• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Dan McSane, a third-year theology seminarian from the Diocese of Peoria, served as a chaplain for the Mount st. Mary's University lacrosse team. (Courtesy Mount St. Mary's University)

Blessed priest part of Mount’s impact

October 3, 2017
By Erik Zygmont
Filed Under: Local News, News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

EMMITSBURG – “Behind every seminarian, I see tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of people whose lives he will touch,” said Monsignor Andrew R. Baker, rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. “Who are the most influential people in the world? Priests are, for certain.”

Monsignor Baker, who was appointed rector by Archbishop William E. Lori in July 2015, wants the approximately 120 future priests currently at the Mount to transmit an influence over and above their own.

“Holiness isn’t our work; it’s the work of the Holy Spirit in us,” Monsignor Baker explained. “Priests have got to be docile, to grace and to the Holy Spirit. They have to have a prayer life so their windows are open, so to speak, to God’s will.”

Since its 1808 founding, the bucolic Mount, on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, has formed more than 2,600 priests from across the U.S. and beyond who exemplify such qualities.

Blessed Father Stanley Rother, a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City who was ordained in 1963 and  was to be beatified Sept. 23, stands out in a long list of heavy-hitting alumni.

While Father Rother had been previously asked to withdraw from Assumption Seminary in San Antonio for low marks – rumor had it that the farm-raised young man had taken on too many labor-intensive extra duties – his ordinary, Bishop Victor Reed of what was then the Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa, saw his potential and sent him to the Mount for a final chance.

After his ordination, Father Rother served a few associate pastorships in Oklahoma before leaving in 1968 for a mission to natives in rural Guatemala, where he spent the rest of his life.

In his ministry to the Tz’utujil people, which included the full complement of corporal and spiritual works of mercy, Father Rother exhibited docility to the Holy Spirit but not to those lesser powers that despised the potency of his influence.

He learned he was on a kill list but famously refused to abandon his sheep, and was shot in the head in his rectory July 28, 1981. In 2015, Pope Francis confirmed that the first U.S.-born martyr had been murdered “in odium fidei” (in hatred of the faith), allowing his cause for beatification to proceed.

Starting with Bishop Reed who got him in the door, Father Rother’s mentors and instructors at the Mount took it upon themselves to understand his gifts and challenges. Monsignor Baker is doing the same with today’s future priests, who, he noted, have “big hearts.”

“They want to do great things, and they understand almost immediately the need for a real strong prayer life,” he said. “They’re eager to be engaged with culture and society and people, and they’re very energetic.”

He is preparing future priests for the prospect of living alone, and possibly managing large parishes and clusters, necessitating that their influence – described in Scripture, Monsignor Baker noted, as “light, leaven and salt” – develop its full reach.

“What do light, leaven and salt do? When they get into something, they transform it,” he said. “Society will blossom.”

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Erik Zygmont

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori and Supreme Knight Kelly meet with Pope Leo

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

| Latest Local News |

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

Radio Interview: Exploring the Nicene Creed – Part Two

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

| Latest World News |

Russia Ukraine Vatican peace

Pope: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia, Ukraine

Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

Planned Parenthood

Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops

school choice

ANALYSIS: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ gives school-choice advocates partial victory with more to do

Notre Dame prepares to reopen towers’ tour with return of famed statues of saints to rooftop

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia, Ukraine
  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors
  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass
  • Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops
  • ANALYSIS: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ gives school-choice advocates partial victory with more to do
  • Notre Dame prepares to reopen towers’ tour with return of famed statues of saints to rooftop
  • After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home
  • Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students
  • Synod office provides guidelines to help local churches, bishops implement synodality

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en