Special congratulations to the St. John Vianney College Seminary Class of 2011!!

Chapel of St. Raphael, SJVCS

Last evening, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the Very Rev. Roberto Garza (Rector/President), faculty and staff, fellow seminarians, and guests celebrated the graduation of 22 men from SJVCS in Miami. The graduation ceremonies represent the culmination of the initial step on the journey to the priesthood for these young…well, mostly young men. Depending on their educational achievements prior to entering seminary, these men have spent anywhere between two and four years attempting to comprehend the vast and exciting world of philosophy. (If you couldn’t tell, I’m being sarcastic.) The reception of their degrees last night, however, signifies that they are now ready to move on to the study of theology.

As most of you know, I studied philosophy at St. John Vianney College Seminary for two years. Though I decided to leave at the end of the last academic year, these graduates–my former classmates–have remained in my prayers as they have continued their journey towards the priesthood. Each of them have their own unique personalities and bring many gifts to the Church. I am looking forward to the day when they are, God willing, ordained priests. They are an excellent group of guys who have a deep desire to serve the Church and our Lord.

To the graduates: I am very thankful for the opportunity to have walked with you on this journey. No matter what the Lord calls us to in life, we will always be connected by a common bond: we once shared in a unique journey of faith that led us to develop a deep and personal relationship with God.

Congrats, fellas! Please know that you all continue to be in my prayers and I ask that you please keep me in yours. We continue to be brothers in Christ.

Side note: If you’re interested in finding out more on the Chapel of St. Raphael on the property of the seminary, here is an old newspaper article from Miami: http://library.stu.edu/ulma/va/3005/1966/01-21-1966.pdf [This is a PDF!] . It’s pretty interesting, you should check it out.

Bishop John Ricard | Source: Divine Word Radio

On February 15, 2011, the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee reported that Bishop John Ricard had submitted his resignation to the Holy Father for medical reasons. You may recall, Bishop Ricard suffered a pretty serious stroke on December 22, 2009. According to diocesan officials, the bishop underwent multiple surgeries and intense physical rehabilitation in the weeks and months following his stroke.

Shortly after returning to a limited work schedule in January 2010, Ricard was rehospitalized after collapsing while celebrating a funeral Mass.

Truthfully, those of us throughout the state have been wondering when the bishop was going to submit his resignation to Pope Benedict XI. Despite our prayers and wishes for him to remain as the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, we have been expecting this for some time.

With this announcement, there are two bishops within the state that have submitted resignations to the Holy Father. Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of Saint Augustine submitted his resignation upon turning 75 last September.

Along with the appointment of Archbishop Thomas Wenski as Metropolitan Archbishop of Miami and Bishop John Noonan as Bishop of Orlando, four out of the seven dioceses in the state have experienced leadership transitions in the last year. However, it doesn’t end there.

Bishop John Noonan | Credit: Archdiocese of Miami

In one of the rare Saturday appointments of Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop John Noonan, until this time Auxiliary of Miami, has been named the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Orlando.

Bishop John Noonan was born in Limerick, Ireland on February 26, 1951. After moving to the United States in the 1970s, Noonan entered St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy in 1979. He earned his Master of Divinity from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach in 1983. On September 23rd of that year, Noonan was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Miami at St. Paul of the Cross Church in North Palm Beach. Bishop Noonan also holds a Master of Education from Boston College.

Throughout his priesthood, Bishop Noonan has served as a parochial vicar, chaplain to youth ministry, Dean of Men at Miami’s college seminary, supervising principal at Monsignor Pace High School and St. Brendan High School, and Rector/President of St. John Vianney College Seminary.

So, to begin, I would like to simply apologize for finishing this “Year in Review” a bit later than even I anticipated. Over the last several days, I have been resting, relaxing and even doing yard work outside. It seems that when I left home for the seminary in Miami my parents had no one to work on the yard. So, they let it go by the wayside. That is going to change over the next couple of weeks. Okay, so…where were we? Oh yes, Spring VAW.

The spring semester’s Vocations Awareness Weekend was so much more profound than the fall semester’s VAW. This time around, the seminary capped the number of young men who could attend to at about 70. Each of the seven dioceses of the Province of Miami brought priests and young men discerning God’s will for the their lives. The quality of guys that attended the weekend was a lot better than I had previously experienced. The men who came down know that there is something tugging at their hearts; they know that the Lord is calling them to do something special with their lives. In an increasingly materialistic world, the courage these young men exhibited in simply coming on the weekend was incredible. The Lord was working in so many ways!!

This year has been quite a year for me in seminary formation. The 2009-2010 year started way back during the second week of August as the new seminarians arrived at St. John Vianney College Seminary for New Student Experience. When the returning seminarians arrived back for the year on August 20th, we met a LARGE group of new men who had already bonded and congealed. The first few months were a bit difficult adjusting to the large number of seminarians, the largest sized house in some 35 years. However, once the returning men and the new men came together, walking on the same journey of discovering the Lord’s love for each one of us, we were able to bond as a house of brothers. It was going to be an interesting, grace-filled 50th Anniversary Year for the seminary community!!

On Thursday, September 17, 2009, the seminary community welcomed Christopher West, who came to share a bit about John Paul II‘s Theology of the Body. At the time of his visit, Mr. West had been receiving criticism of many people stating that his commentary on the JPII’s work had been misrepresented by the Theology of the Body Institute. However, the seminarians here can attest to the powerful ministry of Christopher West and the institute he founded. The day after his visit, Justin Cardinal Rigali (Archbishop of Philadelphia) and the Most Rev. Kevin Rhoades (then Bishop of Harrisburg) issued a joint statement in support of Christopher West. They wanted to “express strong support for the important work of the Theology of the Body Institute and, in particular, that of Christopher West.” They continued by saying: