Dear Young Friends,

At the conclusion of this celebration I turn to you directly and I greet you warmly. You have come here in great numbers from all over the country and from neighbouring countries; you camped here yesterday evening and you spent the night in tents, sharing an experience of faith and companionship. Thank you for your presence here, which gives me a sense of the enthusiasm and generosity so characteristic of youth. Being with you makes the Pope feel young! I extend a particular word of thanks to your representative for his words and for the wonderful gift.

Dear friends, it is not hard to see that in every young person there is an aspiration towards happiness, sometimes tinged with anxiety: an aspiration that is often exploited, however, by present-day consumerist society in false and alienating ways. Instead, that longing for happiness must be taken seriously, it demands a true and comprehensive response. At your age, the first major choices are made, choices that can set your lives on a particular course, for better or worse. Unfortunately, many of your contemporaries allow themselves to be led astray by illusory visions of spurious happiness, and then they find themselves sad and alone. Yet there are also many young men and women who seek to transform doctrine into action, as your representative said, so as to give the fullness of meaning to their lives. I invite you all to consider the experience of Saint Augustine, who said that the heart of every person is restless until it finds what it truly seeks. And he discovered that Jesus Christ alone is the answer that can satisfy his and every person’s desire for a life of happiness, filled with meaning and value (cf. Confessions, I.1.1).

As he did with Augustine, so the Lord comes to meet each one of you. He knocks at the door of your freedom and asks to be welcomed as a friend. He wants to make you happy, to fill you with humanity and dignity. The Christian faith is this: encounter with Christ, the living Person who gives life a new horizon and thereby a definitive direction. And when the heart of a young person opens up to his divine plans, it is not difficult to recognize and follow his voice. The Lord calls each of us by name, and entrusts to us a specific mission in the Church and in society. Dear young people, be aware that by Baptism you have become children of God and members of his Body, the Church. Jesus constantly renews his invitation to you to be his disciples and his witnesses. Many of you he calls to marriage, and the preparation for this Sacrament constitutes a real vocational journey. Consider seriously the divine call to raise a Christian family, and let your youth be the time in which to build your future with a sense of responsibility. Society needs Christian families, saintly families!

And if the Lord is calling you to follow him in the ministerial priesthood or in the consecrated life, do not hesitate to respond to his invitation. In particular, in this Year of Priests, I appeal to you, young men: be attentive and open to Jesus’s call to offer your lives in the service of God and his people. The Church in every country, including this one, needs many holy priests and also persons fully consecrated to the service of Christ, Hope of the world.

Hope! This word, to which I often return, sits particularly well with youth. You, my dear young people, are the hope of the Church! She expects you to become messengers of hope, as happened last year in Australia, during World Youth Day, that great manifestation of youthful faith that I was able to experience personally, and in which some of you took part. Many more of you will be able to come to Madrid in August 2011. I invite you here and now to participate in this great gathering of young people with Christ in the Church.

Dear friends, thank you again for being here and thank you for your gift: the book of photographs recounting the lives of young people in your dioceses. Thank you also for the sign of your solidarity towards the young people of Africa, which you have presented to me. The Pope asks you to live your faith with joy and enthusiasm; to grow in unity among yourselves and with Christ; to pray and to be diligent in frequenting the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession; to take seriously your Christian formation, remaining ever obedient to the teachings of your Pastors. May Saint Wenceslaus guide you along this path through his example and his intercession, and may you always enjoy the protection of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother. I bless all of you with affection!

Pope Benedict XVI

APOSTOLIC VISIT
OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC
(SEPTEMBER 26-28, 2009)
MESSAGE TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Speaking for myself, I know that I will miss the time spent out on the field practicing and conditioning for the Rector's Cup, not to mention the games themselves. That being said, I am also grateful to have some more free time for classwork and other things now that we aren't practicing five days a week! Of course, just because soccer season is over doesn't mean that sports at St. Charles are done. For many of the players, it simply means that it is time to put away the soccer cleats and pull out the football gear. One way or the other, we find some way to recreate and relax alongside of fulfilling all the other important aspects of seminary life.

In His Peace,

On Saturday, September 19, 2009 the Diocese of Raleigh Office of Vocations hosted its first Vocation Liaisons Day at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh.  Representatives from 22 parishes and schools attended.

This year, the Office initiated a Liaison program, in which lay men and women, appointed by their pastors or principals, assist the Office of Vocations in the work of promoting and encouraging vocations in the Diocese. They assist by praying for an increase in vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life and by being the point of contact for the Office of Vocations with the parish or school. 

Vocation Liaisons Day began with a Mass for Vocations celebrated by Father Ned Shlesinger, Diocesan Director of Vocations.  The morning presentation included a detailed explanation of the work of the Office by Father Shlesinger.  Staff members Brad Watkins and Sara Edwards described the resources available from the Office of Vocations and gave the Liaisons a preview of the new Vocations website (www.raleighvocations.org).

The afternoon session included presentations by current Vocations Liaisons Michele and Tristan Evans and Deirdre and Gerry Schuetz.  The Evanses discussed their work as Vocations Liaisons at Saint Michael the Archangel Church in Cary and the blessings they have received in their ministry. 

Deirdre and Gerry Schuetz, Liaisons at Saint Joseph Church in Raleigh, explained the importance of promoting vocations in the domestic Church; be it the family or the larger parish community.  Not only do the Schuetzes act as Vocations Liaisons in their parish, but they are also the parents of Michael Schuetz, a second-year college seminarian for the Diocese.  Their talk was a very personal presentation on what they believe created the supportive environment in which their son was able to discern his call to the Priesthood.

