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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS—Joe Shaute was flying back to Atlanta from a
pilgrimage to Rome, Italy, when God spoke to him.
“The Lord’s message to me was ‘New Orleans is in
your future.’”
Little did Father Shaute, ordained this past July, know that New
Orleans and Notre Dame Seminary would continue to influence his life and his
ministry even after he graduated.
Father Shaute, a parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Church in
Marietta, attended Notre Dame Seminary from 1996 to 2001, graduating summa cum
laude with his master of divinity degree. During his initial visit to the
seminary, he was struck by its grandeur.
“My first impression was just ‘wow,’” he said
of the seminary’s main building. “It’s just one of those
‘wow’ buildings, just very impressive. You see this heavy French
furniture and French paintings. It’s an intimidating building, but the
people who are there are what give the place so much life.”
The life of Notre Dame Seminary began when the cornerstone was
laid for the handsome chateau-like building on May 7, 1922. The seminary began
functioning on Sept. 18, 1923, with 25 students from three Louisiana dioceses
registering for philosophy and theology courses. In 1925 the archbishop of New
Orleans’ residence was built next to the seminary.
From the 1920s until 1967, the Marist Fathers of the Washington
Province were in charge of the seminary. The first rector was Father Charles
Dubray, SM. The number of students remained small through the formative years,
not exceeding 60 until September 1932.
In the early 1950s, as enrollment proved too large for the 90
students’ rooms, Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel dedicated funds, raised
to memorialize his 25th anniversary as a bishop and his 50th as a priest, to
build St. Joseph Hall. St. Joseph Hall has student and faculty rooms, the
seminary library with a capacity for 200,000 volumes, and an auditorium.
A few noteworthy events have occurred during the past decade which
have become a part of the seminary’s history. Outstanding among those was
the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1987. Not only was this the first visit of
any pope to New Orleans, but for the two nights of his sojourn the pope slept
in the residence of the New Orleans archbishop, and the first enthusiastic
group to greet the pope were Notre Dame seminarians.
Notre Dame Seminary is located in the Carrollton section in the
heart of New Orleans, a world-renowned center of festivities including Mardi
Gras and Jazzfest, which features local, national and international music, arts
and crafts and delicious food.
New Orleans also offers many opportunities for pastoral fieldwork,
an essential part of the formation at Notre Dame Seminary.
“Notre Dame is regarded for its pastoral formation,”
Father Shaute said. “They are training you to be a pastor—that is the
focus. In classes, they always make it a point of discussion: ‘How would
this apply in a real life situation, in a parish?’”
Seminarians at Notre Dame are required to complete clinical
pastoral education, a summer of ministry usually at a hospital. Father Shaute
spent his CPE at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta one summer.
“CPE was one of the best experiences I had in my five years
at Notre Dame,” he said.
As a parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Church in Marietta, just
a few blocks away from Kennestone Hospital, Father Shaute has had a great
opportunity to apply his seminary education.
“My parish assignment has required me to draw on all my
learning from seminary. The influence of Notre Dame is that ministry for me is
less scary because once you’re done with CPE, you’re so exposed to so
many different things that you will be thrown into as a priest. CPE gives you
the sensitivity you need.”
Father Shaute said that students later follow up with faculty
about their experiences in CPE.
“You go back to Notre Dame Seminary at the end of your summer
and you have follow-up meetings. It’s not just about education and
ministry—it’s about education, ministry and reflection,” he
said. “You learn from your ministry and then, when you add that
reflection, especially reflection with others, you create a powerful learning
dynamic.”
“What Notre Dame is really good at is, at the classroom level
you are trained in a particular subject, then during the summer you are put
into a situation where those skills are put to good use,” he said.
“They build their academic curriculum around the experiential part of your
training. The learning, then application, is what makes the program so solid
because those are woven together.”
Msgr. David Talley, former vocations director and now judicial
vicar, said that he also completed CPE at his seminary, St. Meinrad in Indiana,
and found the program so useful that he chose to make it a requirement for all
Atlanta seminarians.
“I remember how difficult and how good it was for me,”
he said. “And I have incredible respect for Notre Dame and their
formation. At Notre Dame, CPE is an integral part of their formation
experience.”
Another important part of formation at Notre Dame Seminary is the
Acompaño program. All seminarians, usually after their first year of
theology, take a 10-day mission trip to either the Yucatan in Mexico or to
Nicaragua, in order to become more familiar with the missionary activity of the
church.
“Part of it is helping to build homes, part of it is just
cultural exposure, and part of it is that you are going to one of the poorest
countries in the world,” Father Shaute said.
“‘Acompaño’ means to accompany—it’s not like
you’re going down there to be these great missionaries, changing
people’s world. You’re going down there to be with people.”
Michael Windham, one of 11 Atlanta seminarians in formation at
Notre Dame, who is in his last year of pre-theology, has already made his
Acompaño trip.
“It helps you really come into contact with how we relate to
others,” he said. “You can really relate to anybody when your heart
is behind it, and you realize that you see God not only in yourself, but in the
faces looking back at you.”
In Nicaragua and in New Orleans, Windham, 42, has fully immersed
himself in his formation at the seminary, serving as head sacristan. He said he
feels that the seminary is a “perfect match” for him.
“You have men from 20 to 60 years old. It’s a huge range
of age. You also have a huge range of cultures. There are guys here from
everywhere.”
Windham, who is originally from Birmingham, Ala., is scheduled to
be ordained to the priesthood in 2006. He has been pleasantly surprised by the
strong Catholic population in the Louisiana city.
“I couldn’t believe the number of Catholic churches.
There is almost one on every street corner,” he said. “What really
surprised me is that there are a lot of priests and Religious walking around.
You don’t see that in Atlanta.”
Father Steven Yander, chaplain at St. Joseph’s Hospital in
Atlanta, is an alumnus of Notre Dame who was ordained in 1974. He, too, enjoyed
his experience in New Orleans.
“It was a very exciting time to be in the seminary in a major
city. We were still dealing with Vietnam and a lot of protests,” he said.
“The most important part of Notre Dame was to find spirituality as a
diocesan priest and to be involved in the community in New Orleans.”
Father Yander recalled with fondness the Spirit-filled Masses at
the seminary.
“Liturgy was always very important and very well done.
Everyone sang because everyone wanted to be there,” he said. “It was
a wonderful way to experience liturgy.”
In 2001, Windham said that the seminary experience forms a strong
community.
“It allows us to form a brotherhood and a very close
friendship—almost like a family because you go through the trials
together,” he said.
Windham is also grateful to the faculty, who, he said, work
closely with each seminarian.
“They want you to find out who you are and if the priesthood
is a match,” he said.
Msgr. Talley said that the relationship between faculty and
seminarians at Notre Dame is important.
“The student is an integral part of the evaluation
process,” he said, adding that at most seminaries, the evaluation is
written, but at Notre Dame, the seminarian meets with several members of the
faculty, including the rector, as well as his vocations director or archbishop.
“If there were some tensions between a seminarian and a
professor, when all your thoughts are written, you are never able to articulate
that. When your evaluation is done live and in person, if a field education
director or professor challenges a seminarian, he has the opportunity to
respond and ask questions. It’s essentially a meeting of the minds, which
is really the purpose of an evaluation.”
And though the final evaluation is a long way off for Windham, he
doesn’t mind making the seminary his home for a while.
“Notre Dame is where I belong,” he said. “I have to
honestly say that I really fit in well here.” |
