A Southern Catholic Legacy: Notre Dame Seminary In New Orleans, Louisiana

By Rev. Mark S. Raphael, Ph.D.

Faith and Church both exist within a complex matrix of personalities and culture, spirituality and history. “A Southern Catholic Legacy” explores the intertwining of these patterns from the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries. The establishment of Notre Dame Seminary in 1923 as an institution of higher learning for training Southern Catholic Clergy was an achievement made possible by the close collaboration of Archbishop John W. Shaw (1918-1934) with the clergy and laity of the South, thereby succeeding in an endeavor which had defeated all of his predecessors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: May 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483449678

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(2010)

A

Southern

CATHOLIC

LEGACY

Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana

REV. MARK S. RAPHAEL, PH.D.

Copyright © 2016 Mark S. Raphael

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4965-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4967-8 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 04/26/2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

A History of the History

Part I Before the Beginning

1.1: Introduction

1.2: Holy Orders in Antiquity

1.3: Invention of Seminaries

1.4: Catholicism in the New World

1.5: French School of Spirituality

1.6: First Seminary in North America (Quebec, 1663)

1.7: Seminary Specialists, the Society of Saint Sulpice

1.8: Catholicism in the English Colonies

1.9: The Louisiana Territory

1.10: Louisiana Seminary, First Attempt, Petition of 1722

1.11: Second Attempt, St. Mary of the Barrens Seminary (1818 – present)

1.12: Third Attempt, Bayou Lafourche (1821-1825)

1.13: Fourth Attempt, St. Vincent de Paul, Plattenville (1838-1855)

1.14: Fifth Attempt, Bouligny Seminary (1856-1867)

1.15: Sixth Attempt, Ursuline Seminary (1870-1883)

1.16: Seventh Attempt, St. Joseph Minor Seminary, Ponchatoula (1891-1899)

1.17: Eighth Attempt, St. Louis Diocesan Seminary, New Orleans (1900-1907)

1.18: Ninth Attempt, St. Joseph Preparatory Seminary, Covington (1908-present)

Part II The Shaw Years (1918-1934)

2.1: John William Shaw, Early Years (Mobile, Ireland, Rome, San Antonio)

2.2: Shaw’s ecclesiology

2.3: St. John’s Seminary, San Antonio (Present-day Assumption Seminary)

2.4: St. Philip Seminary, Castroville, Texas

2.5: Shaw Moves to New Orleans

2.6: The Marists

2.7: The Seminary Drive (1920 to 1928)

2.8: Site of Notre Dame Seminary

2.9: Architecture of Notre Dame Seminary

2.9.1: Description of Shaw Hall, Exterior

2.9.2: Description of Shaw Hall, Interior

2.10: Segregated Seminaries

2.11: Sisters of the Holy Family, established by Venerable Henriette Delille

2.12: First Rector, Very Rev. Charles Dubray (1923-32, 1933-34)

2.13: NDS Founding Faculty, 1923

2.14: Seminary Life, Shaw Years

2.15: First Ordinations (14th June 1924) First Immigrant Ordinand: Rev. Augustin Wyshoff (15th June 1934)

2.16: Archbishop’s Residence, NDS Campus

2.17: Great Depression

2.18: Second Rector, Very Rev. Joseph Hoff, S.M., S.T.L. (1932-33)

2.19: C.S.M.C. and the Notre Damean

2.20: Third Rector, Very Rev. Michael Larkin, S.M., Ph.D. (1934-1943)

2.21: Death of Archbishop Shaw (November 2, 1934)

Part III The Rummel Years (1936 to 1964)

3.1: Most Rev. Joseph Francis Rummel, S.T.D. (1876-1964); Ninth Archbishop of New Orleans (1935-1964)

3.2: Rev. Robert Joseph Stahl, S.M. (1908-1999)

3.3: Eighth National Eucharist Congress (October 17th through 20th, 1938)

3.4: Seminary Life in Early Rummel Years (Pre-World War II)

3.5: NDS during Second World War (1939 to 1945)

3.6: Rev. Joseph Verbis LaFleur, D.S.C.

3.7: NDS Becomes an International Seminary (1942 to present)Partnership with Church in Latin America

3.8: Grotto (1941-43)

3.9: Fourth Rector: Very Rev. Daniel O’Meara, S.M. (1943-1952)

3.10: Silver Jubilee (1948); Stained-Glass Windows in Chapel

3.11: Degrees (1948) and S.A.C.S. Accreditation (1951)

3.12: Seminary Integration (1949)

3.13: Fifth Rector: Very Rev. Thomas Ulric Bolduc, S.M., S.S.L., S.T.D. (1952-1957)

3.14: St. Joseph Hall (1954)

3.15: Hate Crimes and Excommunications (1954-1962)

3.16: Sixth Rector, Very Rev. John McQuade, S.M., S.T.L., S.T.D. (1958-1964)

