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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
BALTIMORE—Bryan Horn’s first reaction to his seminary
was similar to the way many seminarians feel, he said.
He hated it.
Having worked in sales for several years, he was used to a life of
constant movement.
“I realized I would be in a 12-by-9 room, eating, breathing
and sleeping in the same place, 24/7.”
Eventually St. Mary’s Seminary won over Father Horn, who was
ordained to the priesthood last July.
“It took me about a year and a half to get used to it,”
he said, adding that he stuck with it because of the “realization that
this is what God has chosen for me.”
Father Horn, a parochial vicar at St. Brigid Church in Alpharetta,
studied at St. Mary’s from 1996-2001, earning his master of divinity
degree. A former linebacker who won a full football scholarship at the
University of Kansas, Father Horn said that the transition to the seminary was
difficult academically as well.
“It was a completely new language for me, especially the
first year studying philosophy. I worked for a living—I didn’t think
about it,” he joked.
Though academically difficult, the campus is easy on the eyes.
Father Horn was immediately struck by the beauty of St. Mary’s, the first
Catholic seminary in the United States.
“The campus is absolutely magnificent,” he said.
“It was built in a day when you could use all the resources and materials
you wanted, for not a lot of money, which created a grand building.”
St. Mary’s Seminary and University was founded in 1791 by the
Society of St. Sulpice, a French society of diocesan priests dedicated
exclusively to the formation of diocesan priests. At the invitation of Bishop
John Carroll, four Sulpician faculty members and five seminarians came from
Europe to Baltimore in July 1791 and opened the doors of the young
republic’s first seminary on Oct. 3.
St. Mary’s Seminary was chartered as a civil university by
the Maryland General Assembly in 1805. Pope Pius VII granted the seminary
canonical recognition as an Ecclesiastical Faculty in 1822, the first such
honor bestowed on any educational institution in this country. By virtue of its
pontifical charter, St. Mary’s is empowered to grant theological degrees
in the name of the Holy See.
The original seminary buildings were located on Paca Street in
Baltimore where the historic Chapel of the Presentation, and the Mother Seton
House, home of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, still remain. In 1929, the present
seminary was opened in the Roland Park section of Baltimore. The beaux arts
building with its inscription “Go Teach All Nations” is a recognized
landmark in Baltimore. Archbishop John F. Donoghue, a St. Mary’s alumnus,
serves on the seminary’s board of trustees.
Just being in Baltimore alone provides the seminarians with a
unique look at the priesthood in an urban setting, said Msgr. David Talley,
former vocations director.
“Baltimore is a black Catholic city and the strength of
Baltimore’s African-American community and its Catholicity gives the
seminarians a very good experience,” he said.
Ricardo Bailey, an Atlanta native, who is one of three Atlanta
seminarians currently studying at St. Mary’s, said that the location of
the seminary is ideal.
“I’m from the city. I’m not really a country
boy,” he said. “There is so much to learn about Catholicism here in
Baltimore. It is the heart of black Catholicism. One day if I’m the pastor
of a large multicultural parish or an African-American parish, I’ll be
able to take my experiences here and apply them.”
Bailey transferred to St. Mary’s from Notre Dame Seminary in
New Orleans in 1998. When he first arrived on the campus he said it reminded
him of Atlanta’s federal penitentiary.
“It was just so big—so massive,” he remembered.
He said during his visit he was taken into St. Mary’s Chapel,
where he sat and prayed in the same pew where Pope John Paul II had prayed
during his visit in 1995.
As he prayed, he was aware of how hard the formation process would
be.
“Tears came down from my eyes, and I thought ‘oh my
gosh, am I in the wrong place?’” he said. Msgr. Frank Giusta, at that
time pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Atlanta, Bailey’s home
parish, was visiting the seminary with Bailey and was with him as he prayed.
“Msgr. Giusta told me, ‘This is the place that is going
to make you into the priest you are going to be for the Archdiocese of
Atlanta,’” he said.
And Bailey, who will be ordained a transitional deacon at Our Lady
of Lourdes next month, has participated with an enthusiastic heart in his
formation.
“St. Mary’s has really challenged me to stretch myself.
My professors have told me many times that I must be available to the service
of all the church,” he said. “I am a black man and I am from the
city, but at the same time I am called to be a priest of all people. It is
really stressed to us here that (St. Mary’s) is our first assignment and
we have to take that assignment seriously.”
There are many challenges at St. Mary’s, a seminary that
prides itself on not only a strong spiritual formation process, but a strong
academic process as well.
“It’s a very challenging seminary,” Father Horn
said. “In the five years I was there, the challenge was so great that I
was ready to meet anything as a priest.”
That includes leading a church. In his third theology year at St.
Mary’s, Father Horn served as student body president.
“That was a great experience,” he said. “It really
sharpened up my leadership skills. I was able to take the student body to the
faculty and the faculty to the student body.”
Pastoral formation is also stressed. Seminarians serve both in
secular and parish environments. In his third theology year, Father Horn served
at an inner city hospital. During the fourth and fifth years, he said,
seminarians spend their weekends at a parish.
“That is challenging, too, because not only do you have the
demands of school, but you also have the demands of the parish,” he said.
But St. Mary’s isn’t all work. Seminarians gain a sense
of community with their fellow seminarians, Bailey said.
“St. Mary’s also challenges us to really be responsible
with our time. The seminary really invests in total human development,” he
said. “We are strongly encouraged to have a social life. Downstairs there
is a lounge where guys can crack open a beer and look at the game. For me, I
like to take my cigars, and me and some of the guys go outside, smoke cigars
and shoot the breeze.”
Community life at St. Mary’s also can help seminarians cope
with difficulties of life. Msgr. Pat Bishop, pastor of the Church of
Transfiguration, Marietta, who attended St. Mary’s from 1972-74,
transferred to the Baltimore seminary from St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, not
long after his mother had died. His father passed away not long after his
mother.
“From the rector to every last professor, everyone at St.
Mary’s really reached out to me and supported me,” he said, adding
that upon returning from his father’s funeral, he was taken into the
chapel for a prayer service that had been planned for his father. “I
don’t know how I would have gotten through it without them.”
Msgr. Bishop said that after the trauma of losing his parents, his
attitude slipped and he began to question his calling, but that the seminary
provided emotional support.
“If I had not transferred to St. Mary’s, I would not be
a priest today. I really believe that,” he said. “They saved my
vocation.”
Bailey, who takes classes that range from canon law to Ignatian
spirituality to the Gospel of Matthew, said that seminary has also helped him
to get through the events of Sept. 11.
“We’ve been really talking about it in our
classes,” he said. “We’ve been told that we need to really
realize the long-term effect. We have to be mature and strong and lead the
people of God to understand what is going on, but most of all we have to give
them the hope that is rooted in the love and example of Jesus. I think
today’s priests are going to be prepared well.”
A continuing education and formation center for priests provides
St. Mary’s seminarians with added insight into their future ministries.
“The priests are energized by our community and by our
formation and our prayer life,” Bailey said. “And, in turn, they
share with us their wisdom as pastors—real-life issues that we’ll
face as priests in the next few years.”
Father Horn said that he would go back to St. Mary’s “in
a minute” if he were to attend seminary again.
“I use something I learned there every day,” he said.
“It’s a complete formational process. When you leave there,
you’re ready to be a priest.” |
