated from “the World”, the sports available to us were intramural. We had teams that competed against one another in all of the major sports (football, basketball, baseball and track).

Although basketball was my favorite, I enjoyed playing all the sports. For football, we played “touch football” where the play stopped when a defensive player touched with two hands the offensive player with the ball. Maybe not as exciting to some as tackle football but we had a good time. And the only equipment required was a pair of cleats. As I recall, basketball was played in a building that had no heat. Our high school yearbook refers to it as Tuberculosis Hall. Baseball was played in both fall and spring. For track and field, we had one meet in October and one in May.

For most of high school, there were four teams: Trojans, Vikings, Spartans and Crusaders. And, to accommodate as many students as possible, for each sport there was a “A” league, a “B” league and at times a “C” league. During my senior year, there were only three teams. I was the captain of the Vikings; Bill Reilly was captain of the Spartans; and Bob Callen was captain of the Trojans. Here’s a picture of the three of us with the two Masters of Games, Frank Benedetta and Joe Petryszak, who organized the teams and schedules. Each class had its own class colors. Ours were green and white. We are wearing our class’s football jerseys. I’m number 5 in this picture. Also, here’s a picture from a track race with my friend, Larry McAvoy, ahead of the field.

Along with the four sports mentioned above, we also had tennis and handball courts available. And, during the winter, there was an outdoor ice rink for those who wanted to skate. I spent a lot of time on that rink. The handball courts were very popular. They were outdoor courts with a front wall and two short side walls (maybe six feet long). I remember having handball gloves with padding in the palm. That little black handball was pretty hard and our hands were usually pretty red after a few games. We had pool and billiards tables and ping pong tables that got a lot of use.

We also had other activities for students to participate in. I remember that we had movies shown in the auditorium on some Saturday nights. Because it was a seminary in the 1960’s, the movies were all PG rated. I remember seeing a number of movies with Doris Day in them. It seemed that in each of them she sang Que Sera Sera (“Que Sera Sera/ Whaterver will be, will be/The future’s not ours to see/Que Sera Sera”). Each grade had a glee club that performed at concerts held twice a year (in the fall and spring). The glee clubs were led by a student conductor. And there were talent shows where individuals or groups could perform. We also put on plays, in which some of the students had to play female roles, Sounds strange as I think about it, but what choice did we have. I specifically remember some Shakespearean plays being performed. Here’s a picture from the play J.B., a contemporary version of the story of Job, from the Bible. And a picture of our sophomore college glee club.

After high school, we were at St. Charles for two years of college. The freshman college students were referred to as Poets and the sophomore students as Rhets (short for Rhetoricians). Rhetoric is “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing”. One of the curious things I remember involves the grading of a college English term paper. This term paper came towards the end of the school year and counted for a significant percentage of the grade. In Father Eaton’s classes, our papers were returned with grades made up of two letters. But we did not know what the letters signified and he did not tell us at the beginning what they referred to. This caused a lot of confusion and anxiety among us. We eventually figured out from the pattern of the grades that he had substituted for the numbers 0-9 for the letters “blackwhite” (or perhaps “whiteblack”, I don’t remember for sure).

I previously wrote some things about the Refectory (Dining Hall). One of the things related to the Refectory that Larry McAvoy reminded me about is the many bets involving desserts that were placed on sports games or pool and ping pong games. This could be a bet of a single dessert or a bet of a week’s worth of desserts or even two weeks worth. You can imagine the dismay of some students when the dessert they owed because of a lost bet ended up being one of their favorites. Very unpleasant!

After graduating from high school, we moved into the newer college building. As opposed to the large dormitory rooms for high school students (56 in a dorm), those in college had a room they shared with one other student. Instead of going to a large study hall, college students had desks in their rooms where they would study at the designated times. As you can imagine, the move from high school to college was a big deal.

