Saint Meinrad president-rector shares his experiences with bishops

By Dan Conway (Special to The Criterion)

BALTIMORE—After serving as president-rector of Saint Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad for 12 years, Benedictine Father Mark O’Keefe announced in October that he will step down at the end of the current school year.

That made his Nov. 12 report to members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops who send students to Saint Meinrad his “swan song”—one last opportunity to render an account of his stewardship of the southern Indiana seminary’s long tradition of educating priests for the Church.

Father Mark’s remarks centered on the importance of human formation—the most basic and fundamental task in the preparation of good priests.

Recalling the teaching of Pope John Paul II, he reminded the bishops that, “In good priestly formation, there is just no substitute for a good human formation.

“Human formation is absolutely and irreplaceably foundational for all the rest. Without it—whatever the talents, good will and education of the young priest—his personality will become an obstacle rather than a bridge in his ministry.”

The Program for Priestly Formation approved by the U.S. bishops for all seminaries in the United States requires that seminarians be helped to develop a solid priestly identity and love for the priesthood. The seminary must also offer a serious formation for chaste, celibate living and a good academic formation in line with the Church’s teaching and tradition.

Finally, it must teach the varied pastoral skills necessary for effective ministry today sustained by a devotion to prayer and a longing for holiness.

But, according to Father Mark, “None of that can happen—there can be no real, lasting, effective academic, spiritual or pastoral formation—except on the foundation of a solid and intentional human formation. All of the other formations end up being superficial, shallow, short-lived—without a real grounding in an integrated, adult maturity.”

Without solid formation in basic human virtues and character, a young priest can have a strong conviction about what it means to be a priest—but be quite unable to collaborate with others in ministry, Father Mark said. Without a mature degree of self-understanding and maturity, a priest’s celibacy formation can easily crumble in the face of the inevitable loneliness, feelings of being unappreciated, and the stress of daily living.

And, Father Mark asked, “What’s the value of intellectual formation without ordinary, human common sense?”

In fact, he observed that a young priest’s academic formation can leave him unable to negotiate—with a prudence that remains true to the Church’s teaching and tradition—the complexities of real people’s lives, whether in preaching or one-to-one counseling or in moral advising.

Father Mark said, “Without a strong human formation, young priests can leave the seminary with many pastoral skills—but without the interpersonal skills to make them really effective.”

In his report to the bishops, Father Mark outlined his convictions and experience about the seminary’s role in effective human formation for priestly ministry.

An essential ingredient is strong seminary programming like Saint Meinrad’s new comprehensive celibacy formation program—with components in human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral formations, Father Mark said.

Effective human formation also requires a thorough and critical evaluation process—to help students grow in their self-understanding and spiritual maturity, but also to help their bishops fully understand the men who they will ordain for lifelong service to the Church, he said.

But, Father Mark insisted, “Quality programming is no substitute for a seminary formation staff that is present and attentive and proactive. There is no substitute for a student body that is not so large that the formation staff doesn’t really know them.

“There is no substitute for formators who hold their seminarians accountable to expectations—while treating them as the adults that they will have to be, very shortly, as young priests,” Father Mark said. “There is no substitute for an atmosphere of trust in a seminary between seminarians and formators—because without such trust, the seminarians will not let their guard down, look at themselves and change.”

The challenges of priestly formation—in all its human, intellectual, spiritual and pastoral dimensions—is formidable. But during his 12 years as rector, Father Mark said he experienced it as a true labor of love.

As he observed with evident warmth and sincerity, “One of the things that I say frequently to the seminarians at Saint Meinrad is: ‘I love my seminarians.’ And, when I do say ‘I love my seminarians,’ it is sure to invoke some good-natured laughter and maybe even some cheering—because I think they actually believe it.

“And, in fact, they should believe it. Because it’s the truth. And, to the degree that I have been a successful rector over the last 12 years, I am sure that my love for the seminarians is a part of it. The fact is that I admire them; I am inspired by them; and I just really like them.

“But, again, to the degree that I have been successful, it’s also because, while I love them, I am not blind to their human failings, their sinfulness and to the defects in their earlier formation.”

Human weakness, sinfulness and the not-so-subtle influences of our modern culture challenge today’s seminarians—as every past generation has been challenged—to conversion of mind, heart and actions. To grow in understanding, in personal piety, in pastoral skills and in fidelity to the person of Jesus Christ, the ordinary human beings who respond to God’s distinctive call to ordained ministry must be men of courage and of hope, Father Mark said. They must also learn to be great lovers who seek the truth and share it generously with others.

Father Mark said, “It seems to me that the test of any seminary is in its graduates. No doubt, some of the graduates of Saint Meinrad have had their problems. But, as I look at the dioceses around us, I believe that I see our recent graduates to be some of those dioceses’ most effective young priests. And, if my observations are true to fact, then I feel that I can say that we are doing a pretty darn good job.”

Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, a fellow Benedictine and a former rector at Saint Meinrad, thanked Father Mark for his years of service to the seminary community and to the Church.

He expressed his confidence that the tradition of excellence in priestly formation that has been Saint Meinrad’s gift to the Church in the United States for nearly 150 years will be effectively handed on from Father Mark to the next president-rector to be chosen by the seminary’s board of trustees in January. †