By ministering to people on streets and on campus, seminarians gain pastoral skills

ST. PAUL, MINN. (OSV News) — Starting in early 2022, St. John Vianney College Seminary student John Paul Narog spent some of his Saturdays with his fellow undergraduate seminarians in St. Paul, talking about using the right body language, starting conversations and praying with people on the streets of the Twin Cities.

“Posture is huge — crossed arms is a big no-no,” Narog, now a senior at St. John Vianney, told the men participating in the street ministry. Narog also advised the seminarians to approach people on the street from an angle rather than going straight toward them.

“You never want them to feel pressured or cornered,” Narog told The Catholic Spirit, news outlet of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Missionaries from the Denver-based ministry Christ in the City had visited the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 2021 to train St. John Vianney seminarians, including Narog, in communicating with those who are unhoused. The nonprofit builds relationships with the unhoused in the street and teaches volunteers to form other leaders and evangelize.

Seeking to introduce those they encountered to Jesus, the men participating in the street ministry wanted to offer a friendly and prayerful presence near homeless shelters and other urban areas in the Twin Cities. Street evangelization is one of St. John Vianney’s several efforts at apostolic outreach that together help its 108 seminarians understand the dignity of the human person and build relational and leadership skills, seminary leaders said.

During their third year, seminarians are required to participate in street evangelization. But some, including Narog, keep up their ministry after meeting the requirement. Along with street evangelization, the seminarians pray together at the St. Paul Planned Parenthood abortion facility, teach faith formation, minister to peers, receive other pastoral ministry training and go on mission trips.

Not all the apostolic outreaches are new. But in response to updated guidelines on priestly formation from the U.S. bishops, St. John Vianney College Seminary has restructured its apostolic outreach formation and added programs that, along with mission trips, give seminarians opportunities to encounter people living in poverty, which is among the new guidelines, said Father Jeff Norfolk, a spiritual director at the seminary, formation adviser and apostolic outreach coordinator.

One change was introducing a propaedeutic, or preparatory, stage in the first year and a half of seminary formation, when seminarians discuss priestly identity, including human and spiritual dimensions of formation.

During the later years of seminary formation at St. John Vianney, seminarians continue to focus on human and spiritual dimensions but also become more involved in the other two dimensions, intellectual and pastoral-apostolic formation, said Father Jonathan Kelly, the rector.

Seminarians also have exposure to people living in poverty during their propaedeutic year, Father Kelly said.

While the 39 seminarians now in the propaedeutic stage initially focus less on apostolic outreach and academics than upperclassmen, the seminary recognizes that many college-age men have natural apostolic zeal and the seminary provides opportunities for them to serve, said Father Kelly, who is also president of the National Association of College Seminaries.

“When these guys are (ages) 18 to 22, they want to take the hill and conquer the mountain,” Father Kelly said. “They want to be a part of something greater.”

At the start of their second semester as freshmen, the seminarians go on a mission trip to help people living in Alabama, Father Norfolk said. Later in their formation they can travel to India to serve with St. Teresa of Kolkata’s Missionaries of Charity, he said.

Meanwhile, working with people who are living in poverty locally through street evangelization and other outreach efforts can help seminarians see people’s needs right in their own backyard rather than having to go on a mission trip, Father Kelly said.

“Teaching (seminarians), no matter what the size of the diocese, how do you interact with people who are struggling with food, struggling with finances?” Father Norfolk said. “They’re going to knock on your parish door and be part of your parish. How do you respond?”

One of the seminarians’ first outreaches during the propaedeutic stage is praying together outside the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in St. Paul.

Patrick Storms — who is discerning priesthood for the archdiocese and will graduate from St. John Vianney 2027 — said recently in the seminary’s publication, Vianney News, that while praying at the abortion facility with fellow seminarians, he has witnessed lives being saved as sidewalk counselors help women see that they and their babies are loved.

Storms said he wasn’t bothered that it took several visits to see the fruits of his work. “You might not see people turn around the first time you go to Planned Parenthood, or ever, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t make an impact,” he said. “The prayers and time you offered up to God are not going to go unused.”

Seminarians serve in other ways, including teaching faith formation and participating in a pastoral ministry practicum. As seniors, they can choose their service in a peer-related ministry, including ministering to students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul or through St. John Vianney’s apostolate, Last Chance Mass, a weekly 9 p.m. Sunday Mass the seminary has offered on its campus for about 20 years, Father Norfolk said.

Joe Etnier, a seminarian at St. John Vianney, completed his peer ministry outreach requirement by evangelizing those who attend the Last Chance Mass.

“Sometimes we only want to talk about the faith with people we know,” he told Vianney News, “people we’re comfortable with, people we know will receive it, but we can go out of our comfort zones and talk to those people who need to hear it. If we don’t, who will?”

Narog has shifted away from street evangelization to focus on helping with seminary Mass preparation as part of his peer ministry outreach requirement as a senior, he told The Catholic Spirit. He plans to pursue the priesthood for the Diocese of Duluth through graduate studies and formation at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul this fall.

But he continues to have an interest in street evangelization.

“Overall, my time at SJV with all the apostolic (outreach) has been amazing,” he said. “It’s just been a huge blessing and it’s preparing me for future ministry, so I’m really grateful that I had all these opportunities.”

Apostolic outreach that encourages seminarians to leave their comfort zone is essential in preparing them to be 21st century priests, Father Norfolk said.

“The culture is shifting so much and there are more needs happening in the world,” he said, “especially as people get further from God. That creates an even greater need for God.”

This story was originally published by The Catholic Spirit and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.

St. John Vianney College Seminary released a video series this spring titled “Heart of the Father” about the apostolic outreach experiences of seminarians in formation. Filmed in the fall of 2024, the videos are available at https://sjvseminary.org/general/men-in-the-arena-apostolic-outreach-at-sjv.

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