3.17: Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)

Part IV The Cody Years (1961-1965)

4.1: Most Rev. John Patrick Cody, Coadjutor Archbishop (1961-64), then Tenth Archbishop of New Orleans (1964-65)

4.2: Early Ordinations (1962)

4.3: New Seminary, St. John Prep (1964)

4.4: Expanded Graduate Degree Program (1969)

4.5: Seventh Rector: Very Rev. William J. Raftery, S.M. (1964-67)

4.6: Swimming Pool (1963-64)

4.7: Topography of New Orleans … and Hurricanes

4.8: Hurricane Betsy, September 9th and 10th, 1965

Part V The Hannan Years (1965-1988)

5.1: Most Rev. Philip Matthew Hannan (1913-2011)

5.2: Eighth Rector, Very Rev. Albert Charles Ernst, Jr., J.C.D. (1967-1970)

5.3: Patterson House and Witness Program (1965-1970)

5.4: Ecumenical Faculty and Professors from Laity (Beginning 1967)

5.5: Membership in the Association of Theological Schools (1968)

5.6: Changes in Seminary Life Post-Vatican II (1965-1970)

5.7: The Dameans (Formed 1968)

5.8: Ninth Rector, Very Rev. Alexander O. Sigur (1970-74)

5.9: Notre Dame Seminary, Golden Jubilee (1973)

5.10: Tenth Rector, Very Rev. Columban Geerken, O.S.B. (1974-76)

5.11: Vietnamese Seminarians (1975)

5.12: Most Rev. François-Xavier Cardinal Nguyên Van Thuán (1928-2002), Servant of God

5.13: Testimonial: Rev. Minh Phan, S.T.L., S.T.D.,

5.14: First President, Very Rev. James Edgar Bruns (1975-1981)

5.15: Eleventh Rector, Very Rev. Ellis De Priest, S.M. (1976-1981)

5.16: Twelfth Rector, Second President, Very Rev. John C. Favalora (1981-1986)

5.17: World’s Fair, New Orleans (May 12th through November 11th, 1984), NDS Fountain: Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well (1989)

5.18: Thirteenth Rector, Third President

5.19: Papal Visit, St. John Paul II (September 11-13, 1987)

Part VI The Schulte Years (1989-2002)

6.1: Most Rev. Francis Bible Schulte (1926->2016)

6.2: Acompano Program (established 1989)

6.3: NDS and African Seminarians (1989-today)

6.4: Testimonial: Rev. Deogratias O. Ekisa, S.T.D.

6.5: Anniversaries in 1993

6.6: NDS during the Millennium Celebrations

6.7: Very Rev. Patrick J. Williams

Part VII The Hughes Years (2002 to 2009)

7.1: Most Rev. Alfred Clifton Hughes, S.T.D.

7.2: Yom HaShoah Menorah, NDS, September 11, 2003

7.3: Hurricane Katrina

7.4: NDS, Post-Katrina (2005 and 2006)

7.5: Fifteenth Rector, Fifth President of NDS

PART VIII The Aymond Years (Appointed 2009)

8.1: Most Rev. Gregory M. Aymond, Fourteenth Archbishop of New Orleans (2009)

8.2: Very Rev. James A. Wehner, S.T.D.

8.3: Program of Priestly Formation

8.4: Philosophy and Pre-Theology Program at NDS

8.5: Master of Arts Programs, NDS

8.6: Institute for Lay Ecclesial Ministry (ILEM) and Master of Arts in Pastoral Leadership (MAPL)

8.7: March 23, 2015, Most Reverend Fernand Joseph Cheri, III, O.F.M. Auxiliary-Bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans

8.8: The Teaching Parish Initiative: St. Rita of Cascia Parish (July 1, 2016)

8.9: After Tomorrow

Reference (A): Seven Archbishops of New Orleans during NDS Existence (to 2016)

Reference (B): Sixteen Rectors of Notre Dame Seminary (->2016)

Reference (C); Eighteen Faculty and Alumni of NDS Ordained Bishops (through >2015)

Reference (D): Chronology of Notre Dame Seminary History

Bibliography

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A HISTORY OF THE HISTORY

I N THE YEAR 1481, WILLIAM Caxton printed a book titled, Mirror of the World, an English translation of a French work designed to be a one-volume encyclopedia. Caxton used the word acknowledge in this book for the first time in early modern English, derived from two Middle English words: oncnawan , meaning see, admit, or recognize, and knowleche , meaning knowledge. Over the ensuing generations, it came to be considered right and proper that books include recognition that the knowledge contained therein did not originate with the author alone.