I’ve always felt compelled to follow the rules and in the seminary there were a lot of rules. When we were in high school and living a very communal life, it was not so easy to get away with breaking rules. But, in college, with a room that we shared with only one other person, it was easier to break some rules. My freshman year, I had a roommate who didn’t seem much concerned with the rules. We were not allowed to have radios but he had a small portable transistor radio that he listened to in the room with an earphone. We were supposed to have personal books approved by the priest who was the school librarian. In our room, he was reading Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian. I’m pretty sure it would not have been approved by the librarian. He just didn’t seem like he was serious about being in the seminary. It was his first year in the seminary and he left before the end of the year.

Ours was a small world. But over the next few years, it was about to change significantly for all of us. And also for St. Charles. We graduated from the junior college in 1967. St. Charles was part of St. Mary's Seminary and University. Two years after our graduation from St. Charles, the high school section was closed and the junior and senior classes of St. Mary’s moved from Paca St. in downtown Baltimore to the St. Charles campus and the combined college was renamed St. Mary’s Seminary College. Eight years later, that college closed and the campus was sold to a developer, who converted it into senior housing (Charlestown Retirement Community). So St. Charles College, which opened its doors in 1848, came to a rather abrupt end. The same thing would happen to many other minor seminaries throughout the country.

Changes in the Catholic Church in the 1960's

When I was growing up, the Mass was in Latin and the priest who celebrated the Mass faced the altar, which was against the wall, and had his back to the congregation. The advantage of the Mass being in Latin was that you could go to Mass anywhere in the world and it would be the same. There was consistency and familiarity in it. The disadvantage, of course, was that you could not understand what the priest was saying. Many Catholics had a Missal that included the prayers in their own language. But others attending the Mass would do things such as pray the Rosary. The Mass was an activity where the priest re-enacted Christ's Last Supper, when he changed bread into Christ’s body and wine into his blood. The Mass also was a re-enactment of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, in which he saved us from our sins, through his death and resurrection. The priest was an "alter Christus" (another Christ) and by his actions we were brought to salvation. No need for us to understand what was going on or to participate in the process.

One of the most obvious effects of the Second Vatican Council was the changes in the Mass. And the biggest change was that the Mass was prayed in the vernacular (that is, the language of the people participating in the Mass). In his book, Practicing Catholic, James Carroll writes about how different the experience of attending Mass in English was for him: “And once Catholics entered into the mystery of the Mass as literate participants instead of as passive spectators, an unprecedented renewal took hold – and my own steadfast devotion to Mass attendance until now is a measure of it.” He also describes “The arrival of English in the liturgy, and the resulting transformation of my own experience of worship …”

Additionally, the concept of the Mass changed from a sacrifice to a meal. The Mass was the re-enactment of the Last Supper and the Last Supper was a meal that Jesus shared with his apostles. The altar changed from an altar of sacrifice to an altar table around which the faithful gathered. The priest no longer faced away from the congregation, performing a ritual that they could not see. Instead, the altar was moved away from the wall and the priest faced the congregation and they could see what he was doing and could now understand the prayers, because he spoke them in their language. The congregation became an integral part of the liturgy of the Mass. Vatican Council documents even referred to the "priesthood of the laity" (the term laity referring to those Church members who were not ordained priests).

These changes came about while I was at St. Charles College minor seminary (high school and 2 years of college). St. Charles was a seminary for young men who aspired to be parish priests. The order of priests who ran the seminary was the Sulpicians (the Order of St. Sulpice). Training young men to be parish priests was the mission of their order. As with any change, some Catholics were more receptive to the changes occurring in the Church than others. Even within the clergy (priests, bishops, etc.), there were some who embraced the changes more wholeheartedly than others. For the most part, it seemed that it was the younger Sulpicians who were most enthusiastic about the changes coming forth from the Vatican Council.

One of the spiritual activities we participated in at the seminary was weekly confession. Each of us was assigned a "confessor" (a priest to whom we would go on a weekly basis to confess our sins, to be counseled about our situation and to have our sins forgiven). As freshmen in high school, we were assigned to a specific priest and given a time for our weekly confession. After that first year we could request a different confessor. During my first two years, I had a confessor who had been a priest for a number of years. I would consider him pretty traditional. I would go to my weekly confession and recite my sins; he would give some words of advice and then forgive my sins.

