THE blessing and opening of the new Holy Spirit Seminary is an historic day for the Archdiocese of Brisbane and indeed for all of Queensland province.
We find ourselves exactly 67 years from the official dedication and opening of Pope Pius XII Seminary at Banyo.
On that day, the bishops, clergy and faithful from all parts of Queensland joined the apostolic delegate Archbishop John Panico, in establishing the first provincial seminary on Beehive Hill.
The blessing of Holy Spirit Seminary confirms their foresight, and ensures that the training of priests for service in the dioceses of Queensland will continue as a vital work of this local Church.
In reading the history of the Church in this part of Australia, one cannot help but be struck by the fervent desire of the bishops to provide for the training of local clergy.
They were assisted in this desire by Archbishop Panico. It is in recalling his influence that I would like to mention another apostolic delegate who also would have a great influence on the training of priests and the establishment of this seminary.
I refer to the recently deceased Archbishop Ambrose De Paoli, who blessed the foundation stone of this new seminary in March, 2007, and whose death this past October was a great sadness to all of us.
At the dedication of the seminary, we would be remiss if we did not honour the memory of Archbishop De Paoli, and thank God for the witness of his life and his devoted service to the Church and to the Holy Father.
We welcome in a particular way the current papal nuncio to Australia Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto.
His presence at the blessing and opening of the seminary is a sign of the Holy See’s ongoing concern for the formation of priests.
Many of you at the blessing and opening have supported the construction of the new buildings at the seminary with the gift of your prayers and your financial support.
Your generosity has provided for so much more than a collection of new buildings. Indeed, the construction of this new seminary is a gesture of confidence and hope for the Church in Australia.
Your support for the formation of good, well-educated and holy priests will bear much fruit as those priests are sent forth from this house of formation to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and touch innumerable lives with the grace of the sacraments.
Take pride in your new seminary, and take pride in your priests! I congratulate you and thank you for this precious sign of the Church’s vitality.
It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the presence of many priests of the Archdiocese of Brisbane and the dioceses of Rockhampton, Cairns, Toowoomba and Townsville.
Fathers, the dedication of this new seminary is a privileged opportunity for you, as you are called to be some of the closest supporters and guides of the seminarians who will come here for formation.
It is to you that they will look for lived examples of priestly fidelity and pastoral care. And, of course, it is you who can have such a profound and encouraging impact on young men discerning their vocations to the priesthood.
All the faithful you serve in your parishes are so grateful for your priestly ministry. I encourage you to be faithful in your precious service to God and the Church, and so participate in a privileged manner in the formation of new vocations to the priesthood that is so dear to our hearts.
Finally, I would like to address myself to the seminarians. You have been given a tremendous gift … not just the gift of new seminary buildings, but the gift of these years of prayer and study.
Your time of formation is an encounter with the Lord Jesus and will culminate, please God, in your sacramental configuration to Christ, the High Priest and Good Shepherd.
I urge you to give yourselves over to this formative encounter and, in the grace of Holy Orders, to conform your hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The decree of the Second Vatican Council Optatam Totius provides us with a wonderful vision of priestly formation when it urges that seminarians “may learn to live in intimate and unceasing union with God the Father through his Son Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
“Those who are to take on the likeness of Christ the priest by sacred ordination should form the habit of drawing close to him as friends in every detail of their lives.
“They should live his paschal mystery in such a way that they will know how to initiate into it the people committed to their charge.
“They should be taught to seek Christ in faithful meditation on the word of God and in active participation in the sacred mysteries of the Church, especially the Eucharist and the Divine Office, to seek him in the bishop by whom they are sent and in the people to whom they are sent, especially the poor, little children, the weak, sinners and unbelievers.
“With the confidence of sons they should love and reverence the most blessed Virgin Mary, who was given as a mother to the disciple by Jesus Christ as he was dying on the cross” (Optatam Totius, #8).
The council’s vision of formation which is developed and applied by Pope John Paul II in his exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis is a call to an authenticity of priestly life.
It is a vision which demands those preparing for Sacred Orders to see their priesthood in continuity with the Church’s faith and tradition, in order to be able to lead God’s people more deeply into the mystery of Christ and his Church.
It is a vision that demands priests be men of prayer, men of willing service, and men of wisdom.
The study of the Word of God in theology and the conviction of its truth remains the essential and vital task of intellectual formation for priests.
The more a seminarian gives himself over to the pursuit of wisdom in his theological studies, the more fruit that that study will bear in his preaching and priestly ministry.
Dear seminarians, in the authenticity of your lives and by the truth of your teaching and preaching, God’s people will encounter in your ministry the life and grace of the risen Lord.
May God give you the grace of perseverance in your journey toward Holy Orders.
As we invoke God’s blessing on the seminary buildings and on those who will live, work and study in them, the Gospel account of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples after his Resurrection (John 20:19-23) gives us a beautiful context for this rite of blessing.
The story unfolds in two moments. First, Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples who were all gathered in a locked house and he says to them: “Peace be with you“.
That gift of Christ’s peace for which their hearts were longing dispels the disciples’ fear after the Lord’s passion and death, and it allows them to recognise him as truly risen from the dead.
This is exactly what we hope will happen at Holy Spirit Seminary for those who come to prepare for the priesthood!
Through our prayer of blessing, let us ask God that the seminarians who will call this place home will truly find here the gift of Christ’s peace, and that they will recognise themselves as a community of disciples gathered around the risen Lord.
Recall also that Jesus follows his gift of peace with a great commission: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you“. Just as Christ’s gift of peace is directed towards mission, so too seminary life is not an end in itself.
Those who are called here to encounter the Lord Jesus will be sent out by him to proclaim the Gospel and, through their priestly ministry, to draw others to that same transformative encounter with the risen Lord.
Of course, central to that priestly ministry will be the proclamation of the tremendous mercy and love of God found in the sacrament of Penance, and the Gospel for the blessing and opening invites us to see the forgiveness of sins in the context of the risen Lord’s gift of peace.
After the Last Supper and the institution of the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Lord establishes penance and reconciliation as the next fundamental sacramental grace for the life of the Church.
Just as Eucharist and Penance frame Jesus’ sacrificial offering to the Father on the Cross, so they can be seen as the two fundamental expressions of priestly life and ministry.
This seminary must form priests who will go forth to proclaim the Gospel, confident that the reconciliation and healing that is the fruit of their sacramental ministry is the very peace of Christ promised to the apostles when they encountered the risen Lord.
Let us pray through this rite of blessing that God will send down his Spirit to make this place holy, a place of encounter with the Lord, a place marked by the peace which only Christ can bring.
Other homilies given by Cardinal Levada during his Brisbane visit will be published in coming weeks.
