Week
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July 25, 2001
Inside the Register
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Archbishop Chaput names new seminary rector
Aspen priest to become second rector at St. John Vianney Seminary
By Roxanne King
Father
Michael G. Glenn, the dynamic pastor of St. Mary's in Aspen, has been
named rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, Archbishop Charles
J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., announced July 23.
Father Glenn, 38, succeeds Bishop-elect Samuel J. Aquila, who will be ordained coadjutor bishop of Fargo, N.D., on Aug. 24 in Fargo. Father Glenn will begin his new duties on Aug. 4, three weeks before the 2001-02 academic year begins.
"Father Glenn has the energy, dedication and skills to be an outstanding rector," Archbishop Chaput said. "His experience as a pastor gives him an excellent sense of the practical needs of our local Church. His past work as vocations director makes him ideally suited to the formation of our seminarians. His education in Rome and his work in the early planning of our seminary and theological institute make him a good leader in our relationship with the Pontifical Lateran University, and a good guide and partner for our faculty. He'll do a great job building on the foundation Bishop-elect Aquila leaves behind."
Father Glenn, the former vocations director for the archdiocese, said that he was "surprised" to even be considered for the appointment. Having served as an assistant in the Metropolitan Tribunal, and as a vice chancellor, and ecumenical and interfaith officer for the diocese, Father Glenn said he thought the remainder of his priestly life would be spent in the parishes.
"It's very sad for me to leave Aspen," said Father Glenn, who is an avid road and mountain biker, backpacker, snowshoer and skier. "I've been there three years and love parish life. That's why I became a diocesan priest — our main work is, obviously, ministering to parishes."
But, he added, he is "honored" by the appointment.
"It's a very important responsibility because the men formed in the seminary will be leaders in this diocese as parish priests in years to come," Father Glenn said. "So the seminary has tremendous influence on the life of the diocese."
His new role includes overseeing student life and directing academic formation at the 2-year-old seminary, which grants degrees through the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He is approaching his new work "like a pastor," he said.
"For my flock I have seminarians and a faculty," Father Glenn said with a smile.
Describing her pastor as "extremely intelligent" and "personable," St. Mary's volunteer Religious Education Director Erlinda Morehead said Father Glenn will be a "wonderful" rector.
"He has a lot to offer no matter where he goes," said Morehead, adding that Father Glenn is certain to be an "inspiration" to seminarians, who should relate to his youth and will benefit from his broad experience.
"Selfishly though," the bank vice president added, "we're going to miss him a lot."
Father James Goggins, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Wheat Ridge, was delighted with his longtime friend's appointment.
"Father Glenn is a zealous priest, a man of prayer, a faithful servant of the Lord," he said. "Without a doubt he will do a fine job forming future priests for the Archdiocese of Denver."
A Broomfield native, Father Glenn graduated from Broomfield High School in 1981. He attended the University of Colorado and West Point U.S. Military Academy before graduating with a bachelor's in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1985. He earned a baccalaureate in sacred theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1989 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop J. Francis Stafford in 1990.
It wasn't long ago that Father Glenn was himself a seminarian. After a year at Conception Seminary College in Missouri, he spent four years at North American College in Rome, where he studied theology, taking his academic classes at Pontifical Gregorian University. At North American College he met a standout role model for his new position — Msgr. Tim Dolan. The renowned Rome rector was recently named a bishop for St. Louis.
"I've had a number of great rectors — each rector had a different approach to the formation of seminarians," Father Glenn said, "but Tim Dolan did it with real fidelity and love for the Church that made him very beloved to seminarians and priests under his leadership."
The curriculum at St. John Vianney, the new rector noted, is similar to what he studied at Gregorian, as both are pontifical institutions. Another parallel, he said, referring to Redemptoris Mater seminarians, who hail from 10 countries and study academics at St. John Vianney, is that both serve men from around the world.
"I suppose it would be different in that it's right here in the Archdiocese of Denver," he said. "The students have the advantage of being in constant contact with the local church and are constantly surrounded by the people and culture we're seeking to reach."
What Father Glenn found particularly fulfilling about seminary life was that it nourished his passions for theology and Scripture study. (He further fed those hungers with graduate study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem from 1995-96 and by earning a licentiate degree in biblical theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1996.) Father Glenn's seminary days also provided him with his closest "priest friendships," he said.
What he didn't like, he added, was that it seemed "it would be an eternity" before he became a priest.
His impatience at the seminary was perhaps related to the detour he took to get there. Sensing the first stirrings of a call at about 16, he said he underwent "a deep conversion" that he acted on by attending daily Mass and reading Scripture. He began to seriously consider the priesthood after a seminarian broached the idea. But he pushed the thought aside to follow an older brother's steps into West Point.
The call, however, wouldn't be ignored, so he left the prestigious school after the first semester. And he's glad he did.
"Christ had become such an important part of my life, my faith had become so important, it seemed to me that as a priest I could bring eternal effects to people's lives," he said, adding that his greatest joy as a priest has been ministering to people as a pastor and offering Sunday Mass.
Now, he'll be forming priests.
"I really do want to approach it as I do a parish," he said. "The whole role of the seminary is to help the seminarians in their intellectual, spiritual and human formation — to grow and to be more authentically free to respond to the will of Christ for their lives.
"The other real thing, is the seminary has to be a very pastoral reality," he continued. "One of my hopes is that life for the seminarians will be very integrated in the life of the parishes so their intellectual and spiritual formation is in constant dialogue with the reality of parish life.
"We're dealing with a multicultural reality in parishes, as well as geographical and economic diversity," he said. "The seminarian has to be prepared to serve in any of those places."
Praising his predecessor, he said Bishop-elect Aquila did a "great job" setting the foundation for the seminary and gathering, with the archbishop, "faculty and students committed to the vision of the New Evangelization."
As vocations director for the archdiocese from 1996-98, Father Glenn was actively involved in the early planning stages for the new seminary and theological institute. During the last academic year, 55 men studied there.
"The greatest thing I can offer the seminarians as rector is my reflections on what it means to be a priest for this diocese — and particularly, what it means to be a parish priest," Father Glenn said. Later, he added: "As a priest, I'm sad to leave a parish. Bishop-elect Tim Dolan has said that a priest should always be willing to stay in his parish forever and willing to leave it at any time if his diocese needs him."
He takes on the role of rector, he said, grateful to those who formed him and with the desire to help others.
"I've known the seminary in theory by the vision and ideals we had for it," Father Glenn said. "Hopefully, I can bring that vision into dialogue with the reality that it's becoming."