News Scrapbook 1969-1971

Enrollment Record Set At.Seminary S • ,. Jr, :Jo vi itor th e days to the Santa Paula apartments sandwiched betw n th University of San Dieso campus and its gymnasium and athletic 'complex oil Lmda Vista Road cannot help but be 1mpr sed with many sign of bustling activity. Th re are youths in denims and T-shirts mixing concrete, raking stones or leveling a piece of ground. Others are carrying furniture, bedding and clothing Into the houses. Some are washing windows, while others are painting elsewhere. One of the painters is a young looking blond man dressed as his co-worker . He is perched precariously on a ladder wieJ.:ling a paint bru h against a front door. He is Father Michael Alcaraz, rector of St. Francis Seminary, helping hi seminarians to get their n w home ready for occupancy. This ummer St Francis is relocating living quarters of its s,:,minarmns from the USO De Sales Hall to the Santa Paula apartments The move is partly in preparation for the seminary's r ord cla s in September. At a time when so much is heard around the country about "fallen away" pri t and about a decline in Religious vocations, St. Franc1 ·will have in the fall the largest total enrollment in the history of the San Diego diocese. Father Alcaraz reports that St. Francis will have at least 60 tudent. preparing for the priesthood in September. This includes 30 new tudents, with the remainder continuing their studies. Rt•come Edension of Campu- The emrnarrnns' new re idences will, in effect, become an e tension of the USO campus. All seminarians will live there and attend cl s s as usual at USO. Discu sin the move, Father Alcaraz hailed the step as strengthening the community of seminarians, and as taking them away from the campus "dormitory" connotation. "We will have a clo er knit community," he said, "with a place of our own and with our priest-counsellors sharing the residential complex with tudents." Fath r Alcaraz explained that "we are seeking to fornt a Eucharistic community with the whole life of the seminary cen- tered around the daily concelebration of Mass." He said students already have furnished a temporary chapel next to the r idence where Mass will be concelebrated daily for the seminarian by priest faculty members or counsellors. peaking or the seminary's personal counselling service, Father Alcaraz recalled that St. Francis was a pioneer in such programs a having un ess nhal role "in the formation of a young man ac- cording to the ideals of the priesthood." Th program's close priest-student relationships, he said, erved a. a model for other seminaries around the country. St. Fnnc1s now ha at least eight priest-counsellors, nearly all living at the new r idenccs and available to students at all hours. Two Counsellors Named Seminarians' counsellor · include Father John R. Portman, chairman or the Diocesan Ecumenical Commission and USD faculty member, and Father Neal Dolan, diocesan director of Relig ou voca110ns. Other counselors also serve as university or high chool teachers or in other sts. Father Alcaraz attributed the healthy seminary enrollment to the "outstandrng services" provided by "the right people in the right places" in behalf of priestly vocations. lie particularly singled out Father Dolan, Father Patrick J. O'Keeffe, dir ctor of the Pre-Seminary Program for San Bernar-

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dino and Hiverside Counties, and Father Henry F. ~·awcett, director of the program for San Diego ond Imperial Coun tie . Under th program, Father Alcaraz explained, guidance and coun elhng is provided tc students in Catholic and public high schools who demon trate academic qualifications for, and interest m, the priesthood. Father Alcaraz said that besides the pre-seminary program, the rise in the number of seminarian al o is due to a "general growing interest throughout the diocese in the R hgious life, to the active work of our younger priests and to the diocese's youth activities." He pointed out that young (Contmuedon Page 3)

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American Pontifical College in Rome or the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington , Ohio. After three years ' study for a master's degree the students spend a fourth year in.pastoral, or on-the-job training in vari- ous parishes_before ordination to the priesthood. Father Alcaraz observed that the diocese now has 10 deacons in pastoral training who will become priests in June, 1971. They were ordained to the diaconate last Saturday at a concelebrated Pontifical Mass in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, San Bernardino. Bishop Leo T. Maher officiated, assisted by Father Alcaraz and Father Rudolph Galindo, pastor of the host church. In May, nine SL Francis seniors participated in a ton- sure ceremony conducted by Bishop Maher in USD's Im- maculata Chapel. Tonsure is a sacred rite by which a layman is received into the clerical state by the cutting of portions of his hair to form a cross, symbolizing renunciation of worldly life. The Immaculata ceremony marked the first time in the country that tonsure rites were conducted before a public congregation. It was pointed out by Father Alcaraz that seminarians participate in USO campus life such as scholastic activities, student government, athleti_cs and other programs. I The seminary's facilities at De Sales Hall will be used by USD for classes and other functions. The office of the Diocesan Ecumenical Com- mission, headed by Father Portman, will remain in the hall. ·Father Alcaraz said plans call for the erection of more student residences at the leased Santa Paula location, as well as a , dining room and other 'buildings. He expressed hope these added accommodations will be completed by Sep- tember, 1971, when St. Francis enrollment is expected to reach 100. Construction will be un- dertaken by USD on adjacent land leased from private owners.

schools and colleges, othel'. institutions, in special minis- tries and so on. Even while attending St. Francis, he noted, seminarians participate in various aPoStolic activities. These include teaching the deaf or CCD classes and in University High School, visiting hospital patients and shut-ins in their homes, counselling youths at Juvenile Hall, and playing or singing at parish folk Masses. Speaking of the seminarians' studies, Father Alcaraz said they are enrolled in a four-year USO undergraduate program leading toward a bachelor's degree. They meet all academic requirements for a USO degree as do other students, with the exception that in completing their electives they are en- couraged to take more courses in such areas as philosophy and_ theology. Following graduation from USO, the seminarians complete their priestly training at a theologate such as the Catholic University of America in Washington, 0. C., North

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priests the dioces~ . have challenging opportun1t1es to serve the people in a wide variety of ways in the parish, in

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