Only one in four men on reality show chose the seminary -- or did he?

Published: 2006-07-31

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Of the four men featured this spring on A&E's reality show "God or the Girl," three of them decided against entering the seminary to pursue a priestly vocation. The fourth, Steve Horvath of Virginia, who has been on a student missionary assignment in Lincoln, Neb., said he would apply to a seminary. Then he got stuck on the application. "The last parts that I ended up not completing were ... 'What do you think a Catholic priest should be' and 'What is calling me to the Catholic priesthood?'" Horvath told Catholic News Service in a July 27 telephone interview from Fairfax, Va.. "I needed some more subjective and personal reasons (than what he had been writing). In taking that to prayer, I really didn't feel that calling." Horvath instead will spend a third year as a lay missionary at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. The feedback to the show has been good, he added. "I got one e-mail from a lady who was dying of cancer out in Wyoming. saying that if she had a Catholic priest like me she would have converted," Horvath said. As for the others profiled in "God or the Girl," Mike Lechniak of Pennsylvania had a girlfriend and a teaching offer. Joe Adair of Ohio, who had been in two religious orders' seminary programs and had been seen vacillating during the series, also decided against the seminary. So did Dan DeMatte of Ohio, who had broken up with his girlfriend to focus on discerning what vocation he had.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .