By Fr. Brian Kane
Rector, St Gregory the Great Seminary and Director of Seminarians
for the Register
“The Church needs and deserves healthy priests.”
In the wake of a culture that is becoming more and more secular, a church wounded by scandal, and young people distracted by the world, this quote, from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ new document on priestly formation, Program of Priestly Formation (PPF), #196, articulates why young men discerning a call to the priesthood need and deserve good seminary formation. It is at seminaries, like St. Gregory the Great in Seward, where two important needs coalesce. The Church needs healthy priests, and young men need a place in which they can become “missionary disciples who are ‘in love’ with the Master, shepherds ‘with the smell of the sheep,’ who live in their midst to bring the mercy of God to them.” (PPF #3)
In the continuing effort to fulfill these needs, St. Gregory the Great Seminary’s formation program is expanding and adding an experienced priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, Father Benjamin Holdren, to direct a new “propaedeutic” stage of formation.
This announcement is coupled with the news that the annual Bishop’s Appeal for Vocations was again successful in collecting gifts that directly support men who are discerning a call to the priesthood in the Diocese of Lincoln. The collection this year just surpassed previous numbers, raising more than $1.1 million.
The PPF, approved in June 2022, is based on the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (Ratio), a document released by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy in 2016. Throughout its 200 pages, the PPF outlines the Church’s guidelines and requirements for four new stages of seminary formation. The PPF points out that “the Church continues to place the highest value on the work of priestly formation, because it is linked to the very mission of the Church, especially the evangelization of humanity: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” (Mt 28:19) (PPF #16)
The Ratio divides what was previously two stages of formation, college and theology, into four: the propaedeutic stage, meaning preparatory, and the discipleship stage, both of which will be found at St. Gregory’s, along with the configuration stage; and the vocational synthesis stage, which will be found at theological seminaries, such as Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where Lincoln seminarians study.
At St. Gregory’s, in the discipleship stage, “systematic formation as a disciple of Jesus Christ is the aim. The seminarian develops his principal strengths and grows to identify, acknowledge, and begin to overcome his shortcomings.” (PPF #32)
It is during this stage that he also receives his intellectual formation in philosophy as preparation for the study of theology later in the configuration stage.
In the new propaedeutic stage, “the man is introduced to the life of the Church as a community in which excellence of character is nurtured, to the practice of daily participation in the Holy Mass, to love for Sacred Scripture, to the prayer of the church (the Liturgy of the Hours), and to the basic elements of the Christian faith as he discerns attentively and purposefully his potential vocation to the priesthood in the presence of a supportive community of fellow seminarians and formators.” (PPF #32) It is an opportunity for the seminarian to grow in deeper self-awareness so that he may be better prepared to enter more fully into formation.
The propaedeutic stage is placed at the beginning of seminary formation to enable seminarians to better prepare to enter the discipleship stage and more intense intellectual formation in addition to their human, spiritual and pastoral formation. Men entering St. Gregory’s will begin their formation in a setting where these goals become a more natural part of how they live.
The Church has added the propaedeutic stage because “the current secular culture—‘the economy of exclusion, the idolatry of money, the iniquity that generates violence, the primacy of appearance over being, postmodern individualism and globalization, as well as the reality of ethical relativism and religious indifference’—presents many questions and challenges.” (PPF #18) These challenges directly affect young men discerning a call to the priesthood. The PPF emphasizes that seminary formation is shaped by these realities and needs to adapt in order to better serve and form men who are entering the seminary, who are living in this culture, and who will one day minister in a similar environment as priests.
The church needs healthy priests, and seminarians need a healthy seminary setting in which they are “supported by a trusting atmosphere of personal and communal accompaniment.” (PPF # 91)
St. Gregory the Great Seminary is staffed by dedicated lay men and women, religious sisters, and diocesan priests who accompany the seminarian through the stages of formation.
The PPF requires that the propaedeutic stage has a dedicated priest formator who is “at the service of the mystery of vocation in the seminarian,” who also “helps to discern whether such a call is present, and to foster it to its fullness by relating to the man as a shepherd and a father.” (PPF #99)
Bishop James Conley has appointed Father Holdren to carry out this important role as the director of the propaedeutic stage at St. Gregory’s.
Father Holdren was ordained in 2007. After serving one year at St. Patrick Parish in Lincoln, he worked as the assistant pastor and assistant vocations director at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for seven years. He has served for the last eight years as the pastor of St. Peter Parish in Bellwood and St. Joseph Parish in Bellwood. He is also the chaplain and a theology teacher at Aquinas Catholic High School in David City and Servant Minister of Priests. In 2017, Father Holdren helped start the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Family (MHSF), a formation program for married couples.
Father Holdren is a trained spiritual director, having completed the three-year Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) spiritual director certification program in 2019. His extensive pastoral experience, coupled with his marriage formation and spiritual director training, makes him the ideal person to lead this new stage of seminary formation.
Speaking about his new role, Father Holdren said, “I’m incredibly grateful to the people in Bellwood and at Aquinas Catholic. I have loved building relationships with them over these years and being welcomed into many parts of their lives. It’s always tough leaving a place you love, but I see how our Lord has been giving me the opportunities and experiences to prepare me to journey with our seminarians. It’s exciting to be able to help our future priests find the love of our Father, and to see themselves as He sees them, so they can bring His love to all they will serve.”
If you or someone you know is interested in discerning a call to the priesthood, take note that St. Gregory’s is hosting a Come and See weekend March 10-12 at the seminary for young men who are college age or high school juniors and seniors to see what seminary life is like.
The seminary is also hosting its annual “Table of St. Gregory” banquet Sunday, March 26. Please contact the seminary at (402) 643-4052 for more information about either event.
Visitors are welcome to attend Mass (10 a.m.) with tours following, or Evening Prayer (5:30 p.m.) at the seminary on our Visitor Sundays, Feb. 26 and April 23.