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge shared with the group his own vocation discernment as well as his experience and insights as a former rector of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia and as Bishop. He explained how Vocations Liaisons can be of great service to the Diocese in meeting its ever growing need for Priests and Religious. 

Currently 60 lay men and women are involved in the program. Anyone interested in learning more about the Vocation Liaison ministry should contact their pastor.

Vocations Liaisons Day 2009 Photo Gallery

Life as a new man: it is new.  None of us had experienced the St. Charles' Experience beforehand.  Each new man has been experiencing at least one new thing: being away from home, living in community, strictly humanities classes, in different languages, waking up before dawn, dressing like Mormons, the horaria, formation issues, or perhaps all this singing and chanting.  My biggest challenge has been the earlier rising, but the Holy Spirit has awoken me in time every day.

At the Opening Day Mass, Monsignor Prior announced the theme for the 2009-10 academic year, an aphorism of St. Jean Vianney: “Priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”  This simple statement reveals the great sacrifice that is required of priests, reminding us that the vocation to the priesthood is death to self in the same manner as Christ, for the salvation of souls.

The following Monday, Cardinal Rigali celebrated Mass in Saint Martin's Chapel and declared St. Jean Vianney as a Secondary Patron of the seminary, joining St. Joseph. St. Patrick, and St. Thomas Aquinas as secondary patrons.  With our year's theme, the additional patron, and the Church's elevation of St. Jean Vianney to patron saint of all priests, Rector's Dinners are peppered with questions about the life of the Curé d'Ars.

The Rector's Blog (www.rectorsblog.us) has also been a big topic of conversation at Rector's Dinners.  It was at a Rector's Dinner that Monsignor Prior increased web traffic to his blog by announcing that we must visit his blog to discover the date of our dies non granted from Archbishop Broglio's (Archdiocese of the Military) visit in the spring.  Lacking an illustrative drawing of it in my Lingua Latina textbook, I was unsure if a dies non was good or not.  I quickly discovered that the dies non is a free day on Tuesday, October 13, extending our Rector's Weekend another 24 hours!  One of my favorite features of the blog (I promise that Monsignor Prior is not bribing me) is the interviews with the deacons, whom we New Men otherwise might not know.

While the theologians had their retreat the first weekend of the year, we in the College Division had ours two weeks later.  For many of us, it was our first silent retreat, which certainly showed itself in the enlivened fraternity among seminarians in the refectory, the only place where talking was allowed.  Several of us (including myself) found the retreat enriching to our prayer lives.

Soccer practice rolls along, with our team in final preparation for the Rector's Cup tournament, which we host this year.  With great returning starters among the old men, excellent talent in the new men, several weeks of rigorous practice, and much prayer, our team has reason for confidence.  We also have home field advantage, consisting of: practicing on the rolling hills known as the soccer field and housing visiting players in St. Francis Hall, whose odor has devastating affects on lesser seminarians.        We all seem excited about our respective apostolates.  Santiago Mariani and I will be visiting the elderly and will each be teaching an elementary and middle school class at St. Maximilian Kolbe in West Chester.  This will be a great learning experience for both of us, as neither of us has ever taught a course.  Visiting the elderly fits in with past work I have made in Legion of Mary.  Speaking of which, the Legion of Mary has a large number of new men attending meetings, such that there is talk of splitting our Mary, Mother of the Eucharist Praesidium into two praesidia.  In addition to the Thursday apostolates, Legion members will participate in door-to-door evangelization on Saturdays this fall.

The Old Man-New Man Show practices are underway, and the new men are surely preparing a great show.  Our one concern is that we may make the old men feel inferior in comparison.

And from the realm of diocesan pride, this year the Diocese of Raleigh has the second greatest number of seminarians at the seminary, with fifteen!

Phil List
Pre-Theology I

Each year the seminarians spend Thursdays at an assigned apostolate in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.  There are a wide variety of apostolates such as parishes, schools, hospitals, and prisons.  These assignments help the seminarians to grow, among other things, in their pastoral formation.  These experiences allow the seminarians to put into practice what they learn in the classroom.

How has your experience at the prison apostolate been? This year I am assigned to a prison apostolate.  Mr. David Friel (a Philadelphia seminarian) and I go each Thursday to Montgomery County Correctional Facility.  This is a medium and maximum level prison, which makes it is a very strict and secure environment.   Our assignment allows us to assist the chaplain of the prison with many of his responsibilities as well as teaching a weekly class to the Catholic prisoners.

The prison is an interesting environment, not what most would expect.  Many of the inmates are very friendly and interested in talking to a chaplain.  We spend a lot of the day going to different areas and talking to the inmates.  They are very interested in talking about God and how to draw closer to Him.  Many ask for Bibles and rosaries and are interested in developing a devotional life.  They are at a crossroads in their life where they are prime for a conversion.  We have also found that the prison is a spiritual battleground.  There are many temptations and spiritual attacks that occur.  These souls are battling evil in an attempt to turn to the Lord.  We pray for and with these men and women asking for Mary, St. Michael, and their Guardian Angels to protect them.  It is truly a privilege to enter this battle and become the Lord’s instrument.  I pray that the seeds we sow come to fruition in the Kingdom.

Mary Our Mother protect us,

Brendan Buckler
III Theology