BELMONT — Nearly 80 young women attended the Duc In Altum discernment retreat June 24-28 at Belmont Abbey College. The week included a Solemn High Mass at St. Michael Church in Gastonia and ended with a Mass offered by Father Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte. Almost 300 young women in four years have attended the week-long retreat.
— Photo provided by Megan Whiteside
College seminary’s rapid growth leads to need for four houses in four years
Enrollment at the new St. Joseph College Seminary has grown so rapidly that the temporary quarters in Charlotte housing the men are getting cramped. The permanent home for the college seminary is under construction in Mount Holly and is expected to be complete before the start of the next school year. (Photos provided by Tekton Ministries)CHARLOTTE — Men in black cassocks darting across Hillside Avenue. Priests or sisters zipping around in a golf cart. A large white “Seminibus,” loaded up with 26 college-aged men. These are just some of the sights you’ll catch every day at St. Joseph College Seminary – currently on a temporary campus consisting of four separate houses situated around St. Ann Church on Park Road.
As everyone looks forward to the permanent seminary building opening next year, current living arrangements can’t come to an end too soon, college seminary leaders and students say. However, the energy and logistics required to run such a large enterprise are bearing unexpected fruit: patience, good humor, and tight bonds of brotherhood.
St. Joseph College Seminary opened in the fall of 2016 in a former convent behind St. Ann School, comfortably housing an inaugural class of eight college seminarians. Fast forward three years, and the college seminary now has 26 men living in four separate houses surrounding St. Ann Church. Space is tight, and everyone can’t gather together in one place for mealtimes, Mass or communal prayer unless they go over to St Ann’s.
The chapel is a perfect example of the college seminary’s obvious growing pains.
“When we first started, we had no tabernacle, as it wasn’t completed in time,” explains Father Matthew Kauth, the college seminary’s rector. “The altar wasn’t finished yet, and we didn’t have any choir stalls. I remember the original class, the Alpha class, saying to me that it felt like Christmas every day, because something new kept coming in. And when we got these choir stalls, a rather lovely thing happened one night. I had gone to bed when I heard singing in the chapel. I snuck in and caught them all just sitting in the choir stalls, taking them for a test drive. They just wanted to try them out. Back then we didn’t fill them – because there were 10 spaces, and we only had eight men at the time.”
In the second year, enrollment in the college seminary doubled to 16 men. The first house could fit only eight men, so the diocese bought a second house on Hillside Avenue.
Eyeing the 10 stalls in the chapel, Father Kauth decided to install a large bench at the back of the room.
“And for the third year, I remember the bishop saying, ‘You can’t stuff any more men in there.’ And I said, ‘Well, we could move things around a little bit more.’ We added little stools everywhere, and we rotated the men depending on what their responsibilities were for the day. And so we were able to get the 20 in there.”
Now, in the college seminary’s fourth year, hopes of getting all of the seminarians in the original chapel are impossible.
“We had our opening Mass one day, and we actually got everyone in there, but talk about shoulder-to-shoulder!” Father Kauth laughs. “Communal life is one thing, and the fraternity the men share is phenomenal, but I don’t want to push it too much. They don’t have any room to move, and of course, you can’t turn in the chapel without knocking something over – and all that while you are trying to be solemn.”
College seminarian Patrick Martin, among the latest group of entrants, dubbed the Delta class, agrees.
“Fitting everybody in the chapel is hard at times, because we’ve grown to a rather large number for a rather small room,” Martin says. “Every spot and stool is filled by a seminarian, so it’s getting a little crammed. I’m looking forward to moving to the new seminary and not having to worry about knocking into my brother during prayer, and being able to really focus on God.”
The problem with cramped quarters goes beyond the chapel.
“It’s definitely a struggle, because I’m used to having my own room, my own space, my own privacy,” says Sebastian Alvarez. “I’m an only child, so I appreciate the fraternity we have here, but there are moments where you get annoyed because we’re living together 24/7. Grand Silence is just beautiful because you have this quiet time to yourself and you can just think about your day.”
The growth is “a great problem to have,” Father Kauth acknowledges. And it has prompted creative thinking about scheduling and organizing among the college seminarians and their formators.
