The patch of land where an old apartment building-turned convent rests is the future site of the Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
Archbishop Jose Gomez blessed and broke ground of the new Queen of the Angeles Center for Priestly Formation in Torrance, California.
“Vocations to the priesthood, that’s one of my priorities in the archdiocese and I will say that Diego House and Lady of Angels Formation of Priest Center is really helping all of us in the archdiocese,” said LA Archbishop Jose Gomez.
The Queen of Angeles has operated for 15 years in 8 different spaces, each year giving about 30 young men the chance to answer a calling like Jeff Roxas, a third year seminarian that chose the altars over hospitals.
“The only aspect that I love about doctors is that they’re so caring to others, but at the same time I was so involved in my parish community,” said Roxas. “Faith and service really combined and collided and God gave me the answer and followed me into the path of the priesthood.”
For the next 18 months, classrooms, dorms, and a chapel will be built to house 40 seminarians in one roof.
After they complete their undergraduate studies here, they transfer to Saint John’s Seminary in Camarillo before they are ordained as full-fledged priests.
“I’m excited. We’re all going to be together this time. It’s not like separate houses that we’ve had before,” said seminarian Jerick Alenton.
Another seminarian, John Coronel, added, “It’s a beautiful thing. Something like this is so extraordinary because it shows God’s work in this archdiocese.”
While a handful of Filipino seminarians look forward to calling the place home, Filipino priest Father Ray Marquez also looks forward to helping them in their journey as an associate director.
Full story at ABS CBN News.
One thing left unsaid: When St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo closed its undergraduate division due to declining vocations and seminarians, the Archdiocese sought a partnership with LMU to see whether LMU could take over all of the archdiocese’s seminary formation or just the undergraduate formation. One obstacle to that partnership that isn’t discussed much was that LMU officials noted that few seminarians would qualify for admission to LMU based on the university’s criteria. Think about THAT for a good, long moment.
Whaaaat?? This is foolery. LA, particularly after we have all seen the REC, is simply not a diocese that should form any new priest. What will come out will be little priests like Cardinal Cupich and Bishop McElroy. Stunted men, with little notion of the True Faith, and whose internal mechanism is set to facilitate the continuation of foundation building for the NewChurch.
What lunacy.
Oh, yee of little faith. The Church has always and will always recover from craziness. We’ve gotten through worse times than Cupich and McElroy. The Holy Spirit will not allow the destruction of the Church by liberals. I went to St. John’s in the 70s. If I can survive that we can survive anything!
Fr Higgins, do the ordained L A archdiocese clergy wear clericals when on duty these days? If not, there’sa bit of irony in having college seminaians dressed as they are in this photo.
“If not, there’sa bit of irony in having college seminaians dressed as they are in this photo.”
Irony is the least of it. But how does that bear on Father’s comment? Even if you’re right, so is Fr. Higgins.
Please Archbishop Gomes, teach them Latin.
Thank God. Let’s pray for them.
15 years ago it was named “Queen of the Angeles” seminary ? I’m wondering why it wasnt named something a little more manly.
While one does not expect all priest candidates to be Harvard PhDs, certainly they should meet solid academic requirements. Otherwise, the priests will have reduced stature in the community.
Priests don’t need “stature in the community,” they need holiness and faith and the willingness to serve God’s people and preach the Gospel. If they wanted “statue” they would sign up for law school or med school and be buying a Lexus or a Mercedes.
To mike m: tough to disagree with your first sentence.
To Bill: of course priests should be holy and be willing to serve the people. but to “preach the Gospel” they first need to be able to understand it and the scriptural theology which flows from it. i doubt that the intellectually underqualified are up to that task. and i remember a noted priest-spiritual director quoting St. Teresa of Avila as saying that if she had to choose between a spiritual director who was stupid but personally holy and one who was intellectually gifted and theologically expert, but personally evil—-she would always choose the LATTER as the lesser danger to her soul.
Thank you, Father John Higgins.
As a solitary member of the flock,
I appreciate your historical perspective
and draw encouragement from it.
Even though, at times, I get a little weak in the knees.
Queen of the Angels comes from the formal Spanish name, from colonial times, of the city: The town of Our Lady Queen of the Angels [El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora Reina de Los Angeles].
The Archdiocese had a perfectly good seminary in St. John’s. Why was part of that seminary ever closed and the land sold to developers? If those facilities were still owned by the Archdiocese, then this expense and construction for a new seminary wouldn’t be necessary. Was the land at St. John’s sold off to pay Mahony’s clergy child abuse lawsuit damages?