During my junior year, I was assigned to a different confessor. He was new to the

seminary and had been recently ordained a priest. I don't think I requested him. I think I just asked for a change of confessors. I was very lucky. Because I have always felt that he changed my life and I became a much better person and more serious about my faith because of him. For most of the time since then, I thought that the change occurred because he helped me to see that God loved me and that I was a good person, who was capable of doing many good things in my life. Recently, while reading Practicing Catholic, I got a different insight into this. In the book, James Carroll talks about the Church (the Catholic Church in general) in which he grew up (the same one in which I grew up; he is 4 years older than I am) emphasizing how we are all sinners who are unworthy of God (“Domine non sum dignus” – “Lord, I am not worthy”). The emphasis in the Church was on obedience to the Ten Commandments and the rules of the Church. James Carroll writes about having to obey The Rule during his seminary training. The Rule was a set of requirements for training future priests that was established by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The motto in the seminary James Carroll attended was "Keep the Rule and the Rule will keep you." The main responsibility of the seminarian was obedience. And I think that was the main responsibility of Catholics in general. To get to heaven, you needed to be obedient to the Commandments and the teachings of the Church.

I now believe that what happened during my junior year with this new confessor is that he emphasized to me and to the other seminarians for whom he was confessor that God is love, that he loves us and wants us to bring his love to others. During this time of the Vatican Council, the message of the Church to its members changed from "God is a God who punishes us for our sins" to "God is a God of Love". I still believe that my junior year confessor helped me change my life. But I now see this, not just as his individual message to the seminarians he was counseling, but as related to a major change that was happening in the Church. For those Catholics who grew up in the 1970s and later, this idea of a punishing God may seem foreign because, from the 1960s on, the Church's message in religion classes and homilies has been about a loving God. But, before that time, God was someone to be feared not loved.

For us seminarians, this change meant no longer being sheltered from “the world”, as we had been in the seminary. Prior to Vatican Council II, we had been taught that the ways of the world were in conflict with the ways of our religion. Now, we were expected to engage with the world and bring God’s love into it. The world saw this reflected in the participation of priests in civil rights marches and demonstrations; in their involvement in anti-war protests; in churches in inner-cities offering soup kitchens and other services to poor people, including those who did not even belong to the Catholic Church, etc. This was a time of change – and many of us embraced the change wholeheartedly.

Seminary Life in the early 1960s

In my last blog post, I wrote about entering St. Charles College Catholic minor seminary in 1961 as a freshman in high school. Here are some more details about my life there and a few anecdotes.

In the Refectory (dining hall), there were rectangular tables that each seated 8 students and the priests sat along the far wall, facing the students, ostensibly to make sure we behaved ourselves during the meals. Students took turns waiting on tables. The sophomore college students waited on the priests and got to eat their leftovers, which (no surprise) turned out to be much tastier than what the students were served.

I thought the food was generally ok and have fond memories of some of it. I always looked forward to the hot dogs and beans that we had on Saturday nights (“de gustibus non disputandum est” – Latin for “to each his own”). My recollection is that we got cold cereal for breakfast every day and that some days we got hot cereal. The cold cereal came in individual serving size boxes and extra boxes were stuffed up in between the corner braces of the tables, to be eaten at dinner if someone didn’t like the offering that evening. The worst meal we ever had was described on the menu as “mock pizza”. It was a large round cornbread about an inch high with thin slices of bologna on top and ketchup on top of the bologna. (Yumm!) I also remember that we each had our own cloth napkins and napkin holders to keep them in between meals. Mine was round and silver and had my initials on it. Here’s a picture of it. (Yes, I still have it! My mother saved it and later gave it to me.)

