On Monday, August 21, 2017, St. Patrick’s Seminary & University celebrated the installation of Reverend George E. Schultze, SJ, as the institution’s 17th President-Rector. The Mass was celebrated by The Most Reverend Salvatore J. Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco, who also delivered the homily and performed the Rite of Installation before a gathering of an estimated 200 seminarians, bishops, priests, family members of Fr. Schultze, benefactors and friends of St. Patrick’s.
Held in the seminary’s historic chapel, the Mass also marked the beginning of the new academic year at the 118-year-old Seminary. St. Patrick’s has an entering class of 20, which is the largest since 2013 and includes seminarians from eight dioceses across the west coast and Pacific region, as well as two seminarians from Korea, a first for the institution. In all, St. Patrick’s has seminarians from 11 dioceses.
Speaking to attendees at a dinner following his installation, Fr. Schultze focused on the joy of his role and the importance of callings to the priesthood, noting “We are here because we recognize the importance of St. Patrick’s Seminary & University for Catholics and all men and women of good will… St. Patrick’s has social capital, intellectual capital and above all else, spiritual capital to share with those who are near or far from us,” he said referring to the seminary’s location in Menlo Park, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
He spoke directly to the seminarians present saying, “There is no better time than this moment in history to be a Catholic priest. Our world needs you.” He added, “I look forward to working closely with sending bishops and vocations directors throughout the Western U.S. to support the formation of priests and recruit more outstanding men to the vocation to the priesthood.”
A native of Mountain View (CA), Fr. Schultze has been on the faculty and served as a spiritual director at St. Patrick’s for more than a decade. Previously, he served on the faculty and staff of the University of San Francisco, and holds a degree from Cornell University in Industrial and Labor Relations and a PhD from the University of Southern California in philosophy, theology, and ethics. A Jesuit, Fr. Schultze currently serves on the board of Catholic Charities of the East Bay and is an advisor to Catholics for the Common Good.
St. Patrick’s previously announced a number of additions to the faculty for this year, including both prominent academicians and Diocesan priests. Seminarians attending are from the Archdiocese of Agaña in Guam, and the dioceses of Honolulu, Oakland, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Spokane and Suwon in South Korea, along with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The new class will maintain St. Patrick’s enrollment at 56 seminarians.
From press release emailed to CalCatholic.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A ‘CHANGIN’ AND FOR THE GOOD. FATHER IS THE ‘REAL DEAL’.
Yes, Father Schultze is an answer to our prayers. God Bless him and all those at St. Patrick’s Seminary.
All who are reading this, please pray to our Blessed Mother for Fr. Schultze and all the faculty at
St. Patrick’s Seminary. And please pray to St. John Vianney for many vocations for the Dioceses of all
Northern California……Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Monterey and any that I
may have forgotten. We are so desperately in need of good holy vocations to the priesthood. Jesus, Mary and Joseph please answer our prayers.
Check out who has been appointed director of liturgy at St. Patrick’s (you have to scroll down to se it):
https://www.catholic-sf.org/CSF-home/adsf-news/article/csf/2017/08/29/archbishop-announces-clergy-appointments
For those who don’t want to click, just do a search on “Fr. Alvin Yu”. I think there’s an article about him on this site so you don’t even have to go as far as Google.
Here, I save you the trouble of searching:
https://cal-catholic.com/newly-ordained-priest-celebrates-first-latin-mass/
Beautiful! Thank you for the pictures.
Diane is right, expect miracles, because Fr. Schultz is amazing—although he never anything but modest about himself. St. Park’s is going to blossom.
He’s Jesuit. How can that be good?
JESUITS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD, BUT GREAT!!!
Calm down, Tony the Tiger. Jesuits aren’t Frosted Flakes, although many of them are flakes.
Fr. Joseph Fessio is a Jesuit.
Father Spitzer, Father Mitch Pacwa, Father Fessio are all Jesuits in the true sense of the world. They like Father Schultze are the REAL DEAL:)
“[A]ll Jesuits in the true sense of the world.” Freudian slip? :)
Ah, the exception that proves the rule. Except the exceptions seem much too accepting.
God bless him! A difficult job but he is a fine priest.
SJW. Trained as a Community Organizer. No grasp of economic freedom.
Hymie–
Maybe you could do some research and educate us on what type of community organizing he has done or supported? I’d like to know. Since you presented the somewhat negative take on him you might provide the evidence. :)
Thought I did my part. Okay. Family, education, degree(s), research, writings, organizing, unions, NLRB, Luddism. Well-meaning is not the same as good.
Given their notoriety, Jesuits ought to be vetted like Moslem refugees, round pegs notwithstanding.
I asked specifically about community organizing. What has Fr. Schultze done that is negative? How has he shown that he has no grasp of economic freedom?
I do not know the answers, I was hoping to be educated by you, who seem to have some negative facts about him. Or perhaps you are choosing to profile him as the “stereotypical” Jesuit?
Were Schultze’s seminarians to strike and unionize for collective bargaining, it would be deliciously poetic.
By the way, his book, Strangers in a Foreign Land, is subtitled The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the United States.
Ah Hymie, you don’t seem to appreciate the fact that Jesus was the ultimate community organizer!!! What does a community organizer do? As I understand it, they help the people in the community come together to improve their lives, get the equal treatment they deserve, help them get new laws passed, and find good housing and food for the poor and those with no influence. Is that really a bad thing?
Wherever did you get these ideas that Jesus’s primary emphasis was directed solely to improving social conditions on earth? Not from reading the Gospels, that’s for sure. Compare your theory with His teachings: the Beatitudes; the necessity of passing through the narrow gate, etc., etc.
Fr. is a wonderful priest. I met him at USF whence the St. Ignatius Institute was destroyed by Fr. Privett and his minions. Fr. Shultze was working in the School of Professional Studies at the time. He was an example of what a Jesuit should be. Both he and Bishop Barber are Jesuits in that are and continue to be amazing. God Bless the St. Patrick’s is in great hands.
“For those interested in re-invigorating the labor movement, Fr. Schultze provides a blueprint for mobilizing the rapidly expanding population of Hispanic workers. He follows a long and noble tradition of hard-working and sometimes heroic Catholic priests who have supported workers in their legitimate desire to for a living wage and decent working conditions. Strangers presents a concise history of the labor movement in the U.S. and the Catholic Church’s role in it. While recognizing the decline in membership of organized labor, Fr. Schultze does more than lament the problem: he proposes a viable solution. This book could be a turning point if it is heeded.”
— Joseph Fessio S.J., Provost of Ave Maria University; Editor at Ignatius Press
Two in the bush, one stone.
Big fan (and trainee) of Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) — Alinsky’s network — and faith-based organizing in general (see final section Pg 10: “Workers are Already Integrating Work and Worship”).
https://www.stthomas.edu/media/catholicstudies/center/ryan/conferences/pdf/GeorgeE.Schultze.pdf
Sure you want this one running a seminary? Who screens these guys anyway?
“Having attended the IAF’s ten day national training and having studied some of its organizing efforts, I can attest to seeing holy moments occur in the lives of the participants. Leaders emotionally and spiritually confront the hurt and pain that they have experienced in their lives, relate it to the wider social injustices in their communities, and then return to their homes and work lives as faith-based change agents. The IAF has numerous faith traditions in its network, ecumenical services at times occur, and for the Catholics involved in trainings and meetings, the celebration of the Eucharist is a normal practice.” — George E. Schultze, SJ