There are rotating schedules for Mass in the chapel, mealtimes and communal prayer.
“What we’ve done this year is to have two Masses,” he says. “We have a server Mass and then a regular Mass. At 5:30 a.m., seven men come to the chapel for the server Mass, which is funny, because that’s the number of seminarians we had after the second semester in our first year.
“After this Mass, we go over to St. Ann, and we have mental prayer and morning prayer, and instead of the seminarians staying there for Holy Mass, they leave and go to their respective houses and set up for breakfast. The men do the same thing for lunch, and the same thing for dinner. They pray apart from everyone that week, and one of the priests usually prays with them and helps set up the various meals. The men do this on a rotation, so there are consistently seven men missing.”
“The men roll with it so well,” he notes. “Sure, we bump into each other constantly, and things get broken all the time, but they get broken anyway, because it’s a house full of men. But the percentage goes up exponentially when you put 26 men in a room – 30, if you count the priests – in a room that’s made for about 15.”
No matter what, though, the most important aspect about life at St. Joseph College Seminary is its unwavering focus on Jesus.
“Christ lives in each of the houses,” Father Kauth says. “Each house has a Blessed Sacrament chapel where the men can spend time with Our Lord in silence and prayer.
“You may ask, how is it so quiet with that many men? Christ is the one with whom we want to speak the most.”
And there have been glimpses of what life will be like for the college seminarians once they move into their new building in Mount Holly. If all goes according to plan, the college seminarians will have plenty of space to call home next fall when the college seminary begins its fifth year.
Last month, all 26 seminarians were gathered in one place for the first time when they went on retreat at the start of the school year.
Says Father Kauth, “We all had to be there that first evening for the dinner, and so we had everyone there at the meal. All the seminarians, all the priests. And we’re having dinner at the upper side (house), and I thought to myself, ‘This is going to be every day!’”
So he knows they can survive one more year of chaotic schedules and cramped quarters.
“I think that we are all looking forward to being under one roof,” Father Kauth says. “I’m going to miss this place, though. It’s a great and lasting imprint on the way in which we run the seminary, particularly in making sure the classes were sealed together and fused into a fraternity.”
The college seminarians agree that the challenges of living spread out among four temporary locations has, oddly enough, brought them closer together.
“Having 26 guys with the same rigorous schedule and class load, we have built great bonds of brotherhood. We kind of had to…we are literally very close!” says Nick Kramer. “Space in our houses, the chapel, and the dining room is tight. But who knows? Maybe that’s part of why we have built this really close bond.”
“Living with eight guys in one house is tough. You feel like you’re on each other all the time. But it’s also great fun because we share this manliness and this common calling to God as priests,” adds Clement Åkerblom. “The seminary building project is an incredible blessing. When all of us can live under the same roof, it will be amazing. Just sharing life and having all of us connected in that way will add another dynamic to our unity, which we all need in our brotherhood.”
Father Matthew Buettner, house spiritual director, notes, “At St. Joseph, we nourish our spiritual life through daily reception of Holy Communion, the rosary, devotions, and communal and private prayer. The communal aspect is important, but with 26 men we’ve been forced to change our schedule and the location of some of our liturgies and devotions. It’s a great problem to have, but I am looking forward to having the space for everyone to attend Mass and have dinner together.”
“Being here certainly has its quirks,” says James Tweed, who just started his first year at the college seminary. “When we do finally have the new seminary complete and have all the guys all in one room together – and able to move – it will still have its quirks, but it will be a joyful experience. Everyone will be much happier. I know it will be a higher form of praise, because we will all be able to praise God at the same time and participate in the sacrifice of the Mass together.
“Ultimately, what’s important to remember is that this is where God called all of us. And what is happening in the Diocese of Charlotte isn’t happening anywhere else. There’s something very unique going on here, and maybe that’s more important to focus on.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter. St. Joseph College Seminary contributed.
Help build the seminary
Fundraising for the new St. Joseph College Seminary capital campaign is under way, with $11.4 million of the $20 million raised so far. For information about the campaign or to donate, go to www.stjosephcollegeseminary.org or contact Jim Kelley, diocesan director of development, at 704-370-3301 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..