All the students wore slacks, dress shirts, jackets and ties (except during recreation time). During my sophomore or junior year of high school, the rector (president of the college) decided that some of the students were dressing in a way that was too “worldly”. The rector would stop students in the hallway and tell them they could no longer wear a certain piece of clothing. It was never clear exactly what the criteria were. I had a gold colored sports jacket that my parents had gotten for me when I was in 8^th grade. I was always afraid I would be stopped and told it was too worldly. But it never happened. Here's a picture of me that was taken in 8th grade.

When I was a freshman in high school our daily chapel was in the basement of the building under the main chapel. On Sundays, we freshmen would attend mass in our little chapel, go to breakfast and then attend mass with all the students in the main chapel. Since we could only receive communion once in a day and had to fast from the midnight before, we must have received communion at the earlier mass. The masses during the week would not have any singing and there was no sermon. However, on Sunday the second mass in the main chapel would be a “high mass”. There would be singing (in Latin, since this was before the Second Vatican Council). Along with the celebrant, there would be other priests functioning as deacon and sub-deacon. St. Charles College has now been converted to senior citizen housing and the chapel has been preserved and functions as a parish church. In doing some research for these blogs, I came across a website that has a number of pictures of the chapel, now called Our Lady of the Angels Chapel. I had forgotten how beautiful and ornate the chapel was. Here’s a link to that website.

At St. Charles, our high school schedule was not like a typical high school. We had a full day of classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we had a half day of classes. On those afternoons when we did not have classes, intramural sports games took place. And, once a month we would have a “walk day” on one of those afternoons. That meant we were allowed to leave the campus and go out into the community. Most times, that meant walking to Arbutus, the nearest town, where we might go bowling or shopping. My favorite recollection of these “walk days” is of getting chocolate marshmallow sundaes.

Along with “walk days”, we also had some “free days”, during which we could be out for the entire day. During my freshman year of high school, we had a “free day” on Thanksgiving Day. My parents drove from Somerville, New Jersey, to spend the day with me. I remember going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a disappointing way to celebrate the holiday. When we celebrated at home, my parents would have friends over and the food was much better. It must have been very difficult for my parents to make that trip, because in 1961 traveling was not as easy and quick at it is now. In later years we were able to go home for the Thanksgiving holiday. I was studying for the diocese of Trenton and, at some point, the seminarians from that diocese started chartering a bus that would take us to Notre Dame High School, just outside of Trenton, and pick us up there at the end of the holiday period. That made it easier on our parents. However, I also remember that, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the trip back was always very long because of all the people traveling at the end of the holiday weekend. Traffic was bumper-to-bumper on the NJ Turnpike.

Very close to our seminary,there was a high school seminary of the Paulist order and those seminarians came to St. Charles for classes. We didn’t have a very good opinion of the Paulists, because a number of those young men seemed a little strange. The strangest of them told us that he had come to earth from outer space. (Seriously.) He said he and his parents traveled to earth in a space ship and that his father died along the way and they pushed his body out of the ship and watched it burn up in the atmosphere. One day he came to class wearing what looked like a red flannel pajama top with a tie. When one of the teachers asked him about it, he admitted that that’s what it was and said he had not had time to do his laundry.

My understanding of the Paulist priests at the time was that they preached about the Catholic faith on city street corners. I’m not sure how I got that impression. But, I remember thinking that it was a bold thing to do and something I could never do. I’ve since gotten a better appreciation of the Paulists because of the writings of James Carroll, who was a Paulist priest for 5 years. The mission of the Paulists has always been to bring the teachings of the Catholic Church to American society and to integrate American values into the Church. They established Newman houses on campuses of colleges and universities that were not Catholic, at a time when the teaching of the Church emphasized Catholics not mixing with non-Catholics. Their efforts were criticized by the Vatican at the time and Popes condemned what they called modernism and “Americanism” (which the Paulists exemplified).  The founder of the Paulists, Isaac Hecker, according to James Carroll (in his book Practicing Catholic) narrowly escaped being condemned for heresy. But Fr. Hecker’s approach toward the faith gained greater acceptance during the Second Vatican Council.

