This update courtesy of the Priests for Life newsletter. You may contact Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; Tel: 888-PFL-3448 or 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.priestsforlife.org.
Young men from all over the country who are considering the priesthood have approached Priests for Life with the question: Where can I go to best integrate my vocation to the priesthood with my call to intense pro-life work?
Indeed there are several fine seminaries in the United States that give emphasis to the life issues in their formation programs. But there is one that we believe deserves special mention. In fact, this seminary is a veritable Shangri-La for future pro-life activist priests. Its name is Holy Apostles.
Holy Apostles Seminary was founded by Fr. Eusebe Menard, O.S.M., in 1956. Initially its purpose was to be a college preparatory seminary that served older candidates for the priesthood. Since 1977, when it added a theology program, it has functioned both as a college seminary and as a major seminary. To this day, however, it continues to have a special concern for candidates between the ages thirty-five and fifty.
The seminary is located in the beautiful, lush hills of the Connecticut River Valley. Its campus is made up of small, charming buildings, which accentuate the simple, familial lifestyle of its occupants. Indeed, Holy Apostles Seminary has a distinctly Franciscan flavor to it: its setting non-institutional, its faculty informal, its students humble, welcoming and cooperative.
The person who sets the tone for this wonderful place of prayer and preparation is its president, Fr. Douglas Mosey, C.S.B. Fr. Mosey was ordained in 1974 as a priest of the Basilian Fathers, a teaching community in Detroit, Michigan. He later received his Ph.D. in theology from the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto,Canada. In 1990, Fr. Mosey joined the faculty of Holy Apostles as a teacher and was appointed vice rector in 1993 under the well-known Fr. Ronald Lawler. In May of 1996, Bishop Daniel Hart of the diocese of Norwich asked him to serve as president and rector–which he has been doing now for over six years.
There has always been a strong commitment to the pro-life cause at Holy Apostles. In the years that Fr. Mosey has served as rector, however, that commitment has intensified. “Our hope,” says Fr. Mosey, “is that the pro-life spirit permeates all dimensions of life here and formation here. As the bishops have indicated, if we get this issue right, all the other issues will fall into place.”
Fr. Mosey believes that pro-life should never be an “add-on” to seminary life. On the contrary, it should be manifested in all the activities of both the faculty and students. “Whether in the classroom or in the chapel, we must breathe, act and pray pro-life,” he insists. “Pro-life needs to be part of the very fabric of the institution.”
And indeed it is. The Student Life League at Holy Apostles is undoubtedly one of the most active in the world: Every month it sponsors lunch meetings that focus on the dissemination of pro-life information in the greater community. Every Saturday morning it holds two prayer vigils at the Hartford abortion mill. On the same day it sponsors a Holy Hour dedicated to “mercy for life.”
In addition, the student league publishes and distributes four newsletters per year, provides a large section of the seminary library with pro-life resources, sponsors periodic devotions like the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplets for pro-life intentions, and organizes the annual trip to Washington D.C for the March for Life. Currently it is trying to raise money to complete a Tomb of the Unborn and Scriptural Stations of the Cross, having already secured the necessary permissions.
The seminary also sponsors a full-year of pro-life field ministry coordinated by Sr. Maryann Linder that includes a whole host of speakers and training seminars on topics related to abortion and euthanasia, ranging from CPCs, to Project Rachel, to Chastity and Abstinence, to NFP.
“Our greatest hope,” says Fr. Mosey, “is that when we send our priests out into the world, the pro-life training we have given them becomes part of their very priestly identity.”
With such a fine rector and such an amazing seminary, is there anyone who can doubt that Fr. Mosey's wish will not come true?
You can contact Fr. Mosey by calling (800) 330-7272, or by writing to Holy Apostles Seminary, 33 Prospect Hill Road; Cromwell, CT 06416-2027. You can find it on the web at:www.holyapostles.edu
