Madison diocese seeks $30M to fund priest training


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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Faced with a surging number of seminarians, the Madison Catholic Diocese is turning to its parishioners to help fund the training of priests.

The diocese has seen its priests-in-training soar from six in 2003 to the current 33. To educate current and future seminarians, the Madison diocese says it needs $30 million.

Church-goers have responded with vigor, the Wisconsin State Journal (http://bit.ly/1E7mTre ) reported. The campaign began last fall and will continue through the end of this year. Although the campaign has yet to expand to all churches in the 11-county diocese, parishioners already have pledged more than $28 million.

"I couldn't be more pleased," Bishop Robert Morlino said in an interview. Morlino gives immense credit to the diocese's 110 priests who have been rolling out the campaign in their parishes.

The diocese declined to pinpoint a per-seminarian cost. But calculations, based on interviews and available data, suggest the diocese spends $250,000 to $300,000 to train each new priest — figures diocesan officials did not contest, the newspaper reported.

Morlino has made priestly vocations — the spiritual call to serve — a priority. He increased the position of director of vocations to full time, and he routinely promotes the priesthood at functions.

Becoming a priest typically involves eight to 10 years of higher education and culminates in a master's of divinity degree.

Some hear a calling while still teenagers. Others take more circuitous routes. Monsignor James Bartylla, the diocese's second-in-command, was making a six-figure salary as a financial analyst when he decided to give it up and enter a Catholic seminary at age 34.

Regardless of the path to the priesthood, a man first must attain the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in philosophy — a diocesan requirement — followed by a graduate degree in divinity at a Catholic theology school. The diocese does not operate a seminary, so it sends its students to schools elsewhere, primarily Detroit; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Rome.

One of the newly minted priests is the Rev. Scott Jablonski, ordained last June. He is an associate pastor at two Watertown churches.

"People want to see Christ, and hopefully, as a priest, I can bring him to them," said Jablonski, 33, who grew up in Appleton and graduated from UW-Madison. "It's a beautiful, wonderful, joyful life."

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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj

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