I have recently been in email contact with Larry McAvoy, a friend who entered St. Charles as a freshman in high school the same year I did. He provided some additional information, which I am including here. During the earlier years, we were given access to the daily newspaper – but only the front page of the paper and the front page of the sports section. (As Larry put it “If the stories were continued inside, as they always were, tough luck.”)  We were permitted to call home once a month but needed to get permission to do so. Larry also said that we were told when we entered the seminary that 10% of our class would in the end be ordained priests. He said he believes that 12 of the 121 of us were ordained. Spot on!

Larry also reminded me about the reading of the Martyrology. Each day at the beginning of lunch, one of the college students would read about saints and martyrs who had their feast day on that particular date. Larry pointed out that the student readers all hoped they did not get assigned a certain date, on which the reading was a description of a martyr whom some of us called “Super Saint”. I don’t remember this saint’s name but the reading indicated that he was subjected to a number of tortures (e.g., being shot with arrows, dipped in boiling oil) and then ended with the words “having survived these tortures, he was beheaded”. We all knew we would be stifling laughter during the final description. No reader wanted to have to get through that reading with a straight face.

Considering that St. Charles was a Catholic seminary and those seminarians who continued on to ordination to the priesthood would take a vow of chastity (to remain celibate and not marry), it was ironic that the road the seminary was located on was called Maiden Choice Lane. During our time there, the Catholic Church would start to open itself up to “the world”. Most of us who entered as freshman in high school would not go on to ordination but would step out into “the world” and into different vocations than the one we envisioned as we began high school at St. Charles. Many years have passed since that time. In two years we will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of our graduation from St. Charles. I believe many of us look back fondly on the time we spent within those “hallowed walls”.

Life in a Catholic Seminary 1961

Recently, I’ve been re-reading James Carroll’s book Practicing Catholic. I had read it earlier and thought he provided some very interesting historical information about the Catholic Church and his own perspective of why he continues to be a “practicing Catholic”. James Carroll was a Paulist priest for five years (1969-1974). In the part of the book I have been reading, he writes about his experience in the seminary at the time of the Second Vatican Council. Reading about it reminded me of the time I spent in the seminary and prompted me to write about some of my experiences there.

James Carroll writes about that time being one of change in the Church and it certainly was. I entered St. Charles College minor seminary as a freshman high school student in the fall of 1961. The seminary I entered reflected the beliefs and values of the pre-Vatican II Church. During my first year, all the freshmen were separated from the upper classes (sophomores, juniors, seniors and those in the first two years of college). The exception to that was that about 20 second-year high schools students also lived with us. I’m sure the idea was that they would be our mentors as we began this new experience and would help ease us into our new life. But, human nature being what it is, the initiation wasn’t always supportive. They were the “big men on campus” in our little section of the seminary and some of them reveled in that role. At times, some of them were bossy and sometimes genuinely mean. They might take over a pool table or ping pong table because they were second-year men. Or, a freshman might be “jaked” (have his head pushed into a toilet while the toilet was being flushed – always clean water).

But let me back up a little and describe the situation we lived in. We basically had five areas in which we spent time. First, a sort of living area, with pool tables and ping pong tables and a trunk room (where our foot lockers were stored). Second, a sleeping area. This was a very large room on the fourth floor of the building; each of the 102 freshmen had a bed with a chair next to it. There was also a locker room, with sinks and toilets, attached to the dorm. This large, drafty dormitory room was (not affectionately) known as “Pneumonia Hall”. Third, a chapel in which the freshmen and the 20 sophomores attended morning prayers and Mass and evening prayers. Fourth, a study hall; and lastly, a locker room and showers where we could change into our “slop clothes” for leisure or sports activities.

Our day began at 5:40 am, when a bell rang to let us know it was time to get up. We would then get dressed and head off to chapel. The “Grand Silence” began after evening prayers and did not end until after morning Mass, so this all happened without any of us speaking. Our chapel was in the basement below the main chapel, close to where our recreation area was. After morning prayers there would be a period of meditation, led by one of the priests. And then, Mass.

