The faithful across the Diocese of Columbus proved that when there is a need, they can meet it. And not just any need, but one that is good and growing.

A total of $523,981 has been raised so far in the diocese’s A Good and Growing Need campaign to help offset the cost of seminary formation.

In addition to donations from online giving, a second collection was taken at Masses during the weekend of February 24-25. Seminarians visited parishes across the diocese that weekend to ask for support. 

The result is the diocese’s second largest collection in recent history.

An increasing number of men interested in the priesthood has created a need for more prayerful and monetary support to help with the cost of seminary. Sixteen young men from the diocese entered seminary in August 2023.

Father William Hahn, the vocations director, said the diocese, which covers the tuition of its seminarians, had budgeted for 10 men entering seminary this year and not 16. As a result, he said the bulk of funds raised from the campaign will go toward paying tuition costs for the six additional men. 

Taking into account the cost of $55,000 per year to form and educate each seminarian, there was a $330,000 deficit that now will be covered by the funds raised from the A Good and Growing Need campaign.

Father Hahn said additional money will help with housing for several of the first-year men during the summer. The diocese is arranging for several of them to live near the Ohio State University campus in Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO) houses, he said. 

SPO, a lay ministry apostolate that is present at Ohio State, trains full-time missionaries and student leaders to build community on college campuses. The ministry offers men’s and women’s houses for students.

Typically, seminarians are employed during the summer or are placed in a parish, but the addition of the propaedeutic year has necessitated some changes. 

The Catholic Church recently restructured seminary formation to be based on meeting certain human and spiritual benchmarks rather than academics. Seminary formation now includes four stages: propaedeutic (preliminary), discipleship, configuration and vocational synthesis.

“That’s supposed to be a 12-month program, so the seminaries have them for nine or 10 months of that, and then they’re with us for a month or two to do the final part,” Father Hahn said.

The propaedeutic stage, which varies for each individual but generally lasts a minimum of a year, presents additional costs to the diocese during the summer.

“It’s the first year that the Church requires the propaedeutic stage, so that’s why some of the money will also go toward helping with that: the housing, the meals,” Father Hahn said.

Ten of the 16 men who entered seminary in the past year will live in SPO households during the summer. Some were previously involved in a seminary preparation program, Father Hahn said, which counted for their propaedeutic year.

Going forward, he said, every individual will go through the propaedeutic stage unless they were previously in seminary.

The men studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum who entered seminary after high school will live in one SPO house and those studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, who graduated from college or have been out of college for some time, will live in another house.

In addition to housing, funds raised by the A Good and Growing Need campaign will be used for the propaedeutic men's summer expenses.

“We’ll have a program that helps them to see the diocese more and know the different parts of the diocese, meet a number of the lay missionaries in our diocese,” Father Hahn said.

He said they will take trips to different parts of the diocese as well as meet with lay missionaries to learn about the various lay apostolates and groups who minister in the diocese.

“The goal of July is … getting them more acquainted with the whole diocese, so that’d be going to all the different regions of the diocese, seeing the different ministries that are going on, different apostolates,” Father Hahn said. 

“It’s really the part of their formation where they’re getting a real sense of what it means to be part of the Diocese of Columbus.”

The academic year for propaedeutic men at the Josephinum concludes in mid-May. For those studying in Cincinnati, their academic year extends through June.

Some funds from the campaign will be put toward expenses for a Wilderness Outreach trip. Propaedeutic men from the Josephinum will go on the trip in June before their counterparts arrive in Columbus in July.

Wilderness Outreach trains men in masculine spirituality. The program, founded by John Bradford of the Diocese of Columbus, seeks to form men physically, intellectually and spiritually.

“We’re going to do a Wilderness Outreach expedition … where we go out west and we’re camping every night, doing some hiking and then doing some work in the parishes there,” Father Hahn said.

The men will go on a retreat during the summer and also assist with Quo Vadis, a discernment camp held at the Josephinum in July for students entering grades nine through 12.

Father Hahn said the remainder of the funds will be put toward next year’s expenses.

“Any excess funds are a great start to help for next year with another large class coming in,” he said.

Looking ahead to the next academic year, Father Hahn said 12 individuals are currently in the seminary application process for the diocese.

“We have a really good year again,” he said. “The Lord’s blessing us.”

Donations continue to be accepted and can be made online at www.vocationscolumbus.org.