Seminary rector wants priests who can dialogue, evangelize

Published: 2005-02-03

MENLO PARK, Calif. (CNS) -- Forming priests who will respond to Pope John Paul II's call for a "new evangelization" and share the pope's eagerness to dialogue with the world are top priorities for Sulpician Father Gerald L. Brown, rector of St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park. "One of the great challenges for today's seminaries is how to come to terms with the kind of evangelization that is needed in contemporary times," he said in an interview with Catholic San Francisco, newspaper of the San Francisco Archdiocese. "How do we tap into the hunger that's there and, at the same time, encourage the value of coming together as church?" Father Brown, a former provincial superior of the U.S. Sulpicians, became rector of St. Patrick's last July. He said seminary leaders must learn new ways of finding and reaching out to people who may have vocations to the priesthood, religious life or lay ministry. "A lot of people in this generation are looking for something very meaningful in their lives," Father Brown said. "They're searching. ... The question is: How do we create opportunities for people in those age groups to reflect on the possibility of a vocation, how do we tap into their lives at that moment when they're about ready to make a major life decision?"

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