 |
|
|
Dinner to honor Archbishop Chaput, benefit seminaries
By Nissa LaPoint
|
Tribute Dinner When: 5:30 p.m. Nov. 11 |
Deacon Ryan O’Neill is anticipating the time when he can do what only priests can do: transform bread into Christ’s body, hear confessions and anoint the sick.
Deacon O’Neill and other seminarians will share their formation experience as part of the Seminary Tribute Dinner 5:30 p.m. Nov. 11 with special guest Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., who will be honored for his work fostering the two seminaries: St. John Vianney Theological Seminary and Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary.
The annual benefit dinner at the Seawell Ballroom of the Denver Center for Performing Arts complex will raise money for the Archdiocese of Denver’s seminarians.
More than 140 men are studying to become priests at the two seminaries that are drawn from the Denver Archdiocese, the nation and across the world, said Deacon John Neal, vice president of finance and operations for St. John Vianney.
Current tuition, including room and board, for seminarians is $25,910 a year, he said.
While both seminaries form priests for the Denver Archdiocese, St. John Vianney also forms priests for those dioceses lacking their own seminary. Men from 13 different dioceses are formed at St. John Vianney. Men from 17 countries, including the United States, are formed at Redemptoris Mater, where they also receive missionary training and may be sent anywhere in the world.
|
Photo by James Baca/DCR |
The formation process and life at St. John Vianney has been a challenge and blessing for Deacon O’Neill, he said.
“It has definitely been the most difficult and the most fulfilling thing that I have done with my life up to this point,” he told the Denver Catholic Register.
Since the doors opened at the two seminaries, 72 men have reached ordination, Deacon Neal said, making it one of the top U.S. seminaries.
Costs to attend the event range from $175 to $250 per person. For tickets, call Melissa Cowley, St. John Vianney’s executive director of development, at 303-282-3441 or email her at melissa.crowley@arch den.org. Reservation deadline is Nov. 4.
The Denver Center for Performing Arts complex is at 1101 13th St. in Denver.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||