We live in a day and age where the priesthood is blurred. we have so many lay associations
that take the place of the priest.
The heart of the crisis of the Church is there, which is a crisis of the priesthood; of the
spirituality of the priesthood - and so the solution is there as well.
The Church, the Mass, the priesthood, that's all so interwoven, you can't have one without
the other - any one of them without the other. If you get to the very heart of the Society,
which is the heart of Archbishop Lefebvre, which is the heart of the Church – it's
the holy Mass, and it's the Priesthood without which you cannot have the Mass and the Sacraments
and that's why a seminary is so important, and this seminary project is so important
because we need the best possible place for formation.
What we're witnessing is what the Church has always done in a time of great crisis, in
a time when priests no longer understand what it means to be a priest and even in a time
when the Catholic Church at large has perhaps forgotten - how precious the priesthood is.
For those that know that they can't get to Heaven without the priest - that seminary,
and the priests that will come out of it, it’s a sign.
So much is invested in this new seminary because, for the Society of St. Pius X, our sole goal
is the formation of priests.
We want to invite and be able to accept as many young men who approach us; we want them
to also have an environment where they can truly absorb Catholic culture, they truly
take on the spirit of the Church. And that's, that's what the New Seminary Project is going
to provide for them.
The building of such a seminary is like a standard of victory, and a standard of hope
for the whole world.
Thanks to the great generosity of our benefactors, The
New Seminary Project in Virginia has made significant progress. With the installation
of all the windows, interior work can now continue uninterrupted throughout the winter
months. On the exterior, we are installing the slate roof and cladding the facade with
brick.
This facade gives the building a special beauty - a beauty worthy of it's purpose; to form
priests for the Church; and a durability to ensure this work will continue for generations
to come.
We helped clean and prepare Ridgefield to receive the seminary, and then outgrew that.
We had to move to Winona - and, by the grace of God, we’re now in the position where
we need another seminary.
The fact that we have had to find a new way to house them, the fact that we’ve outgrown
the current seminary is absolutely a sign of hope for them; I’d say a great encouragement
not only to them as faithful but also to us as priests.
Our new seminary is still in progress. Trusting in God's providence, St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary
will move to Virginia in the Fall of 2016.