PROVIDENCE—Our Lady of Providence Seminary houses a diverse group of seminarians in preparation for lives of serving God as priests.
Many enjoy gathering to play music together or facing off in teams on the basketball court at a local gymnasium in their down time.
Some have traveled from afar to prepare in the venerable seminary.
“I love it here, it’s a house of joy and brotherhood, encouragement, strength and holiness. We bring all these blessings together and enrich each other’s lives,” says seminarian Nick Sungenis, 21, who is in his second year of formation at Our Lady of Providence.
Sungenis compares the fraternity he and his fellow seminarians share to the fellowship experienced by Jesus’ disciples.
There is currently a total of 20 men studying for the priesthood for the Diocese of Providence.
Of these, 10 are major seminarians, with the diocese covering the cost of their tuition, room and board.
It costs about $525,000 to educate 10 major seminarians per year.
Each year, the diocese invites the faithful to give generously to a special collection offered in support of its mission to provide seminarian education.
This year, the collection will be taken up at all Masses on the weekend of Oct. 1-2.
“I am grateful for the spiritual and financial support that the good people of our diocese continue to offer to our seminarians. We are truly blessed to have 20 very good men preparing to serve the diocese as priests. The support they receive today will bear tremendous fruit for the future of our diocesan church,” said Father Michael Najim, vocations director, who works along with Father Carl Fisette, assistant vocations director, in recruiting priestly vocations.
The goal of the Office of Vocations is to ensure the proper human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formation of the seminarians.
This also includes securing sources of funding for major seminarian education and formation — an expense that is paid by the diocese. And, just as college costs have risen markedly, so too have seminarian education costs.
Over the last ten years, the diocese has ordained a total of 43 men as diocesan priests for service to the Catholics of Rhode Island. In that time, costs to prepare these seminarians for a life of service to the church have increased 98 percent from $26,296 to $52,266 per major seminarian.
While this is comparable to the cost to attend a private university, the diocese had eight major seminarians last year. For those eight, the formation and education budget was nearly $420,000.
Next June, three seminarians are scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood to serve in the diocese: Seminarians Ryan Connors, Francesco Francese and Christopher Murphy.
To learn more about the work of the Office of Vocations in recruiting vocations to the priesthood, log onto www.catholicpriest.com.