In the case of the book you are now reading, A Southern Catholic Legacy: Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, Louisiana, the story began on 10 September 1995. I was, at the time, a seminarian in priestly formation for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, class of 1998. A classmate, Keith Pellerin (now a priest for the Diocese of Lake Charles, LA), was serving as President of the Student Association. The 75th anniversary of Notre Dame Seminary happened to coincide with our upcoming ordination year, and he asked if I would prepare a history for the occasion, as history was my field of study prior to entering seminary. With the approval of the then President-Rector (now Archbishop) Gregory M. Aymond, as well as the Archbishop of New Orleans at the time, Most Rev. Francis B. Schulte, that book was published in 1997: History of Notre Dame Seminary.

After ordination in 1998, I served in parish ministry until Hurricane Katrina realigned all existence in the states along the central Gulf Coast in 2005. The parish where I was serving as pastor, St. Robert Bellarmine, was destroyed and was not reopened, so the then Archbishop of New Orleans, Most Rev. Alfred C. Hughes, sent me to complete a Doctorate in Church History/Historical Theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. As the topic of my doctoral dissertation, I took the founder of Notre Dame Seminary, Archbishop John William Shaw.

I returned to NDS as a faculty member in January of 2008. At a meeting on 9th January 2013 with the current President-Rector, the Very Rev. James A. Wehner, S.T.D., he suggested that I update the NDS history for the 90th Jubilee, the 2013-2014 academic year. With his support, and the approval of the current Archbishop of New Orleans, Most Rev. Gregory M. Aymond, this book is the result of that meeting. The text was submitted to both for approval, which was given on Tuesday, 19 November 2013. A number of unforeseen developments delayed the project for a time, but now that it is complete, due acknowledgments must be made before sending it to the printer.

Research

The historical text of this book is duly footnoted, for the interest of those wishing to pursue further investigation in the field. Research for the 75th anniversary history of NDS, as well as for my doctoral dissertation on Archbishop Shaw, has been used as a foundation of this history. Much additional work was needed for an updated presentation of NDS in the context of Southern American Catholicism. That being the case, gratitude must be expressed to:

The faculty and administration of the Catholic University of America, especially Dr. Christopher Kauffman, my dissertation director; Father James Stack and the people of St. Jerome Parish in Hyattsville, Maryland, who housed me for the two years of my course work; Eric and Wendy of the Pavlat Pack, Lucy Younes, Laurie Fischer, Eileen Stevans, and Chris Arthur, for encouragement during that post-Katrina period of my life; Msgr. Ronald Jameson and the people of St. Matthew the Apostle Cathedral in Washington D.C., who offered hospitality during the final months of dissertation revision, and to Maureen Hurley who had the technical expertise to bring it to completion.

The Archives of the Archdiocese of Mobile: Most Rev. Thomas Rodi, Archbishop of Mobile, and Richard Chastang, archivist at the time of my research in 2008-09.

The Catholic Archives of San Antonio: Brother Ed Lock, S.M., the Archdiocesan Archivist, and his house of Marianist Brothers who welcomed me to stay with them while doing my research over the Christmas Holidays in 2008.

Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans: Doctor Charles Nolan (now retired) and Dorenda Dupont guided me during research for the 75th anniversary history in 1995-96. Doctor Emilie Lee Leumas, Dorenda Dupont, and Michael Courtney assisted guided me during research for the dissertation in 2009, and for this updated history in 2013.

Archives of Notre Dame Seminary: Father Robert Stahl, S.M. (now deceased), provided irreplaceable knowledge and insights for the 75th anniversary history in 1995-96. For the current history, archival research was provided by Mr. Thomas B. Bender IV (current Director of NDS Library), Cynthia Garrity (Executive Assistant to the President-Rector of NDS), and Mary Langlois (at the time Administrative Assistant, M.A. and C.L.I. Programs, NDS) during the course of 2013.

Newspapers have also provided valuable contemporaneous information and viewpoints for all the works mentioned above: (1) the Southern Messenger [San Antonio]; (2) the Morning Star [New Orleans, publication ended in 1930]; (3) the Catholic Action of the South [established 1933]; (4) the Clarion Herald [the successor of the Catholic Action, and the current official paper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans; (5) the Times-Picayune [a general circulation newspaper in the New Orleans area]; (6) the St. Bernard Voice [a general circulation newspaper in the civil parish of St. Bernard].

Doctor Christopher Arthur, a specialist in Southern American culture and literature, who for decades worked professionally for the United States Congress, provided unique insights into the operation of American government as well as the development of American architecture, and spent much time reading and critiquing this text.

Patricia Tricia Jones, a language major who works professionally in marketing, volunteered to proof-read the entire text to correct the many grammatical mistakes it contained. As the project developed she also undertook special research to fill in many gaps in the narrative.

Yvette Fouchi, a Consecrated Member of the Franciscan Secular Institute: Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, and a parishioner of St. Edward the Confessor Parish, who spent months formatting, arranging, and in some cases locating, many of the photographs which appear in this history. This book could not have been completed in its current form without the countless hours of labor she invested in the project.