After Mass, we went to the Refectory (Dining Hall) for breakfast. We had our meals with all of the seminarians, not just our little group. We sat at a table with students from each of the high school grades. One or two seniors were in charge of each table. Each meal we sat at the same table with the same students at our assigned seat. I think that table assignments may have changed each quarter. At breakfast, two priests joined us: one was in charge of our area and the other was the disciplinarian for the older students. At lunch, one of the college students read to us, while the rest of us ate in silence. Sometimes they read from religious books; sometimes from secular books. One of the non-religious books was about the Cocoanut Grove fire and some of the descriptions of burn injuries from the fire were not very good for the digestion. (In 1942, 492 people died in a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston.)

After breakfast, we would return to the dorm to brush teeth and get ready for classes. (We would not return again to the dorm until after evening prayers.) We all took the same classes (Latin, Math, History, English, Science and, of course, Religion). In our junior year, we got to choose between French and German; but we had to take one. After morning classes, we would return to the Refectory for lunch. And, after lunch, we had a study hall. After study hall, another class or two. Then, we had time for recreation. Sports were intramural and there were different leagues for kids of different skill levels. Sports leagues followed the seasons: football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring. We also had track and field one day in October and one in May. During my freshman year, each of our teams was captained by a sophomore. After recreation time came showers and dinner.

Every day we would have time to pray the Rosary. I can’t remember whether this occurred before or after dinner. But, I can clearly picture many young men walking outside during the good weather, silently fingering their Rosary beads. In inclement weather, we would walk through the halls of the seminary building, completing the same ritual.

In the evening, we would return to Study Hall for "Spiritual Reading", a brief period of instruction by the priest in charge of our area. Sometimes the topic would be spiritual. Sometimes it would be about study habits. One time, I remember the priest reaching into some pockets on the inside of his cassock (the long black robe he wore) and bringing out a complete meal place setting, putting it down on his desk at the front of the Study Hall and giving us a lesson in table etiquette. After this period of instruction, we would have the evening Study Hall to do our homework. Finally, we would head off to the chapel again for evening prayers. After that, 120 of us would walk to the other end of the building and walk from the basement up five flights of stairs to our fourth floor dorm, get ready for bed and wait for “lights out” (9 pm if I remember correctly).

St. Charles College opened in 1848 in Ellicott City, MD. In 1911, a fire completely destroyed the school and it was rebuilt in Catonsville, MD. St. Charles was a minor seminary (4 years of high school and 2 years of college). The main building was U shaped and made of stone with classrooms, administrative offices and the refectory in the center. The chapel was on one end and the dormitory rooms were on the other end. Ironically, St. Charles was located on Maiden Choice Lane.

In 1961, there were many seminaries for high school students; a quick look on-line leads me to believe there are very few today. In 1961, entering a seminary at that early age (14 years old for me) was an accepted practice and boys were encouraged by parish priests to enter then. In elementary school, I wanted to be a priest. My parents were devout Catholics and I was an altar boy. The parish priest was someone who was respected and looked up to.  In addition, the priests and the nuns who taught us in Catholic school told us that becoming a priest was a special calling.

 I think my going away to the seminary was probably difficult for my parents, since I was an only child. But being good Catholics, they accepted my decision. For me, it was somewhat exciting to be leaving home at such an early age. I enjoyed the camaraderie of my fellow seminarians but also missed my parents. We got to go home for vacations at Christmas and Easter and for the summer. But it was a long time to be away from home.

Nowadays, individuals interested in the priesthood are encouraged to finish high school and even college before entering a seminary. This provides them with more of an experience of what we used to call “the world” and the people in it, to whom they will be ministering. This can probably be attributed to a great extent to the Second Vatican Council and the changes that have occurred in the Church because of the Council. It’s a different world these days and the idea of sheltering young men from “the world” has been replaced by an emphasis on being in the world and being of service to the men and women who live in it.