Gathering

1 When stuck with an elephant, it's best to paint it white, Father Robert Koesler concluded. "Well," said his guide, "what do you think? Recognize the old place?" Something about the term "old." It was hard to think of himself as old. Just as it was hard to consider this building old. Yet he was seventy-three. And St. John's Center--once St. John's Provincial Seminary--was fifty-four. He himself was in relatively good health. For which he was grateful. But while his participation in enterprises such as baseball, football, and basketball had been fun . . . no more; he was now merely a spectator. Yet grateful to be able to still care for himself, thanks to a robust immune system. As for St. John's, upon reflection, his assessment seemed accurate: a veritable white elephant--a rare, expensive possession that had become a financial burden. Prior to 1949, most Michigan seminarians who graduated from Sacred Heart Seminary college and still aspired to the priesthood headed for their final four years of theology at Mount St. Mary's in Cincinnati. A fate just this side of death. Events would have continued in that dour manner had it not been for the dynamic, if princely, leadership of Edward Cardinal Mooney. Mooney was named bishop of Detroit in 1937. Because he was already an archbishop, Detroit, for the first time and forevermore, became ipso facto an archdiocese. Unexpectedly--since membership in the College of Cardinals was at that time strictly limited--in 1946 Mooney was named a Cardinal. He was gifted with enough foresight to anticipate the coming flood of candidates for the priesthood. So he dragged the other Michigan bishops--some kicking and screaming mightily--into building Michigan's own theologate seminary: St. John's Provincial, serving the Province of Michigan. Mooney pinched no penny in construction and landscaping, even adding a picturesque nine-hole golf course, which the Cardinal played as much as or more than anyone else, including the students. There followed unparalleled upheaval in the seminary, the Catholic Church, and the world. These transformations took place in the sixties, a decade of turmoil. The Vietnam War fractured the nation. The Second Vatican Council gave birth to changes that seemed to contradict hitherto changeless verities. Seminaries exploded with hordes of applicants, only to nearly empty when Vatican II either promised too much or delivered too little. Thought was given to expanding Sacred Heart Seminary. And, indeed, another high school building was erected. Pressure grew to complete St. John's building program. Then, seemingly overnight, seminarians became an endangered species. The Province of Michigan--principally the Archdiocese of Detroit--was now running two seminaries, each of which required expensive maintaining. In actuality, either one of them was far more than adequate to house, feed, and educate the ever-shrinking number of priestly candidates. The eventual decision was to continue Sacred Heart Seminary, eliminating the high school, keeping the college, and adding the theologate. It became Sacred Heart Major Seminary. And St. John's? It became a white elephant. Why was Sacred Heart kept operational, with expanded courses, while St. John's was shut down? The obvious response was the Neighborhood. Once, early on, Sacred Heart had stood almost alone on the then-outskirts of the city of Detroit. Along the way, the wilderness was replaced by a Jewish community. Its synagogue grew up kitty-corner from the seminary. Eventually, African-Americans replaced the Jewish inhabitants. By 1988, the consensus was that there would be no buyers for all those antiquated buildings. St. John's, on the other hand, had practically no neighborhood at all. St. John's went on the block. Sacred Heart circled its wagons ever morKienzle, William X. is the author of 'Gathering' with ISBN 9780345457943 and ISBN 0345457943.