The Collar

I was reading this book called The Collar by Jonathon Englert about a group of second-career seminarians at Sacred Heart Seminary in Hales Corners, Wisonsin. Now, admittedly, the author was denied access to two other seminaries after being told he would have access. The sexual abuse crisis seems to have forced some vocation directors to re-think the exposure they want their seminarians to have. Nonetheless, it looks like the actual stories of the men will be good so I'm going to stick with it. One complaint that I have is that the author tries to explain complex theological issues but is wrong. For instance, an annulment is not when a person's civil marriage is considered valid while the sacramental marriage is considered invalid. There is one marriage here. The whole marriage is considered flawed from the beginning. Not being a theologian, who can fault him for that mistake? Plus, the book is about the life of these guys who have all lived "other lives" that are now considering priesthood, not about annulments.

The author described what happened during orientation. One evening they did a Native American prayer service before supper and sang a song based on the Mickey Mouse Club song in which the spelling of the letters to Mickey Mouse was replaced by S-A-C R-E-D H-E-A-R-T during supper. I almost lost my lunch...and this was right before going to bed! This is how you want to present prayer to new seminarians?

Seminarians need to know the church's prayer. Why not pray liturgy of the hours and chant the Salve Regina during supper? Believe it or not, I've never experienced Native American spirituality or sang campy pop quasi church songs before and I think I'm a pretty well formed priest. But, if you start chanting "Regina Coeli, laetare" I can sing along because I did it at St. Paul Seminary. If they aren't rooted in the church's teaching, how can they possibly ever be considered a competent spokesman for the church?