Written by John Cleary

When classes began on the morning of August 27, Kenrick-Glennon Seminary officially welcomed 112 seminarians for the start of the 2007-2008 Academic Year. Up from 75 seminarians at the close of the 2006-2007 Academic Year, the 112 seminarians represent a fifty percent increase in enrollment from the total enrollment of spring 2007.

Some seminaries across the country have experienced increased numbers as well, but none as dramatic as the increase at Kenrick-Glennon.

The increase in enrollment at the seminary created the need for more seminarian living space, a welcomed concern that was quickly addressed by an in-house expansion and rearrangement of living quarters to accommodate the welcomed upswing in the seminary’s population.

Despite the challenges such an influx of seminarians presents from a practical standpoint, seminary friends and benefactors, members of the Board of Trustees, and President-Rector Msgr. Ted Wojcicki view the current trend of increased vocations entirely with a sense of gratitude.

“Thanks be to God for his grace at work in our seminary community,” said Msgr. Wojcicki. “and thank you to Archbishop Burke and to all our benefactors and friends who are so supportive of our mission. Whatever number the Lord chooses to send to our seminary, we will welcome them and accommodate them as they discern their calling to the priesthood of Jesus Christ. That has always been the seminary’s mission, and the increased enrollment only makes the environment at the seminary all the more exhilarating and exciting.”

The increase in enrollment is felt on both sides of the building, with the number of seminarians in Cardinal Glennon college increasing from twenty-one to thirty, and the number of theologians on the Kenrick side rising to eighty-two from last spring’s total of fifty-four.

While he is ever thankful to God for calling these seminarians to discern their vocations at Kenrick-Glennon, Msgr. Wojcicki is also grateful to the Kenrick and Glennon seminarians for listening to that call.

“I thank the Lord for our seminarians for so generously responding to their call to priesthood,” said Msgr. Wojcicki. “I thank the Lord for the joyful witness of our seminarians who take seriously their vocations but not themselves. The excitement and joy these men bring to the seminary invigorates not only me, but our entire faculty and staff as well.”
Monsignor continued: “I must mention the wonderful work of our faculty and staff. I thank the Lord for these generous people, who provide a program of priestly formation which is attractive to bishops, vocation directors, and candidates.”