The Harvest Indeed Is Great

Unfortunately, throughout the Catholic world, seminaries are in an unprecedented decline. In some parts of the world, Africa for example, there appears to be a certain hope, but there is also grave concern in terms of the quality of the candidates and their motivation in becoming priests, due to a desire to escape intolerable conditions in society.

The announcement of a new seminary for the Society of St. Pius X in Buckingham County, Virginia, near Charlottesville, to replace the seminary in Winona has been a cause of great joy as well as sadness at leaving such a beloved place of study and formation.

An estate of over eleven hundred acres has been purchased: projected costs of over twenty-five million dollars are the present estimate, and a construction period of thirty months is foreseen.

All this is necessary as the present seminary of Saint Thomas is so overcrowded it almost threatens one of the essential aspects of seminary life—silence and privacy.

The new location with a proposed architectural style that has not been seen in almost a hundred years in the United States assures all the conditions required for an excellent seminary formation: a first-class location, total privacy from the outside world, an excellent climate and an atmosphere of natural silence conducive to prayer and recollection.

In the last decade seminary numbers have almost doubled, so finding a new home was a priority.

The seminary offers a complete formation—a formation of the mind and will as well as the encouragement and affirmation of natural virtue enhanced and uplifted by the supernatural. All this takes place in an atmosphere of prayer, recollection, meditation, and interior and exterior silence.

The future priests are grounded in the knowledge of philosophy and theology and sound pastoral practice. Recreation has its place and is not neglected as a healthy mind is formed in a healthy body. The house of priestly formation is dominated by the Sacred Liturgy as men are trained in the beauty of the Sacred and Holy Other.