Today's seminary part of
Cd. Szoka's legacy
By Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 4, 2004
So vital were the changes Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka made to Sacred Heart Seminary during his time as archbishop of Detroit that he is often referred to as the institution's "second founder."
Its modern name Sacred Heart Major Seminary reflects the addition of a Graduate School of Theological Studies that was the key component of the major transformation of the seminary Cardinal Szoka brought about in 1988.
With the addition of the graduate school or "theologate" it became possible for a seminarian to receive all the training and formation required for ordination there.
Bishop Allen Vigeron, former SHMS rector and now bishop of Oakland, Calif., has said, "I think his decision to open the theologate, and to make it part of what had been just the college seminary, really merits his being called a second founder after Bishop (Michael) Gallagher, and he really has ensured, I think, the survival of the seminary into the next generations."
Besides the theologate, there was a major revamping of the seminary's undergraduate program and the addition of programs at both the college and graduate school levels to prepare lay people for various lay ministries.
Cardinal Szoka's plans also included a major renovation of the building, which has stood on Chicago Boulevard, between Linwood and Lawton, since the mid-1920s. The work included painting and remodeling, a lot of new interior woodwork and doors, and replacement of the building's hundreds of windows.
Bishop Vigneron praised Cardinal Szoka's insistence on high standards and fidelity to Church teaching in his revamping of the seminary, making it an institution capable of benefiting for years to come not only the Archdiocese of Detroit , but also other dioceses that send seminarians there.
Cardinal Szoka's "great vision" for the seminary has also been praised by Bishop John Nienstedt, now bishop of New Ulm, Minn.: "He wanted it, first of all, to be a Catholic seminary, to have a clear sense of priestly identity that would be held up and witnessed to by the faculty."
The cardinal also saw it as beneficial for the seminary to be situated in the heart of Detroit, Bishop Nienstedt continued, "so that priests would be able to identify with the joys and sorrows, and potential that the city has, as well as some of the liabilities that it has."
Cardinal Szoka's legacy is honored not only by the honorary doctor of laws (LL.D.) degree SHMS gave him back in 1996, and by the naming of the seminary's library after him, but also by the continuing fidelity of the institution to his vision for it.
"He really was someone who looked far into the future, and wanted to make a strong commitment not just a symbolic one to the City of Detroit in the name of the Archdiocese of Detroit," said the seminary's current rector, Dominican Fr. Stephen Boguslawski.
"Cardinal Szoka understood that the formation of future priests required a renewed commitment to new immigrant populations, as well as urban culture, and that the formation of future priests and those involved in lay ecclesial apostolates requires that educational environment," Fr. Boguslawski added.
Looking back on his years in Detroit, Cardinal Szoka has identified the transformation of the seminary as one of the high points of his ministry. "That was a project that was very close to my heart and very meaningful for me, because I think that one of the most important responsibilities a bishop has is to provide priests for the future and to provide good preparation and training for them to do the work of the Church in the future," he said.
"It has an excellent faculty, excellent courses, and I think it is one of the finest seminaries in the country. I am, I hope in the right sense, very proud of that seminary," the cardinal added.
Cardinal Szoka's involvement with the seminary extends back to his own student days he did his last two years of undergraduate studies there right to the present. On visits back to Detroit, he stays at an apartment that was built in some vacant space in the seminary when he left in 1990 to become president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
Seminarians at SHMS have not only benefited from the changes Cardinal Szoka set in motion 16 years ago, but also from the insights and inspiration he gives when he addresses them on his visits.
In 2002, during the height of the clergy sex scandals, Cardinal Szoka gave words of encouragement at the seminary's commencement exercises. "We don't deny the problem of pedophilia. We deeply regret it and will do whatever is necessary to correct it. But we do reject the attempts to discredit the priesthood and the Catholic Church," he said.
And the cardinal assured the graduating seminarians and other graduates that attempts to capitalize on the scandals to harm the Church would fail. "Persecution of the Church has existed from the time of our Lord. But let us never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be overcome," he added.
In the midst of all the news coverage of the scandals, it was a timely message, said one of those seminarians. "We needed to hear that," said (now Fr.) Brian Hurley.
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