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.