News

Seminarian shows vocation 'cool'

Editor's note: Sunday, May 7, is the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations when Catholics are asked to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

By Laurie Mueller
Compass Correspondent

	COOL CAR: High school and middle school students at St. John the Baptist Parish, Howard, flock to get a look at the Paschal Mystery Machine driven by seminarian Dan Schuster. (Laurie Mueller photo)

Celebrities, athletes, and rock stars have been known to drive "cool cars" ... but seminarians?

Dan Schuster, a seminarian interning at St. John Baptist in Howard, showed students at the parish the "cool car" he and his fellow seminarians drive. The brightly painted blue and orange Paschal Mystery Machine at first glance looks like the van from Scooby Doo cartoons.

Schuster used the van to teach the youth about the Paschal Mystery - Christ's Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit - while showing that answering the call to serve God as a priest is fun.

He led the high school and middle school students to the van in the parking lot and warned them "Stand back. It's going to be smoky." As he opened the doors thick smoke poured out. "Incense," he told the surprised youth. The smoke cleared to reveal bright vinyl green seats and orange carpet covering the ceiling, walls and floor. Bible verses and quotes from Pope John Paul II were painted next to bright orange flowers. The van is owned by the Green Bay Diocese. It is used for a variety of purposes, Schuster said, including taking youth groups to Catholic Youth Expeditions at Chambers Island and the UP.

Schuster is one of 17 seminarians in the Green Bay Diocese who have answered the call to seriously consider serving God and his people as a priest. Bp. David Zubik will ordain three of these seminarians - Dcns. Dave Duffeck, Quinn Mann and Walter Stumpf - to the priesthood June 3 at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Green Bay.

Schuster and the other seminarians are part of the reason Fr. John Bergstadt, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Howard, finds great hope in the Catholic Church today.

"It is more exciting then anytime since I've been ordained," said Fr. Bergstadt, a priest for nearly 40 years. "More people are seriously interested in spirituality and what the church's mission is. People are really wanting to grow spiritually." This is "reflected by people wanting to enter into ministries" within the parish and church, he said.

Fr. Bergstadt said he is impressed with the "quality of people entering the seminary these days. The students are entering with a purity of heart and a real dedication to the mission of the church."

Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which will be observed Sunday, wrote: "Remembering the counsel of Jesus: 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest' (Mt 9:37), we acknowledge the great need to pray for vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life. It is not surprising that, where people pray fervently, vocations blossom."

There has been a concentrated effort in the Green Bay Diocese to pray year round for vocations. Fr. Tom Long, diocesan vocations director, said 13,000 prayer cards with the seminarians' pictures and names have been given out. It is a "hopeful sign that people are willing to pray for those considering priesthood," he said.

In addition, every hour of every day an adorer at one of the five perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapels in the diocese is praying for vocations, Fr. Long said. A portrait of Bp. Zubik ordaining a priest is placed in the chapel to remind adorers to pray for vocations. The portrait is moved each week to a different chapel.

There has been a gradual increase in the number of seminarians over the past years, Fr. Long said. There is a strong possibility, he said, that six or seven more young men will enter the seminary in fall.

"Never in my memory did I meet a seminarian until I was 20 years old," Schuster said. "There is something different today. Every kid in this school (St. John) now not only knows me personally but has seen this picture (prayer card) and has adopted a seminarian as a class. A number of young people anywhere from little kids up to high school have said they are considering the priesthood or religious life. That was not even on the horizon when I was growing up for myself or classmates."

The diocese's seminarians have been to all the Catholic high schools in the diocese, as well as many parishes, middle schools and grade schools, Schuster said.

Fr. Bergstadt and pastors from across the country spent three days at Mundelein Seminary, near Chicago, preparing to work with a seminarian on a three-month internship.

While seminarians are involved in a variety of parishes and service ministries throughout their education, the internship is "the most formal experience at a parish," Schuster said. As interns, seminarians write papers, do reflections and track 50 hours a week of service, which includes "doing something with Sunday liturgy," Schuster said. "If not music, then lecturing, Communion minister, helping prepare in whatever way possible."

Fr. Bergstadt said one benefit of having a seminary intern at the parish is so parishioners can see the quality of people in the seminary.

It has been a learning experience for both pastor and intern, they said. As Fr. Bergstadt told Schuster: "We will learn together. I will learn from you, and hopefully, you will learn from me."