Photographs and Illustrations

The French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833), changed the world when he took the first photograph in 1826, View from the Window at Le Gras (Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France). Both this history, as well as the preceding 75th anniversary history, have benefitted from the inclusion of photographs. In this regard, acknowledgements must be made:

Frank J. Methe of the Clarion Herald, Rev. Msgr. Elmo Romagosa (Archdiocese of New Orleans, now deceased), Rev. Kevin DeLerno (a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans), and Mr. Joseph Trung (former Information Technology Officer, NDS), all took photographs that appear in this history. In addition, public domain photographs from the internet have been used, and cited where they appear.

Special thanks must be made also to the photographers throughout NDS history who have captured moments in time that are preserved in the NDS Archives and the Archdiocesan Archives, but who did not record their names on the reverse for posterity.

Formatting and Technology

A successful demonstration took place on 12th September 1958, proving the viability of etching interconnected electronic components onto a semi-conducting surface that was so small it was called a chip. Co-inventors Jack Kilby (1923-2005) and Robert Noyce (1927-1990) changed history with this integrated circuit, or microchip. Some born into the world created by this device require mediators into the realm of technology. In this regard, thanks to:

Joseph Fessenden, a transitional deacon at the time of this writing, in priestly formation at Notre Dame Seminary (Class of 2017), for the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee. He revealed to me the possibility of on-demand internet publishing, and put me in contact with Lulu Publishing. As the project unfolded, he also contributed his own photographs, as well as salvaged and scanned old photos in the NDS Archives which, otherwise, would be lost.

Having discovered Lulu Publishing, I wish to thank Jenny Chandler, Adriane Pontecorvo, and the entire production team at Lulu, who made publication of this project possible.

Oral History and Written Contributions

Many offered their recollections for both the 75th anniversary as well as the present updated version; some of those whose memories were used in the earlier history have since passed away. It would be ponderous, and probably impossible, to effectively explain the details of each contribution, but for the record, thanks to:

Archbishops and Bishops: Philip M. Hannan (now deceased), Francis B. Schulte (now deceased), John C. Favalora (now retired), Alfred C. Hughes (now retired), William Borders (now deceased), Robert Muench, Oscar Lipscomb (now retired), Thomas Rodi, and Gregory M. Aymond (former rector of NDS, currently Archbishop of New Orleans).

Priests; Fathers: Robert Stahl, S.M., Geoffrey Greystone, S.M., Ellis de Priest, S.M., Earl Niehaus, S.M., Alexander Sigur, Albert Ernst, J. Edgar Bruns, Patrick Williams, Jose Lavastida, Doug Doussan, Doug Brougher, Henry Englebrecht, David Rabe, Francis Lamendola, Stanley Klores, Emile Pfister, S.J., Donald Martin, S.J., Gerald Seiler, Earl Gauthreaux, Vien Nguyen, Michael Sherliza.

Religious Sisters: Barbara Dupuis, M.S.C., Janet Bodin, M.S.C., Elizabeth Willems, S.S.N.D.

In addition to verbal recollections, some chose to make written contributions to this history: Fathers James A. Wehner, Deogratias O. Ekisa, Minh C. Phan; as well as Doctors Christopher T. Baglow, James M. Jacobs, and Sister Janet Bodin, M.S.C.

Mr. Kevin J. Redmann (Ph.D. Candidate) Professor of Biblical Languages at NDS, made his written contribution by translating into English the Latin inscriptions etched into the cornerstones of the two main seminary buildings: Shaw Hall and St. Joseph Hall.

Personal

While teaching at NDS and working on this history, I have been in residence at St. Edward the Confessor Parish, where I offer sacramental assistance. Special thanks to the pastor, Fr. Gerald Seiler, and the parochial vicars, Fr. Christian DeLerno, and Fr. Charles Dussoy, as well as to Mrs. Gwen Schwab who takes care of us all. Thanks to Mrs. Ginny Walters who handles many of my business affairs, and to Mrs. Joanna Whitcomb who ever-patiently prints out the endless stream of files I email to her.

Father Michael Sherliza, now a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, was in our seminarian days a neighbor down the hall at NDS, and remembers the preparation for 75th anniversary history. He has been a friend ever since, and has housed me for visits of vacation in Georgia, as well as evacuations from hurricanes.

To Tony and Roselyn Fernandez, parishioners in my second assignment, Our Lady of Prompt Succor (Chalmette, LA), who encouraged me to persevere in Adult Education ministry, many thanks.

Much gratitude to the IMC lunch club, approaching our two-decade anniversary: Jane Robbins, Carolyn Lorio, Allison Talley, Terry Starlight, Tricia Jones, Micki Chehardy, Betsy White, Darlene Cohen, as well as Gayle Johnson and Austin Red Robbins who have gone on before. And to Plutarch of Chaeronea, for a debt that can never be repaid.

