1. How much is needed annually to support seminary education? This number varies each year, depending primarily on the number of seminarians in the program. During the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2020, the total bill was just over $686,000. By adding $15 million to the existing $7.8 million endowment, it will be possible to cover expenses and increasing costs and, most importantly, more seminarians discerning the priesthood.
2. What seminarian expenses are covered by the Archdiocese of Dubuque? Those expenses include:
Tuition, room, board and fees for the program at major seminary, currently at Mundelein Seminary near Chicago.
Living expenses at the Vianney House, the seminary dormitory in Dubuque.
Compensation for the Rector and Spiritual Director at the Vianney House.
The Vocation Program and personnel to support the program.
3. What is the Vocation Program and how does the discernment/education process work? The Vocation Program refers to those activities designed to encourage men to consider a vocation to the priesthood.
In the initial stage of discernment to the priesthood, the Vocation Director, who leads the Vocation Program, works with men who have expressed an interest in becoming a priest. The program includes prayer, meetings, discussion, and reflection all under the direction of the Vocation Director’s office. If a man feels this call from God, he completes an application, which is followed by extensive background and reference checks, interviews and an assessment, which are covered by the archdiocese.
If accepted, the Archdiocese of Dubuque partners with local Catholic colleges (currently Divine Word and Loras College) to provide the second stage of discernment. While Loras provides intellectual formation during the academic year, the Rector and Spiritual Director provide year-round human, intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral formation.
As a seminarian advances, the Archdiocese partners with a major seminary (currently Mundelein Seminary) to provide the spiritual, human, intellectual, and pastoral formation. Again, the archdiocese is responsible for year-round formation above and beyond the academic year.
This entire process can be up to nine years for each seminarian.
4. How are the seminary education expenses currently funded? Current funding sources include occasional gifts from donors, the archdiocesan operations budget, and distributions from the Catholic Foundation in the Archdiocese of Dubuque (CFAD) Seminary Education Endowment Fund.
5. Are the funds raised for seminary education going to go into an endowment? Yes. There is a Seminary Education Endowment fund held by CFAD. Proceeds from this appeal will go into this endowment. The endowment is prudently invested by CFAD with an annual distribution of 4% of the endowment balance.
6. Why should the Catholics of the archdiocese pay for the formation and education of seminarians? When a man comes forward to discern the priesthood, he is responding to a call to the priesthood rather than selecting a career. From the very beginning, the archdiocesan family needs to communicate that we are partners in this discernment. When his discernment, training and education leads to ordination, he chooses to make a gift of his life for the benefit of the people of God. The archdiocesan family gives thanks for this future sacrifice made on their behalf by praying for his priestly success and for making a sacrifice of their own to financially support his formation.
7. Shouldn’t seminarian families share in these expenses? By entering the seminary, a man indicates his openness to giving up his whole life in service as a priest in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. This is no small thing. It is therefore right and just for us, the archdiocesan family, to pay for their education. If seminarians and their families had to bear the cost themselves it might deter them from going to the seminary.
8. Where do seminarians attend college? Seminarians working on their undergraduate degree attend Loras College. While attending Loras, they live in the Vianney House, located in Dubuque. Following graduation at Loras, they enroll at major seminary, which is currently at Mundelein Seminary just outside Chicago. They continue at Mundelein Seminary for four years before, God willing, being ordained priests in the Archdiocese of Dubuque.
9. How many seminarians are enrolled? As of March 1, 2021, there are 20 enrolled at either Loras or Mundelein.