ARTICLES

Catholic Colleges?

By Their Fruit You Shall Know Them

By Robert Kumpel

Any college graduate who has received an alumni newsletter knows the technique -- success stories of the college's graduates. But what about success of California's Catholic colleges in fostering religious vocations?

When I called Sarah at the University of San Diego's alumni office, she had no information on ordained alumni, but suggested speaking to the department of Mission and Ministry.

Kathy Johnson at Mission and Ministry insisted that only St. Francis de Sales Seminary would have the figures. The secretary at St. Francis Seminary said, "I don't have those figures. You would have to get them from the rector." The rector, Monsignor Steve Callahan, instructed his secretary to refer us to Father Michael Pham, the vocations director. Father Pham said he had no statistics on who was graduating from USD and moving on to religious life, but that none had done so since he has been at USD. "The diocese that is really getting a lot of vocations is Atlanta. It's more like a secular university here."

The secretary who answered the phone at Jesuit-run University of San Francisco said, "I wouldn't even know where to begin. It's not something we even code in our computers." She then left the phone for two minutes and returned, saying, "We could do a search of our alumni to see who are priests, but we'd have no way of knowing if they were ordained before or after they came here."

Loyola Marymount, another Jesuit-run university, has had a bit more success, although none of the graduates from the last ten years are priests yet (Jesuit formation takes about 14 years). Fernando Moreno, director of campus ministry, had no exact numbers. "I don't have an absolute number, but I'd guess ten."

At Santa Clara University associate director of alumni Paul Neilan suggested that I speak with campus ministry. At campus ministry, Father Peter Filice, S.J., was blunt. "I don't have a clue. It's not common that they enter right out of universities any longer. It's sometimes years later. I don't have the information." Neilan later called back to say, "After checking our system a number of ways both by prefix and employment code I can identify only two alumni in the priesthood. One is listed as a Dominican Novice and the other as a Jesuit Scholastic. We have not surveyed our alumni for about 3 years so our occupational/vocation information is not completely up to date."

Notre Dame de Namur University's alumni director Sister Roseanne Murphy (Belmont, California) was apologetic. "I've only been the director for three years. This is not definitive, but as far as I know, none have gone on to be ordained as priests."

At St. Mary's College in Moraga, alumni director Giles Miller checked the alumni registry in his computer. "This is sisters, brothers, priests -- basically, ordained ministry, but I count 45 living alumni who are ordained, but almost all of them are graduates from the 60s and 70s. I can confidently say there have been less than a dozen, probably between eight to ten in the last decade. I know of four Christian Brothers who went to the novitiate and finished, a Jesuit, and a diocesan priest. There are no female religious in that number. It's been very low since 1991."

At the alumni office for the Dominican University of California (in San Rafael), Holly said that she would have to look into how many alumni had gone on to ordination and call back. After two weeks with no return phone calls, Holly was contacted again. Her tone was noticeably colder. "We're not going to be able to disclose that information. It's against our policy."

Holy Names College in Oakland had no statistics to offer, although the secretary was friendlier. "Anecdotally, I know that a couple of friends of mine have been ordained, but that's all I know."

Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula seems to be the glowing exception in this survey. Director of college relations, Dave Shaneyfelt: "Generally about 12 percent of our alumni pursue vocations to the religious life. Not all become priests or nuns, but at least this many are willing to test a religious vocation. This has been a pretty steady number since the beginning of the college thirty years ago. Since that time, 50 of our alumni have responded to the call of religious life. Currently, thirty-two have become ordained as priests, three have become consecrated brothers, and fifteen have become women religious. At least three others have pursued lay-consecrated vocations. Currently, thirty-one men are in the seminary, while four women are postulants for religious communities.

"Vocations occur here as the natural product of a sound Catholic education. When you study the great ideas of life, you can't help but be drawn closer to God. And the closer you tend to be to God, the better you are able to hear Him."

TOP