‘Called to be bold and decisive’
St. Joseph College Seminary students recently visited the construction site of the permanent college seminary in Mount Holly. Construction work and fundraising efforts on the $20 million project have picked up pace since ground was broken last September on the site near Belmont Abbey College. Enrollment is also on the rise and expected to be more than two dozen, although it’s too early to report an official number yet for this fall. (Photo provided)The Diocese of Charlotte ordained its first priest in 1974, only two years after it was established, and since then the number of clergy has continued to grow as the diocese has grown. The diocese’s four bishops – starting with the first bishop, Bishop Michael Begley, and continuing to current Bishop Peter Jugis – have encouraged the faithful to support people pursuing religious vocations and to pray for an increase in vocations.
Those prayers and that support – seeds planted in fertile ground – have brought the Presence of Christ to every corner of western North Carolina.
And the diocese is experiencing a vocations boom, with more people discerning the priesthood, permanent diaconate and religious life especially over the past decade.
As the Catholic population living in western North Carolina has swelled from about 35,000 when the diocese was established in 1972 to today’s estimated 450,000, the number of people serving the local Church has also increased.
In the diocese’s 92 parishes and missions, 81 diocesan priests and 135 deacons are at work serving the people of God in western North Carolina – up from 72 priests and 96 deacons just a decade ago. Nearly two dozen religious orders also serve in the diocese.
PRIESTLY FORMATION
This fall, it is anticipated that the diocese will have 39 men studying for the priesthood, including 15 seminarians at three major seminaries in the U.S. and Rome and more than two dozen students anticipated at St. Joseph College Seminary in Charlotte.
Opened in 2016, St. Joseph College Seminary has been a magnet for young men wanting to discern the priesthood, as young men have responded to the opportunity to study and discern a religious vocation close to their homes and parishes. It will be the only college seminary located between northern Virginia and southern Florida.
Enrollment growth has been faster than the diocese had anticipated, from eight students in its first year to 20 during the 2018-’19 academic year. The college seminary has attracted men from across the diocese, with eight of the diocese’s 10 vicariates represented.
Intensified interest in the college seminary has prompted the diocese to expand housing for enrollees near the campus of St. Ann Church. The students already fill three houses adjacent to the church, and a fourth house is being refurbished to accommodate more this fall.
Last September, the diocese broke ground on a site about two miles from Belmont Abbey College as a permanent home for the college seminary, and construction is well under way. The structural steel was recently erected for the residential wing of the building, and the first- and second-floor concrete slabs were poured for the residential wing. In July workers will start the exterior masonry, and if weather cooperates, the framing and roofing should be complete and windows installed by the end of that month. Plumbing, mechanical and electrical rough-in work will be at least half finished by then, too.
The two-story, Gothic-style building is expected to be substantially completed in March 2020.
It will include a chapel, classroom, library, conference rooms, a kitchen and refectory (cafeteria), faculty offices, and a guest room for speakers and visiting priests. It will also include 40 dorm rooms or “cells” for the college seminarians. The original plans called for 20 cells, but enrollment at the college seminary has already exceeded that projection.
The college seminary continues to enjoy steady growth as its permanent location starts to take shape, and not only with climbing enrollment. The fundraising campaign recently surpassed $9.5 million of its $20 million goal, including two donors who committed a total of $3 million.
The increasing interest in priestly vocations is welcomed by Bishop Jugis, who has commented, “Although the number of priests serving our diocese has increased by 76 percent since it was founded in 1971, the number of Catholics has grown by 900 percent. Adding to that, we have had 13 priests retire in the last 10 years, and still 27 more are expected to retire in the next 10 years. Though we’ve been blessed with many good and holy priests, we need more to meet the needs of our rapidly growing flock.”
On June 22, Bishop Jugis will ordain three more men as priests for the diocese. A local vocation himself, the Charlotte native is celebrating his 36th anniversary of ordination: he was ordained on June 12, 1983, by St. John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. This year also marks his 16th anniversary as the fourth bishop of Charlotte.
Father Matthew Kauth, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary, is astonished by the number of men who are discerning a call to the priesthood. “What we did know was that vocations often spring up in a heart at that time when a young man begins to ask the question, ‘What will I live for?’ What we didn’t know is that 31 men in four academic years would look at our new, fledgling seminary and say, ‘That is what I will live for. I will live for Christ as His priest.’”
“The numbers have simply been astounding and there is no end in sight,” Father Kauth said. “Now we must build so that we might be under one roof instead of many. They have answered the call to sacrifice, and now we must answer the call to support.”
PERMANENT DIACONATE
From 1980, when the Diocese of Charlotte established a Permanent Diaconate ministry, to today, the permanent diaconate has similarly flourished as the diocese has also grown. Nineteen men were ordained by Bishop Begley as the first class of permanent deacons on May 29, 1983. The past two ordinations, in 2014 and 2018, saw a total of 31 men ordained permanent deacons for the diocese.
In the diocese there are now 135 permanent deacons who are responding to the ministry of the Word, of the Altar, and of Charity. And the steady stream of men interested in the permanent diaconate continues, with 13 men in the formation class. These men are currently being reviewed for institution into the role of lector this August, and the list of inquirers continues to grow for future aspirants.
CONSECRATED RELIGIOUS
When the Diocese of Charlotte was established in 1972, 15 religious communities of men and women were active in the diocese. Today, there are 23 communities spread across western North Carolina. Currently there are 128 active women religious ministering across western North Carolina. Parishes around the diocese are witnessing parishioners, young men and women, entering religious orders – courageously answering “yes” to the call from the Lord.
‘Courage to take a risk’
In his message for the 2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis said: “Every vocation is a summons not to stand on the shore, nets in hand, but to follow Jesus on the path He has marked out for us, for our own happiness and for the good of those around us.”
The Lord’s call makes those who answer His call to serve the Church in the priesthood and religious life “bearers of a promise and, at the same time, asks of us the courage to take a risk, with Him and for Him,” he said.
Embracing this promise naturally demands courage.
“The first disciples, called by Jesus to be part of something greater, ‘immediately left their nets and followed Him’ (Mk 1:18). Responding to the Lord’s call involves putting ourselves on the line and facing a great challenge. It means being ready to leave behind whatever would keep us tied to our little boat and prevent us from making a definitive choice. We are called to be bold and decisive in seeking God’s plan for our lives. Gazing out at the vast ‘ocean’ of vocation, we cannot remain content to repair our nets on the boat that gives us security, but must trust instead in the Lord’s promise.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter