In October 1791, five men began studies for the priesthood at the
first seminary in the United States, just a couple years after the
Diocese of Baltimore was established as the first in the country in
1789.
At the time of that humble beginning – when Bishop John Carroll,
Baltimore’s first bishop, welcomed four priests from the Society of St
Sulpice and the five seminarians – the Diocese of Baltimore encompassed
the whole fledgling nation.
Sulpician Fr Phillip J Brown, president rector of today’s St Mary’s
Seminary and University, noted in his welcome to commemorate that
occasion that the seminarians began their studies at St Mary’s downtown
on Paca Street a month before Georgetown University in Washington
opened, making the Baltimore seminary the oldest American institution of
higher learning.
The remark brought a chuckle of pride from the congregation gathered
November 15 in the seminary’s chapel to mark the 225th anniversary of
the arrival of the Sulpician fathers in America and the founding of St
Mary’s Seminary and University.
The prayer service included the conferral of an honorary doctorate of
divinity degree on Cardinal Marc Ouellet, former archbishop of Quebec
and now prefect of the Congregation for Bishops at the Vatican.
Fr Brown welcomed the faculty and students of St Mary’s and two other
seminal Sulpician institutions – Theological College, the Sulpician
national seminary at The Catholic University of America in Washington;
and Mount St Mary’s Seminary and University in Emmitsburg, which was
originally a Sulpician college seminary and eventually became an
independent major seminary.
“St Mary’s has formed more priests for the mission in parishes than any other (seminary) in the United States,” Fr Brown said.
He prayed that the Holy Spirit would “give many more men the courage
and confidence to follow the call to priesthood for the good of the
whole church so that it will be renewed and strengthened during the time
of our service and in our lifetime.”
Fr Brown noted that each of the seminarians and faculty members
present that evening would receive a copy of a new biography of Father
Francois Charles Nagot, the first Sulpician superior in the United
States, who played a role in the founding of each of the three
seminaries represented at the anniversary celebration.
Sulpician Fr John C Kemper, provincial superior of the U.S. province
of the Society of St Sulpice, said: “The first decades or so were
difficult for this initial band of Sulpicians, yet motivated by what
their founder, Fr Jean-Jacques Olier, called ‘the apostolic zeal,’ the
Sulpicians pressed on.”
He said the new seminary in Baltimore found itself to be “a launching
pad for missionaries to the new land of the United States.”
Graduates of the seminary went off to establish parishes in uncharted and hostile areas of the country.
Many Sulpicians were called to leadership in the new Catholic Church
in the United States, including the third and fifth archbishops of
Baltimore, Archbishops Ambrose Marechal and Samuel Eccleston.
Fr Kemper noted that the apostolic zeal that Fr Olier encouraged finds new expression in each age.
Cardinal Ouellet has connections to the Sulpicians as well, having
studied for the priesthood in Montreal and learning Spanish along the
way.
In the early 1970s, he taught philosophy at the major seminary in Bogota, Colombia, which was directed by the Sulpicians.
Ordained a priest for the Montreal Archdiocese, he joined the Society of St Sulpice soon after his arrival there.
In his talk, titled, “Toward the Renewal of the Priesthood in Our
Time,” the cardinal said he chose the topic given the central role the
priesthood plays in any reform of the church.
After the event, the cardinal told the Catholic Review, the news
outlet of the Baltimore Archdiocese, that his seminary formation was
decisive for his encounter with Jesus Christ.
“I remember the seminary in Montreal was the place where I experienced really deeply my faith.”
In the 1970s, the Sulpicians sent him for further studies in dogmatic theology.
In his talk, he quoted the conciliar document “Lumen Gentium”
(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) on the topic: “Each of them in its
own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ.”
Reflecting after the prayer service, Cardinal Ouellet said that
formation is as important for lay people – perhaps even more important –
as it is for priests.
“I spoke of the interrelatedness of both participations in a deep
ecclesiology, which is missing normally when we hear the speeches on
that,” he said, speaking of the common priesthood of the laity and the
ministerial (ordained) priesthood.
He said that priests are so important because they are the heart of
the church. “They are in the field. That’s why I wanted to deepen the
question of the priesthood, because they are important.”