Bishop MartinCHARLOTTE — To further enhance the preparation of its future priests, the Diocese of Charlotte is adding a pastoral year to seminary formation, strengthening summer ministry assignments, and adding an intensive study in Rome.
The new pastoral year is rooted in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ official “Program for Priestly Formation” and will place select seminarians who are midway through their formation in the diocese’s Catholic middle or high schools, where they will teach religion classes, gain practical work experience, and help form young people as disciples of Jesus. Summer assignments will be more defined and help develop essential skills for priestly service. And all seminarians will spend an extended time in Rome learning more about Church history, art and architecture.
“This robust scaffolding of formation will help better equip men during their priestly studies,” said Father John Eckert, the diocese’s vocations director. “The more tools we can give them before ordination, the better prepared they will be to serve the people of God.”
The initiatives come at the same time Pope Leo XIV has called for renewal of priestly formation, fraternity and mission, in a Dec. 22 apostolic letter entitled “A Fidelity That Generates the Future.” The letter marks the 60th anniversary of Vatican II’s decrees on priest training and encourages priestly formation that remains faithful to the Church’s traditions while developing mature, well-rounded priests equipped to serve the Church in today’s world.
Bishop Michael Martin, a former Catholic school educator, developed the initiatives over the past year after consulting with priests, the Catholic Schools Office, the rectors of the three seminaries where diocesan seminarians study, and other dioceses. They are continuing to refine details and will begin implementing the initiatives in May.
Father Eckert announced the pastoral year initiative in a Dec. 15 memo to priests, deacons and seminarians. Seminarians were notified early so they could plan ahead before enrollment opens for the 2026-2027 academic year.
PASTORAL YEAR
Father EckertThe diocese’s priest formation program has evolved over decades to meet the needs of seminarians and align with Vatican and USCCB norms. The program typically spans six to eight years, depending on a man’s background, and now will include a pastoral year between seminarians’ Pre-Theology studies in college and graduate Theology studies at seminary.
After completing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, usually through St. Joseph College Seminary and Belmont Abbey College, seminarians will now teach for a year at one of the diocese’s middle or high schools. The Catholic Schools Office will implement a teacher training program for the men prior to their teaching experience.
After the pastoral year, the seminarians will move on to Theology studies at a major seminary: Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati or the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
Of the 44 seminarians currently in formation for the diocese, the first men eligible to participate in the pastoral year are Matthew Hennessy, Theodore Holthe, Matthew Sie and Jeremy Smith, who will be finishing their studies and St. Joseph College Seminary and Belmont Abbey this spring. Next fall, they will work full time in the schools, teaching religion classes or another subject aligned with their academic background.
The seminarians will receive a salary and live in a nearby rectory. They will have an assigned priest mentor who will help them reflect on their experiences as part of their priestly formation, and they will participate in new-teacher training and mentoring programs in the schools.
Although living in local rectories, their full-time ministry during the pastoral year will be in Catholic schools rather than parishes, which will enable seminarians to encounter an array of people and issues, Bishop Martin and Father Eckert said.
Seminarians will not serve as school chaplains, they emphasized. Rather, the program will likely resemble a fellowship.
Dr. Monroe“We are still working through criteria, training and placements,” said Dr. Greg Monroe, superintendent of Catholic Schools, “and we will keep refining that plan with the seminary and our principals as this semester continues. We already have a robust mentoring program that welcomes and guides new teachers, which will help us prepare the seminarians well for their time in our schools.”
The seminarians will gain experience teaching the faith, developing their communication and public speaking skills, and collaborating with diverse lay leaders. Working in a structured school setting, they will learn to manage a demanding work schedule, discipline issues and difficult conversations, and being accountable to supervisors – experiences diocesan leaders say are difficult to replicate in a limited summer parish assignment.
One side benefit of the pastoral year is to help form priests who are relatable and grounded in the lived realities of parishioners, Father Eckert said.
Earning a paycheck and paying their own bills, he said, will help them understand the financial pressures parishioners face. Many seminarians enter formation directly from high school or college and have limited experience with full-time work, independent living and financial responsibility.
“If you don’t really understand what the people of God go through each day – the hard work it takes to make ends meet – it’s easy to miss an important part of ministry,” Father Eckert said. “Making sure our seminarians have real work experience as part of a team is a vital part of their formation, and the bishop wants to be sure that happens.
Father Eckert credits his own experience working through high school and college, first as a janitor and later as a tour guide at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis, in helping to broaden his preparation for priestly ministry and later in becoming a pastor.
Encountering people from different backgrounds, managing a regular work schedule, meeting an employer’s expectations, working as part of a team – “these experiences informed my ability to interact and relate to people now as a pastor,” he said.
Teaching, Bishop Martin also noted, is central to a priest’s ministry, alongside leading and sanctifying the faithful.
“Knowing the faith and teaching the faith are two equally important skills for every priest,” he said. “As anyone who has ever taught knows, nothing requires you to learn more about your subject area than to have to teach it. Therefore, not only will the seminarian grow in his knowledge of the faith, but he will learn the even more challenging dynamic of how to teach the faith.”
SUMMER ASSIGNMENTS
The diocese also is enhancing its summer assignments program for seminarians starting this May. Summer assignments have been largely parish-based and varied widely depending on the parish and pastor.
Under the new approach, the 10-week summer assignments will follow a more defined curriculum and agenda, with experiences that increase in responsibility and depth as seminarians advance through formation.
Early in their formation, seminarians will participate in missionary and vocational outreach experiences, including assisting at the diocese’s Quo Vadis Days retreat, going on a 10-day mission trip to Jamaica, and working at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
As they advance, seminarians’ summers will feature extended parish placements and required Spanish-language immersion at the Seminario Hispano de Santa María de Guadalupe in Mexico.
During their parish assignments and under the supervision of parish staff, seminarians will be expected to:
• reach out to disengaged parishioners through calls, visits and prayer,
• assist at all weekend Masses,
• visit nursing homes and bring Holy Communion to the homebound,
• attend youth and young adult gatherings,
• plan, promote and conduct an adult faith formation experience over five to six weeks, and
• attend parish staff meetings, among other duties.
Seminarians’ parish assignments also will focus on serving in communities with significant Hispanic populations.
In addition, they will participate in “The Rome Experience,” a six-week summer program run by the Midwest Theological Forum for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that combines classes and guided tours on Church history, art and architecture with a silent retreat, papal liturgies and audiences, and a Marian pilgrimage.
ADAPTING TO TODAY’S NEEDS
The two initiatives build on changes over the past several years to the diocese’s seminary formation program, including enhanced application and screening processes, required Spanish fluency, and improvements to the program’s first or “propaedeutic” year that also align with the official norms of the USCCB’s “Program for Priestly Formation.”
“Seminary formation isn’t fixed or static,” Father Eckert said, “but has always adapted over time to meet pastoral needs.”
The goal, he explained, is to equip men for the diocesan priesthood and leadership roles within a few years of their ordination.
“Granted, we've been blessed with our numbers, and we haven't had to just throw guys right into being pastors,” he said, noting that new priests typically serve two to four years as parochial vicars. “But it’s hard to pick up a lot during that time – you're still just getting used to being a priest. We want to make sure that they are as equipped as possible before moving into that pastor role, and we're not just throwing them into the deep end.”
“This is another evolution of formation,” he said, “to ensure the men ordained for our diocese are prepared to serve the people of God well.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle