U.S. Catholic Seminarians Turningto Orthodoxy

New York Times October 13, 1998
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

ROME -- Young American men entering the priesthoodtoday are far more conservative and tradition-bound than many of theirelders and most American Roman Catholics, according to bishops, priestsand church surveys.

In a sharp swing of the pendulum, seminariansare rejecting the liberalism and rebellion that swept the Catholic Churchafter Vatican II and American society in the 1960s and 1970s.

"My generation was reacting against the tight,ritualized church of the '50s," said Monsignor Timothy Dolan, the 48-year-oldrector of the Pontifical North American College of Rome, a seminary forAmericans preparing for the priesthood. "These kids are reacting againstthe '60s and '70s, the psychedelic vestments, the Coke and pretzels atMass."

Dolan, who was himself a seminarian at the collegein the mid-'70s, added: "Now the bias is only in favor of tradition andauthority. When I was taught, the bias was against it."

The shift back to orthodoxy is welcomed by manychurch leaders after decades of confusion and conflict. Others worry thatif the trend continues, it could create a rift between a more rigid, conformistclergy and the majority of American Catholics, who routinely ignore Rome'steachings on church attendance, sex, birth control and divorce.

The North American College, sometimes describedas a West Point for priests, is in some ways at the vanguard of this counterrevolution.At the solemn stone seminary overlooking the Vatican, 171 students areenrolled this year, more than at any time in the past quarter-century.

The surge is not a reflection of a sudden risein vocations in the United States. While the plunge in seminary enrollments,from 37,383 in 1967 to 5,527 in 1997, has leveled off, according to theCenter for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University,there has been no rise in enrollments in recent years.

Mostly, the seminary's record numbers signal arenewed respect for the ancient rituals and rich traditions of Rome.

And at the seminary in Rome, as in seminariesthroughout the United States, a generation gap can be detected in the mostbasic course work.

The Rev. John Cameron, 40, teaches seminariansto begin their homilies with a homespun personal anecdote -- involvinga shopping mall visit or a childhood toy -- that will entice easily distractedparishioners.

When Stephen Hero, 28, stood up in a recent workshop,he delivered a practice homily closer to his own heart. "On Oct. 16, 1978,a new pope, John Paul II, was elected," he began.

Cameron sighed. On leave from St. Joseph's Seminaryin Yonkers, N.Y., to teach a two-week course in Rome, he is a Franciscanwho also studied screenwriting at the University of California at Los Angeles.He was too tactful to criticize his student's homily directly, but laterhe explained to a reporter that the pope might be too remote a referencefor many American churchgoers.

"Students today are zealous -- they want to bepromoters of the faith," he said. "But they don't always know how bestto communicate with the laity."

But Hero, a third-year seminarian from Toronto,is of a different generation, one that is mainly worried that Sunday Massesin many parishes are being diluted.

"I don't think the church should be too mundane,"he said quietly. "It's OK to make the liturgy accessible, but there isa danger of making it so ordinary that people lose the transcendent experienceof God."

The 56 members of the 1998 freshman class, knownat the seminary as the New Men, make up the largest such group in 29 years,and they show the same kind of fervor. Selected by their bishops to trainin Rome, they seek to bring a restored church back to a rather lax Americanlaity. They speak of the deep mystery of the church, the awe they feelin experiencing 2,000 years of tradition, the chills they get in St. Peter's.

Their heroes are John Paul II and Cardinal JosephRatzinger, head of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for the Doctrineof the Faith. Ratzinger is a contentious figure to many American Catholics,who view him as the guardian of strict orthodoxy and the leader of theVatican's clampdown on dissent. Even some seminary professors take hisrock-hard teachings with a grain of salt. Among seminarians he is revered.

Tad Oxley, 22, a first-year seminarian from Toledo,Ohio, took Ratzinger's theological treatise "Salt of the Earth" to a beachouting. "He is a brilliant theologian and also a great pastor," Oxley said."Someone has to be in a position of authority and keep a watch on whatis happening."

David Espinal, 22, from New York, agreed. "Wereally believe that he was chosen for his position by the Holy Spirit toexplain Christ's teachings," Espinal said.

Twenty years ago seminarians challenged everything,from the way theology was taught to being required to study Latin. Theyeven questioned priestly celibacy. A 1994 report prepared for the NationalFederation of Priests' Councils found that although in 1970 a total of85 percent of diocesan priests under 35 said celibacy should be optional,by 1993 only 38 percent agreed.

Oxley said he and his classmates were appalledwhen a fellow seminarian was accosted at a party by a Catholic lay activistwho told him, "I'm really rooting for you guys to be able to get married."

Oxley said he found the guest's remark wounding.

"We view celibacy as a gift, a deep personal commitmentto our Lord," he said. "It would be like me going up to a married personand saying, 'I'm really rooting for you to be allowed polygamy."'

Some older priests who ran parishes in the experimental1960s worry that if young priests are too tightly bound to orthodoxy, theywill lose their ability to lead a less disciplined flock.

"I'm all for tradition and greater piety," saidMonsignor Lorenzo Alcabete, 57, a professor of theology at St. Joseph'sSeminary and a frequent visitor to Rome, who has seen the conservativeshift in both places.

"But if it turns into a moral legalism, a lackof sympathy or experience of how life is perceived today, it becomes anobstruction to faith: They will not be listened to."

Dolan said he often heard such concerns from alumniand other older priests.

"When I say young priests are conservative, peopleoften tell me, 'Oh, they are pastorally insensitive, all head and no heart,"'he said. "These kids do have a great love for the magisterium and the traditionsof the church, but they also ask, 'How do I preach and bring it to thepeople?' It is not a haughty, heartless conservatism."

The seminarians describe themselves more as missionaries."It hurts me when I see dissension in the church," Oxley said. "But myobjective is not to condemn people who do not fully accept the church'steaching. I don't want to alienate them, I want to bring them closer tothe truth."