To the survivors of St. Robert Parish, especially Kay and Ellen Doody who have kept in touch, and to all others, wherever you may now be post-Katrina: the years before were good years; I still miss them, and I still miss all of you. Everyone says we have to move on. I hope you have succeeded in that endeavor, and that you have achieved peace by the passing of grief.

To all readers of this history: any faults which remain in the text are entirely mine.

FrMarkRaphael1202.jpgLetter_90th_Anniversary.jpgImage00111AJohnPaul2NDSvisit1987.jpg

Pope St. John Paul II leaving Archbishop’s Residence on Campus of Notre Dame Seminary (September 12, 1987)

Photo: Frank J. Methe, Clarion Herald, issue September 17, 1987

PART I

BEFORE THE BEGINNING

1.1: INTRODUCTION

I N 2018, THE CITY OF New Orleans will celebrate the tricentennial of its foundation, on 7 th May 1718, as a colony of the Catholic Kingdom of France. The same year, 2018, will be the first-centennial of the appointment of the Most Reverend John William Shaw as Eighth Archbishop of New Orleans, on 25 th January 1918. Five years after his arrival, Archbishop Shaw opened Notre Dame Seminary, which continues to train priests for the Church to this day. That being the case, it is fitting that the arrival of the seminary founder be observed with a historical reflection on the origin and contributions of the seminary he established. With that in mind:

The first day of formation at Notre Dame Seminary began at 5:30 am, on Monday, 18 September 1923, with twenty-seven seminarians from the three dioceses then extant in Louisiana: New Orleans, Alexandria, and Lafayette. Since that day, over one-thousand seminarians completed formation at this seminary, and received the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the degrees of diaconate and presbyterate, and eighteen in the degree of episcopate, which they lived throughout the United States and other nations.

Roman Catholic theology of Holy Orders is easily summarized: Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate,¹ or, in conventional usage: bishops, priests, and deacons. The current method of preparation for ordination to the priesthood is the seminary, derived from the Latin word seminarium, meaning seed-bed.

The sixteen documents of the Second Vatican Council, composed between 11 October 1962 and 8 December 1965, include guidance for priestly formation in terms of a seminary system stratified by age. Where minor seminaries [i.e. high school or college level] are set up to cultivate seeds of vocations, the students are to be trained to follow Christ their redeemer with a generous mind and a pure heart, by means of special religious formation and above all by spiritual guidance.² In order to complete the process, major seminaries [i.e. graduate level] are necessary for priestly formation. In them the training of the students should have as its object that, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, teacher, priest, and shepherd, they may themselves be formed to be true pastors of souls.³

In coming to terms with the history of Notre Dame Seminary it will be useful to summarize the manner in which the seminary system became normative in the Catholic Church, as well as its introduction into the United States, along with the many failed attempts to establish it in the American South before Notre Dame succeeded.

1.2: HOLY ORDERS IN ANTIQUITY

Scriptural foundation for Catholic theology of Holy Orders may be found throughout the New Testament,⁴ along with some practical guidance on the characteristics to be sought in those receiving it,⁵ but historical details regarding the preparation to receive the sacrament are absent. The twenty-first Pope, St. Corneilus (March 251 to June 253), wrote a letter to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, which provides the earliest evidence for training and ministerial methodology consisting of four minor orders (porter, lector, exorcist, acolyte) and four major orders (sub-deacon, deacon, priest, and bishop). This was an apprenticeship model of preparation that later in history would be described as a Cathedral School.

Confiding to Bishop Fabius the losses among the faithful during the recent persecution of the church by the Roman Emperor Decius, Cornelius enumerated a list of survivors: forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, and a total of fifty-two exorcists, lectors, and porters, along with fifteen-hundred widows dependent on the church for support.⁶ The minor and major orders continued to provide one element of the structure of priestly formation until 1972,⁷ including the first forty-nine years of Notre Dame Seminary’s existence.

Thirty years after Pope Cornelius wrote his letter to Bishop Fabius, a movement of lay Christian spirituality began in Egypt, which would grow to have a profound effect on the Church as a whole, and formation for the sacrament of Holy Orders in particular. In conventional usage the movement is described as Monasticism, derived from the Greek work monachos, meaning one who lives alone, which current Church teaching describes as: devotion of life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a strict separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.⁸ This form of asceticism may be traced to the year 285 A.D., when St. Anthony, or Antony, (251-356) left his family and home in order to live alone in the Nitrian Desert, fifty-nine miles west of Alexandria, Egypt.

