Emmitsburg seminary boasts record number of new students

EMMITSBURG — While many seminaries around the country have struggled to attract students in recent years, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg is bursting at the seams.

The seminary in rural Maryland has grown so popular that a record number of new students has begun classes there this year, bringing the seminarians enrolled there to the highest level in more than a decade.

There are currently 164 men in formation for the priesthood at the Mount, as locals call it; 57 of them are new this year.

Most of the newcomers are members of the first-year class or are pre-theologians completing the church’s undergraduate academic requirements. The total number of new men and the number in pre-theology are both at all-time highs.

In all, the seminary has enrolled 36 fourth-year men, 28 in the third-year program, 31 in second year, 41 in first year and 28 in pre-theology. Nine are from the Baltimore Archdiocese, in which the seminary is located.

The school is currently constructing a $3.8 million hall to add 46 seminarian rooms. The hall will relieve overcrowding and increase capacity to about 170. But even then, seminary leaders anticipate that the institution will fill up immediately.

Why this flood in the midst of a 30-year national seminarian drought that has only recently started to turn around?

Father Kevin Rhoades, the seminary’s rector, cites a balanced program focused on the spiritual, academic and pastoral formation of priests; increased training for Hispanic ministry; and a growing reputation for academic excellence. But what is really putting the Mount on the map is its reputation for shaping “holy men” for the priesthood, he said.

“People are hungry for holy priests,” Father Rhoades said. “The bishops sense that. They’re sending their men to our seminary because we put Christ at the center of the community.”

Seminarians at the Mount are required to attend daily Mass. The Mount is also one of the few U.S. seminaries to require students to attend a daily holy hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

Pre-theology student Louis Bianco, a 24-year-old parishioner at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, loves the focus on prayer.

“Just sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament, putting all your fears, joys and concerns before the Lord really helps in the discernment process,” he said.

Father Rhoades said another attraction to Mount St. Mary’s for many bishops and vocation directors is the school’s commitment to the church’s magisterium.

This year, some 22 dioceses and archdioceses and one religious community are represented among the new seminarians. More than 20 percent of the new seminarians were born outside the United States.

“Bishops have a lot of confidence in the formation their priests receive here,” said Father Rhoades. “We don’t have to recruit. It really is a blessing.”

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

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