News and Events

Follow Your Seminarians on Their Pilgrimage of Faith

Each spring, Sacred Heart’s first-year graduate seminarians make a four-week spiritual pilgrimage to either the Holy Land or to the holy shrines of Europe. This “Desert Formation Experience” is a unique and unrepeatable opportunity for seminarians to discern more deeply their sacred calling to the priesthood.

 

On Wednesday, May 1, fourteen seminarians received a blessing from rector Msgr. Todd Lajiness and departed from Detroit to begin their pilgrimage of faith and formation. This year, they are travelling with formation directors Fr. Daniel Trapp and Fr.

Our Newest Monsignors

Two resident priests at Sacred Heart were conferred with the titles “Monsignor” and “Chaplain to His Holiness” by Pope Benedict XVI. Msgr. John F. Hall, 84, right, and Msgr. Daniel J. Trapp, 54, along with six other new Detroit monsignors, were honored at a prayer service and reception at the seminary on January 23. Archbishop Allen Vigneron announced the appointments on December 27.

 

Monsignor is an honorary title of respect, recognizing a priest’s exemplary service to the Church.

Seminarians Perform Musical “Oliver!”

The seminarians of Sacred Heart presented the musical “Oliver!” for three performances, on Friday, March 22, and Saturday, March 23, 2013. The Friday and Saturday evening performance, both at 7:30 PM, were full houses, with the matinee on Saturday at 2:00 PM nearly full.

 

Oliver! is an adaption of the novel by Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. The musical was made into a feature film that won six Academy Awards.

 

The talented seminarians, thirty-six in all, performed and sang all of the parts except for two female roles.

No Alumni Celebration This Year

The Alumni Association Board has been strategizing new ways to energize Sacred Heart's outstanding alumni members. Part of the rethinking is developing a new format for the annual Alumni Day Celebration.

 

As such, there will be no celebration this year, which is normally held on a Sunday in February. The board welcomes any ideas you may have to create a more active and participatory alumni. Thank you for your support of Alumni Day through the years. Look for news about a revamped celebration for next year.

 

 

Former Rector Now Steubenville Bishop

Jeffery M. Monforton, former rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, was appointed by the Holy Father

as Bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville on July 3. He was installed as the Ohio diocese’s fifth bishop on September 10, before two thousand people in the Fieldhouse of Franciscan University of Steubenville.

 

Bishop Monforton is the twenty-sixth graduate of the seminary who has been elevated to the episcopacy, making Sacred Heart something of a “school for bishops.”
 

Bishop Monforton, a Sacred Heart alumnus (1989) and faculty member (1998-2005), served as the seminary’s rector for six years,

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