The example of St. Anthony was too extreme for most to follow, yet his ideal of separation from the world for the purpose of achieving a deeper spiritual connection to God inspired one of his admirers to develop an influential alternative. In the year 320 A.D., St. Pachomius (292-348) established a community at Tabenna, in southern Egypt, which sought to unite the spiritual focus of St. Anthony’s desert hermitage with the support of like-minded believers. Pachomian monastic communities provided the foundation for one form of religious life, cenobitic monasticism, which has endured throughout church history, described in current Church usage as distinguished by: its liturgical character, public profession of the evangelical counsels, fraternal life led in common, and witness given to the union of Christ with the Church.⁹ This form of spirituality would, in a manner to be traced in the following pages, influence the seminary model of priestly formation, even to this day in the Notre Dame Seminary.

In 325 A.D., the first Ecumenical Council in Church history met in the city of Nicaea, only twelve years after imperial persecution of Christianity was ended by the Emperor Constantine I. The Council documents made no reference to the movement of communal, lay, ascetic monasticism pioneered by St. Pachomius, which is not surprising since, at the time, his first establishment was only five years old.

The Council did, in its ninth canon, make reference to training for Holy Orders, stipulating that it was forbidden to promote anyone to the priesthood without examination.¹⁰ No details are provided explaining the criteria of the examination, or the method of preparation, but there is no reason to doubt that a stratified progression was followed through the minor and major orders listed by Pope St. Cornelius in the previous century.

Fifty-six years later, the second Ecumenical Council met in 381 A.D., the first in the city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey). No mention of monks or monasticism is to be found, but the documentary record of the Council does refer to the practice of appointing priests to the most prominent churches.¹¹ This reveals a demographic expansion of the Christian population, and the consequent necessity of opening new churches to serve them, as a result of conversions and natural births since legalization sixty-eight years earlier. It was, as yet, too early to speak of church parishes, but the Council’s statement is an indication of movement toward formalized structures for small church communities.

Sixteen years later, in 397 A.D., the tenth Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine (354-430), was ordained Bishop of the North African city of Hippo-Regius, an event which facilitated a blending of the movement of Pachomian, communal, monastic, lay, asceticism, with the growth of the ecclesiastical establishment in the now Christian Roman Empire. After his conversion from the Manichean heresy, and baptism by St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine lived in a Pachomian community, and found it so congenial that he continued doing so as a priest and bishop.

It is, of course, well within the realm of possibility that other bishops had done the same, but Augustine left us written, and therefore dateable, descriptions of his reimagining of lay communal asceticism as a way of life for those in Holy Orders. This Augustinian Rule¹² structured Augustine’s own life as Bishop. He lived in community with others in minor and major orders; they shared prayer and meals together at specified times; possessions and money were held in common; they consciously cultivated simplicity of life; and each had particular duties in the liturgical, pastoral, and temporal endeavors of the diocese.¹³

It would be anachronistic to label Augustine’s cathedral and home as a seminary, in the way seminaries are currently understood, yet it stands as a precedent from Christian antiquity for elements that continue to characterize seminaries, including Notre Dame, into the twenty-first century: structured communal living ordered toward service in a diocese by men in Holy Orders, and those preparing for advancement in Holy Orders, who share prayer, sacraments, meals, training, and work.

Twenty-one years following Augustine’s death, the Fourth Ecumenical Council of the Church met at Chalcedon, in 451 A.D. At last, 138 years after legalization, official mention is made of both monastic life and detailed organization of sacramental ministry within diocesan boundaries.

Canon four of the Council documents stipulates that no monastery is to be established without the approval of the bishop of the diocese. Canons six and eight require that bishops appoint priests and deacons to specific assignments, with examples provided: a city church, a village church, an almshouse, a martyr’s shrine, or a monastery. Canon seventeen makes use, for the first time in official documents, of the word parish¹⁴ to describe what has become an essential juridical and pastoral component of church life. The majority of those receiving Holy Orders after completing formation at Notre Dame Seminary have served the church in parish ministry. In current usage a parish is defined as: a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of a diocesan bishop.¹⁵

In the same way that Augustine’s writings revealed that monasticism influenced one way to prepare men for Holy Orders, so also the canons of the Council of Chalcedon demonstrate a commensurate overlapping of diocesan hierarchical structures with the monastic movement: specifically, the prohibition against establishing monasteries without the bishop’s approval, and the right of the bishop to ordain monks to provide sacramental service within monastic communities.

These regulations were necessitated by the wide variations inevitable in the early monastic movement, which was driven by enthusiasts among the laity having divergent interpretations of Pachomian communal asceticism. A substantial corpus of writing emerged within the monastic movement addressing this issue, the most important in western history being the Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-547), completed at Monte Cassino, Italy, 255 years after St. Pachomius established his first community at Tabenna. Consisting of seventy-three chapters, Benedict’s Rule offered an interpretation of Pachomian monasticism that was at once comprehensible and attainable, with a balanced life of prayer and work structured by the eight hours of the Divine Office.¹⁶

Forty-three years after the death of St. Benedict, a monk was elected pope for the first time, St. Gregory I, the Great (r. 590-604), who had lived Benedict’s interpretation of Pachomian monasticism prior to becoming pope. He incorporated Benedictine monasticism into previously distinct endeavors of the church, such as missionary evangelization, which included the establishment of schools, and the preparation of local converts for Holy Orders. This practice continues, as Benedictine monks operate St. Joseph Seminary College in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which prepares men who may complete priestly formation at Notre Dame Seminary and Graduate School of Theology.

