At Creighton University, seminarians spend summer on spirituality

Published: 2004-08-31

OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- More than 100 seminarians spent their summer in spiritual formation this year at Creighton University's Institute for Priestly Formation. Since it was founded in 1994, the 10-week summer program has introduced more than 500 diocesan seminarians from across the United States to the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola and an intense period of daily study and prayer, including weekly sessions with a spiritual director. The program is intended as a complement to the ongoing spiritual formation seminarians receive in their own seminaries. Father Richard J. Gabuzda, co-founder and director of the institute, said the first summer program in 1995 attracted six seminarians. As word of the program spread, the number gradually grew, to the point that more than 100 seminarians enrolled each of the past two summers, he said. Father Gabuzda, a priest of the Omaha Archdiocese, said the response of seminarians who go through the program is "very, very positive."

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