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Seminary sees promising rise in future priests for regional Australia

Marilyn Rodrigues
Marilyn Rodrigues
Marilyn Rodrigues is a journalist for The Catholic Weekly. She also writes at marilynrodrigues.com. Email her at [email protected]
Eight new seminarians with Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP at the opening Mass for the seminary year falling on the feast of St John Bosco. Photo: Giovanni Portelli

A growing proportion of men entering the Seminary of the Good Shepherd are coming from regional Australian dioceses, a sign of hope for its rector, Fr Michael de Stoop. 

This year eight young men are devoting a year to listening deeply to God’s voice at the seminary in Homebush. 

Aged from their mid-20s to early 30s, they come from a range of careers and university programs. Three hail from overseas.  

All are committed to discerning if they are being called to serve the church as one of her priests.  

A smaller intake than last year’s record-breaking “super 17” is no problem for seminary rector Fr de Stoop, who is delighted to see more of them coming from the state’s regions. 

That includes Bathurst, which until the 2010s had a 30-year drought in priestly vocations. 

Now at the halfway point of the first crucial year, three of the new group for 2024 are from the Archdiocese of Sydney, one from Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, one from the Maronite Eparchy, and one each from the Dioceses of Bathurst, Armidale and Wollongong. 

“There are always peaks and troughs in vocations ministry, and it’s been very encouraging to see that there has been a steady intake of seminarians from some of the regional dioceses such as Bathurst and Armidale,” he said. 

Class at the Seminary of Good Shepherd. Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2023

“Generally we’re noticing the numbers of rural seminarians are currently going up, while those from urban areas such as Sydney and Broken Bay are going down.  

“For me that raises the question, could this be something which is a consequence of COVID?  

“Because at the time of the COVID lockdowns people in the rural areas still managed to maintain connection, whereas those who were under lockdowns in the urban areas may consequently had some lingering disconnection and lack of a sense of community.” 

Fr de Stoop said with a “good number” of possible seminary candidates already in the pipeline for next year, the focus for the current group is on their spiritual and human formation with input from the seminary team of vice rector Fr Paul Durkin, first year director Fr Dominic Nguyen, director of spiritual formation Fr John Armstrong, dean of studies Sr Susanna Edmunds OP, and coordinator of human formation Anthony Kendrick. 

In the second year the other two pillars of formation, academic and pastoral formation, will become more important. 

Fr de Stoop takes pride in the fact that the recently mandated “propaedeutic” (non-academic) introductory year for Catholic seminaries was put in place in Sydney by then-rector Fr Tony Percy more than 20 years ago. 

“In developing our formation program we don’t simply have the needs of the seminarians in mind, because at the end of the day, we also need to consider the pastoral needs of the people of God and how they are going to be assisted by our future priests,” Fr de Stoop said. 

“We have given very careful thought to making sure the seminary faculty have the qualifications and experience that’s needed to make sure they can accompany the seminarians well—the ability to accompany them is essential to our core function as formators. 

“At the end of the day, the Holy Spirit is the chief agent and guide of seminary formation, because the ultimate dimension of priestly formation is for the seminarian’s heart to be configured to Christ.” 

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