Moreover, the success of Benedictine monasticism fostered the development of Religious Orders, which must not be confused with the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Derived from the Latin verb religare, meaning to bind, Religious Orders are comprised of individuals who bind themselves to a rule which governs their lives, and directs them to fulfill a particular role in the church, which may or may not include reception of the Sacrament of Holy Orders:

From the outset of the work of evangelization, the missionary ‘planting’ and expansion of the church require the presence of the religious life in all its forms. ‘History witnesses to the outstanding service rendered by religious families in the propagation of the faith and in the formation of new Churches: from the ancient monastic institutions to the medieval order, all the way to the more recent congregations.’¹⁷

Such religious orders and congregations that will appear in what follows include: the Augustinians, Jesuits, Capuchins, Vincentians, Sulpicians, Marists, Ursulines, and the Sisters of the Holy Family. In fact, the seminary as the ordinary means of priestly formation in the modern world resulted from an initiative of the Jesuits.

1.3: INVENTION OF SEMINARIES

The Protestant Movement began on 31 October 1517, when a German Augustinian priest named Martin Luther made public his 95 Theses. This was followed by a series of conflicts described in western history books as the Wars of Religion, which ended in 1648. During these Wars of Religion, the Society of Jesus was established in 1534 by St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) and six companions, receiving approval by Pope Paul III on 27 September 1540. Five years later, on 13 December 1545, the same Pope opened the Nineteenth Ecumenical Council in the city of Trent, in northern Italy. Over the next eighteen years the Council of Trent would meet for twenty-five sessions, divided into three distinct periods, treating reform and doctrine concurrently, producing documents of such importance that they are referenced 103 times in the current Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.,1997).

Seven months after opening, the Council of Trent passed a reform decree mandating that those in preparation for Holy Orders be trained to preach, including formal training in Sacred Scripture, so as to prevent the heavenly treasure of the sacred books, which the Holy Spirit in his supreme generosity has bestowed on us, from being left unnoticed, and further required that bishops set aside revenue to pay competent persons who can personally carry out that function.¹⁸

Seven years later, on 31 August 1552, the first seminary, in the modern understanding of that word, began operations in Rome: the Collegium Germanicum, i.e. The German College. When the reform decree mandating formal training in Scripture and preaching was passed in 1546, much of Europe was engulfed in warfare between Protestants and Catholics. One Jesuit priest, Rev. Claude Le Jay (c. 1504-1552), understood that most bishops were not in a position to fulfill that mandate, particularly in Germany, the epicenter of the fighting. He therefore proposed a provisional solution to Pope Julius III (r. 1550-1555), that men from Germany who felt called to Holy Orders would be brought for training to a college in Rome, to keep them safe during their formation. Discipline would be severe, in order to prepare men for the real possibility of torture and execution upon their return to Germany, and intellectual training would be rigorous, in order to respond to the doctrinal challenges being circulated by Protestant preachers and writers.

This German College was an important innovation, because it would be in operation for a decade by the time the Council of Trent ended, and provided a living model enabling the Council to decree, in 1563, that:

…every cathedral, metropolitan and greater church is obliged to provide for, to educate in religion and to train in ecclesiastical studies a set number of boys, according to its resources and the size of the diocese …. Those admitted to the college should be at least twelve years old, of legitimate birth, who know how to read and write competently, and whose character and disposition offers hope that they will serve in church ministries throughout life …. He [i.e. the local bishop] will replace those withdrawn by others, so that the college becomes a perpetual seminary of ministers of God.¹⁹

Following the semi-monastic structure outlined by St. Augustine in which seminarians would share prayer, Mass, meals, classes, and work, while making use of the stratification of minor and major orders, the seminary system as developed after this decree has remained the template of priestly formation, with some modifications after the Second Vatican Council, into the twenty-first century.

1.4: CATHOLICISM IN THE NEW WORLD

Seventy-one years prior to Council of Trent’s decree creating a seminary system, the continents later designated the Americas²⁰ were brought into the European sphere of influence by the voyages of exploration initiated by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and followed by many others. Three of the nations that would sponsor colonies in the Americas were Catholic: Spain, Portugal, and France. Initially, sacramental needs for the colonists, as well as missionary endeavors among the indigenous peoples, were provided by religious orders. Even secular clergy²¹ either went to the New World as colonists themselves, or were the children of colonists sent to European seminaries. The development of a seminary system to train local men to serve the local community as priests was a slow process.

