Seminary enrolments in Australia and the United States are rising, in spite of the sex abuse and other scandals that have plagued the Catholic Church in recent years. In Australia, the seminary intake has risen from about 235 a year in 2007 to 350 in 2012. The rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Queensland, Monsignor Read more
Military conscription in Eritrea that forces seminarians and Church workers into long periods of army service is “bleeding the Church in Eritrea to death”, according to a Catholic charity. The communist government of the north-east African state, which does not set a fixed period for military service, has kept Church workers and seminarians in the Read more
In 2001 there were only 26 seminarians in England and Wales. Things are now changing. With more than 200 seminarians, the England and Wales Bishops’ Conference has confirmed the number of men training for the priesthood in England and Wales is at its highest level for nearly twenty years. This is the first time seminaries Read more
Monday evening in the Vatican Basilica, Pope Benedict presided at Vespers for the opening of the academic year in pontifical universities. His homily focused on priestly ministry. The Pope then went on to identify three preconditions for a priest’s life to ensure its conformity to Christ: “the aspiration to collaborate with Jesus in spreading the Read more
There may have been a royal wedding at Westminster Abbey on Friday, April 29 which captured the world’s media attention but for those at Marist Seminary, Auckland there was only one celebration on their minds. On Saturday April 30 at St Annes Manurewa, seminarian Petero Chanel Aparama Matairatu SM made his perpetual profession in the Read more