CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- More than cost was behind a recent decision by the Archdiocese of Chicago to close its college seminary on the North Side after this academic year.
There are only 20 undergraduates studying for the priesthood at St. Joseph College Seminary on the campus of Loyola University, in a building built to house three times as many. Only 13 of the seminarians want to be priests in Chicago.
But, according to Fr. John Kartje, rector and president of the archdiocese's major seminary in Mundelein, another key factor in the closing of St. Joseph College Seminary is that men are choosing the priesthood later in life, after they’re out of college.
Fr. Kartje said more men are making the choice of priesthood from their mid-20s to mid-30s. That being the case, he said, "if they discerned then a call to priesthood, they would not ordinarily, if they’re at that age, return to college seminary and be with 18 year olds, for example.
"Maybe they’ve gone to the University of Illinois, wherever, studying any number of things, economics, English, whatever, and then could have worked for a couple of years or maybe gone on to graduate school," before deciding they wanted to be Catholic priests.
Those older seminarians, he said, would then be prepared for the priesthood at Mundelein Seminary where they could make up any philosophy courses they did not take in their undergraduate studies.
Fr. Kartje said there are benefits to choosing the priesthood both right out of high school and later in life. He said those older seminarians "bring life experience. They’ve dealt with, often times, different levels of personal hardship, grieving, significant losses."
Fr. Kartje said there are 200 seminarians at the seminary in Mundelein. He said 45 of them are preparing for the priesthood to serve the Archdiocese of Chicago.
St. Joseph College Seminary students will be accepted at a seminary in Minnesota, if they choose.