A soldier-colonist in the service of Spain, Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521), landed on the peninsula jutting off the southeastern corner of North America in 1513, and named it Florida. The Diocese of Baracoa²², Cuba, was established in 1518 as a dependent diocese, or suffragan, to the Archdiocese of Seville, Spain. The diocese was moved to Santiago de Cuba²³ on 28 April 1522. It was relocated again to San Cristobal de la Habana on 10 September 1787²⁴. This is important for the story of Notre Dame Seminary, because church enterprises in Florida in the Spanish colonial period were controlled from this see, and Florida would be merged with the Louisiana territory when under Spanish control, from 1763 to 1800, including when it became a diocese in 1793.

Sixteen years after the Diocese of Baracoa, Cuba, was created, a French mariner named Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) explored the lands bordering the northwestern quadrant of the Atlantic Ocean, sailing into what he named the St. Lawrence River, claiming the region as New France, now Canada, for King Francis I on 24 July 1534. The significance of this development for our story is that ecclesiastical affairs in the Louisiana Territory while a French colony, from 1682 to 1763, would be managed from French Canada, and it was in French Canada that the first seminary in North America would be established.

In part, the reason that the first seminary in North America was established by the French rather than the Spanish is that the Spanish relied more heavily on religious orders to supply colonial clergy. The French, of course, also made extensive use of religious clergy in their colonies, yet, in addition, there was a movement in France following the Council of Trent which would shape the history of Catholicism in the French American colonies in general, and the use of seminaries in particular, into the early period of the history of the United States.

1.5: FRENCH SCHOOL OF SPIRITUALITY

The first seminary in North America, the first seminary in the United States, and the first seminary in the Louisiana Territory were all established by men whose religious vocations may be traced to the seventeenth century French School of Spirituality. This movement had its origin in Rome, with the task of translating the documents of the Council of Trent into a workable plan of reform. For example, the mandate for a seminary system codified at the Council of Trent in 1563 was described in the most general terms. It was left to the post-conciliar period to fill the outline with a substantial program to bring a student from tonsure to ordination.

Pope Pius IV set the example in April of 1564, by establishing the Seminario Romano, the Roman Seminary; it opened the following year with sixty students, with a plan of formation prepared by the second Superior General of the Society of Jesus: Diego Lainez (1512-1565). Seminarians lived and shared prayer, Mass, spiritual direction, and meals at the seminary, while taking classes at the Collegio Romano, the Roman College, also under Jesuit control. This Roman College was the institutional antecedent of the current Gregorian University, at which five Archbishops of New Orleans studied.²⁵

The nephew of Pope Pius IV, St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) expanded this seminary model in his capacity as Archbishop of Milan. He opened a seminary in Milan on 11 November 1564, the first outside of Rome, and placed it under the care of three Jesuits. In the same year, another post-Conciliar initiative began in Rome, this one focused on those who were already ordained, but it would grow to influence seminary formation in the early modern period.

In 1564, St. Philip Neri (1515 to 1595) began promoting an endeavor to be approved by Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572 to 1585) eleven years later: the Congregation of the Oratory, named for the Oratorio of San Girolamo, Rome, which served as the saint’s original base operations.²⁶ Adapting the model of St. Augustine to parish life, the Oratorians were to live in community, sharing prayer and meals, to provide support and encouragement for going out to assist diocesan parish endeavors. They were to be well-trained in order to give parish conferences that would be didactic and spiritual in nature. They were to devote attention to offering confession. And, most importantly for our purposes, St. Philip constructed a program of devotional spirituality to supplement parish sacramental life with a cycle of events that at once fostered cohesion among the faithful, and provided well-grounded religious edification; one noteworthy example was the Forty Hours Devotion.²⁷

In 1602, St. Francis de Sales gave a series of conferences in France promoting similar post-Trent ideas, and mentioned St. Philip’s Oratory as a model of Catholic reform. One man in the audience who listened most attentively had been ordained only three years, but later, in 1611, he established the Oratory of Jesus in Paris, modeled on St. Philip’s Oratory; this young priest became Cardinal Pierre de Berulle (1575 to 1629), the Founder of the French School of Spirituality.

This profoundly influential movement has importance in our story because Pierre de Berulle applied the Oratorian model to priestly formation, not only to those already ordained priests. As the French Oratories multiplied, priests and seminarians would live together: seminarians attending class at a local college as well as working in parishes, while the priests would provide mentoring to the seminarians as well as work in the diocese according to St. Philip’s model.

Given the ultimate derivation of the Oratorian movement in Augustinian spirituality, it is no surprise that it placed heavy emphasis on human sinfulness, with a commensurate awe that Jesus would willingly abase himself to partake of earthly existence. Gratitude for this ineffable mystery was to be expressed devotionally through Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and practice of the many novenas and prayers associated with the Sacred