The “few good men” approach in Minnesota

Enrollment at St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul is at

an all-time high, with 154 men from 28 dioceses, making it the largest college [pre-theology] seminary enrollment in the United States. It has more than doubled in size in the last six years.

You’re kidding.  Nope.

“There is a strong heroic sense of calling among these young men,” said Father William Baer, St. John Vianney’s rector since 1998. “They have a love for the church and the Catholic faith that strikes them as a mission, a battle, an adventure.”

He can say that in part because of the regimen they live by:

The men attend a 6 a.m. Holy Hour daily; they fast from technology — including phones and e-mail — on Fridays until the evening; they fast from the Friday midday meal; they undergo room inspections and maintain a tightly ordered schedule. They’re encouraged to embrace difficult studies with prayer, grow in fraternity with the other men, get in shape and face their social fears.

Isn’t that how the Marines do it?

“The men don’t want to live a life of mediocrity,” Father Rolf Tollefson, the “formator” and spiritual director, who lives with seminarians, told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

If the seminary were easy, a healthy man would leave because he wasn’t challenged, added Father John Klockeman, who also serves at St. John Vianney.

Hmmmm.