Archbishop Chaput dedicates $4.7 million seminary expansion

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I know I have said this before, but it is where the faith is strongest that the seminaries thrive!

Archbishop Chaput dedicates $4.7 million seminary expansion

Increasing vocations spur new facility to serve archdiocesan seminaries

Ed López

To accommodate the growing number of seminarians at the John Paul II Center, a new expansion to the seminary buildings was formally blessed May 7 before an enthusiastic crowd.

The first-floor classrooms of the nearly $4.7 million expansion will be used by seminarians from Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary and St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. There are 81 men studying at the two seminaries.

Pastoral Center personnel will also use the classrooms. The expansion also contains administrative offices, residential rooms on the second floor and a chapel called the "Sanctuary of the Word."

"The new addition to the seminary is a great blessing to both seminaries," said Father Michael Glenn, rector of St. John Vianney.

"For the last few years we have had to have some classes meet in the student dinning room as well as some hallways," he said. "Now, with this addition, we will be able to house all our classes in an appropriate classroom."

Between the two seminaries there are four different programs: Spirituality Year, an English as a Second Language (ESL) program, a philosophy program and a theology program.

Two donor families provided the funds for the new expansion.

The Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Denver was erected on March 25, 1996, by then-Archbishop J. Francis Stafford and confirmed on Dec. 11, 1998, by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer) is one of 50 similarly named seminaries around the world established by members of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Christian formation program that originated in Spain. Rector of Denver's Redemptoris Mater seminary is Father Florián Martín-Calama.

The two founders of the Neocatechumanal Way, Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez, were present during the blessing as a large number of onlookers packed into the chapel.

Speaking in Spanish, Argüello reviewed the history and growth of the seminaries. "We are only beginning ...," he said.

A highlight of the ceremony was the blessing of a piece of stone from the central altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome that was placed inside a larger stone for placement inside the new expansion.

The larger stone also contains a parchment written in Latin that was signed by Pope John Paul II. In Denver, the parchment was also signed by the archbishop, Auxiliary Bishop José Gomez, S.T.D., Argüello, Hernandez and Father Mario Pezzi, who is with the Neocatechumenal Way international team.

"This is a moment to take pride in our faith, to be joyful and very grateful," the archbishop said during his homily.

"We have an abundance of seminarians. The Neocatechumenal Way has been a wonderful blessing, not just for the Church in northern Colorado but all over the world."

"If we give ourselves to God, we have no need of any other strength," he later said.

"So in blessing this building, which will serve our people and form so many future priests, may each of us, in our own way, rediscover what being a Catholic, a Christian and a disciple, really means and rededicate ourselves to the work of Christ's harvest."

The new seminary expansion is attached to what is known at the "Old Red Brick Building," the oldest building on the campus that was built in 1908.

Under the direction of Argüello, the European architects Mattia Del Prete, Antonio Abalos and Guillermo Soler established the building's floor plan and defined the exterior of the façade. The American architects were Larson Architects.

 



-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), May 18, 2004

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-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), May 18, 2004.

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