Jim Mooney | Eagle Eye Air Photo
Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington

As one of the responses to Pope Benedict’s calling this year The Year for Priests, I have just published a pastoral letter on vocations, “I Will Give You Shepherds” (see center section), which takes its inspiration from Pope John Paul II’s great apostolic letter of the same title. I hope that you, the People of God of this Church on Long Island, will read it and join me in seeking to become proponents of vocations to priesthood and religious life. After the Council of Trent, great bishops, like St. Charles Borromeo, developed the seminary system which, while undergoing many changes and adaptations, is still today the primary way men are educated and formed for the diocesan priesthood. Our diocese has been blessed by the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception at Lloyd Harbor in Huntington. Most of the priests of the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre received their theological training there. Some began their studies at the Pius X High School Prep Seminary which closed in 1984 and more have done their college preparation at what is now the College Seminary Residence of the Immaculate Conception at Douglaston in Queens.

In January of this year, Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and I were asked to consider working with the Archdiocese of New York to see if it would be worthwhile to consider various possibilities of our two institutions having a closer relationship with St. Joseph Seminary at Dunwoodie, New York. The two of us began a conversation with Archbishop Timothy Dolan about this. The three of us determined this to be a challenging pastoral question that deserved our consideration. After a few meetings we decided that we wanted to look at various possibilities for the future but that we needed more information and suggestions before we could make an informed decision about possible models of collaboration among these three institutions of formation for priests. The Archbishop suggested that we should do this within a specific time frame and I suggested that any such process must be an open one so that everyone in our three dioceses might know what we were discussing and have the possibility of expressing an opinion or offering an idea.

Msgr. Robert Brennan, the vicar general, was asked by me to chair a commission to gather facts and present recommendations within a four to five month period. Bishop DiMarzio named Bishop Frank Caggiano, his vicar general, and Archbishop Dolan named the rector of his seminary, Bishop Gerald Walsh, who together compose the commission charged with this task. They have already begun work, involving others in the collection of a great deal of data which they, along with whatever assistance they might need, will examine and discuss with the aim of proposing the best use of the resources of our three dioceses for the future education and formation of priests.

Because I am convinced that projects of this sort can be harmed by excessive secrecy and because I want all those with an interest to be informed about the real goals of this commission, I have explained our project to the vicars, the cabinet of the diocese, the finance council of the diocese, the Presbyteral Council of the diocese, the rector and faculty of our diocesan seminary and, this month, to the Board of Governors of the Seminary and now, via this column, to all the faithful of the diocese.

About five years ago, the Congregation for Education in Rome conducted apostolic visitations of all the U.S. seminaries. That office sent a detailed report of the visitation of each diocesan seminary to the individual diocesan bishop. You will be happy to know that the evaluation of our diocesan seminary was very positive, commending the seminary and making a few suggestions which we had already undertaken and have fulfilled. The Congregation also sent a general letter to all the bishops of the United States giving us an overview of their findings and a few general suggestions for our consideration in the future. One of those was the observation that, in the opinion of the leadership of the Congregation, there were too many “major seminaries” (for example ours and New York’s) and that we might wish to examine some possible mergers.

You can therefore see that this is one possibility of the commission headed by Msgr. Brennan. You also could easily deduce that one easy solution would be to merge our seminary and that of the Archdiocese of New York to have one major seminary or theologate. And that is an option. However, it is not the only option nor at this point can I, or anyone, say it is the best or most logical option for us to fulfill our Episcopal responsibility to provide the best formation we can for the future priests of our three dioceses. Msgr. Brennan and Bishops Caggiano and Walsh are beginning to look at all the possibilities using the resources and material, which is quite extensive, about all three institutions.

There are several elements of this I wish to be clearly kept in mind. Our common commitment as bishops and our shared goal are to provide the best possible education and formation for the future priests of our three dioceses. Whatever specific charges each of these places will have after the bishops have seen the recommendations and made their decisions, all three, Huntington, Douglaston, Dunwoodie, will remain as houses of formation and education and will have the support of all three bishops. Because I know how cherished an institution our seminary at Huntington is as the place where most of our priests have been formed, I want to be sure that the priests, deacons and faithful of our diocese feel free to share their reactions with me or with Msgr. Brennan in the next few months. Already we have heard some good suggestions. But the process is very much an open one. I for one can say that I do not know at this point what proposal, from keeping the status quo to any number of future configurations, will be persuasive to me and to my brother bishops. I do know we want the best for our dioceses, for our priests and future priests and our people. For that reason I do not hesitate to close these words with a sincere plea that all of you pray for Archbishop Dolan, Bishop DiMarzio and me in the months ahead, that the Lord will guide our deliberations and the Holy Spirit inspire our decisions.