Florida Catholic | North American Seminary

Priests, seminarians study at the heart of the church

CHRISTOPHER GUNTY | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

Published: 12.07.07

Diocese of Venice seminarians (from left) Tom Kelly and Justin Bianchi and a priest from the Diocese of St. Augustine, Father David Ruchinski, talk in an outdoor corridor of the North American College in late November as the students discuss what it is like to study at the heart of the church.
CHRISTOPHER GUNTY | FC

ROME | On a hill just a few blocks away from St. Peter’s Square, a particularly American enclave welcomes priests and seminarians studying in Rome.

For example, on Thanksgiving Day at the North American College, residence for many of these men, a number of small but important traditions help define and commemorate the day: a special breakfast prepared and served by the students themselves; an American football game — not European fútbol (soccer) — featuring the “new men” in their first year at the North American College versus the “old men,” those there for more than a year; and of course, a dinner of turkey with all the trimmings.

These are all ways of providing a little bit of home in the eternal city. For Florida seminarians and priests studying in Rome, such traditions help them deal with the challenges of being far away from their home dioceses. But the benefits of learning at the heart of the church are innumerable and outweigh the difficulties, they told the Florida Catholic.

Priests form the Archdiocese of Miami, Father Charnel Jeanty, left, and Father Jose Alfaro, talk at the Casa Santa Maria, a residence for North American priests studying in Rome, and their home while they study canon law and church history, respectively.

CHRISTOPHER GUNTY | FC
Priests form the Archdiocese of Miami, Father Charnel Jeanty, left, and Father Jose Alfaro, talk at the Casa Santa Maria, a residence for North American priests studying in Rome, and their home while they study canon law and church history, respectively.

Father Jose Alfaro, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami who studies for a license (advanced degree) in church history at the Gregorian University in Rome, realizes God has a plan for him. The priest in his mid-30s who lives at the Casa Santa Maria, a residence for American clergy in Rome nestled on a side street just blocks from the Trevi Fountain, sees the benefits of getting to know his fellow students from around the U.S. and around the world in such a cosmopolitan city.

“To study church history in Rome, where church history has been made for 2,000 years, every stone tells part of the story,” he said. He may be walking to a class and pass a site that refers to Pope Clement XIII. “You say, ‘I studied him today in class.’”

Being here helps him realize the world is much bigger than a parish; the church is much bigger than a diocese. He sees a type of living Pentecost — “people of all different languages.”

Tom Kelly, a first-year seminarian from the Diocese of Venice living at the North American College, said studying in Rome is very inspirational. “You get a feel for the universal church. The person sitting next to you could be from Spain or South America or Africa,” he said. “You’re very much aware of what’s going on in the church from day to day.”

Kelly also said that being in Rome, dealing with the challenges of speaking a different language and acclimating to a different culture helps the seminarians prepare to deal with an increasingly diverse church. Working with the city‘s poor through service apostolates helps the students accomplish this.

“When you work with people in a different language,” Kelly said, it reinforces the message that “people with different cultural backgrounds are really all the same. Being stretched in that way will help us in our parish work.”

The language is a huge challenge for many, especially at first. Father Charnel Jeanty, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami who studies at the Gregorian and lives at Casa Santa Maria, said Italian is the second new language he had to learn for academics in his life. When he moved from Haiti to the United States 20 years ago, he was in his teens.

“Studying in Italian is probably one of the greatest challenges. … At 35, that was not the first thing I expected,” Father Jeanty said. He went through an extensive course in Italian, but “taking my first oral exams in Italian the first semester, I was almost afraid I was going to fail.”

The young priest speaks humbly of having seen more intelligent people at the school. “I am not one of them,” but he said he also knows “I am not the dumbest guy.” The experience of working through the language challenge brought him back to the other benefits. Technically, spiritually and on a human level, studying in Rome, “I was blown away.”

Father Alfaro had a tough academic year the first year, completing a bachelor’s degree in church history in that short time before starting the advanced degree in the same subject. “For church history, I could have gone anywhere (to study), but there’s nowhere like Rome for touching, seeing, feeling the history. I hope that will make me a good professor, if that’s what God wants me to do.”

He said the challenges change over the years. At first just being away from relatives and friends and all your support can be difficult, a feeling echoed by others among the Floridians in Rome. For Father Alfaro, who never really went “away” for college, studying at the seminary in south Florida, this is even more pronounced. “You’re not even in the United States where you can just fly home for the weekend.”

In addition, students are in a foreign country where all the systems work differently. For the priest-students such as Father Alfaro and Father Jeanty, another adjustment entailed moving from parish ministry back into university work. “I was so happy” in the parish, Father Alfaro said. “We were ordained for ministry. At the parish, the phone never stopped ringing; here we are surrounded by books.” That was a challenge at first, but as time has progressed, he would not consider that as much of a challenge.

Father Jeanty agreed that he loved parish work, and that he accepted the assignment to study canon law and eventually return to Miami and the archdiocesan Tribunal out of obedience to Archbishop John C. Favalaora. At that point, he will be the first priest of Haitian background serving in the Tribunal.

“It wasn’t my plan; it is God’s plan,” Father Jeanty said. He added that being in Rome for studies “you find strength as a priest not only in finding your talents, but also in being outside your comfort zone.” …“Living the Christian life and being awakened to it, the benefit of really experiencing that really brought that down to earth.”

The seminarians and priests who spoke with the Florida Catholic in Rome all expressed gratitude at the chance to study at the heart of all that the church has to offer. Justin Bianchi, a third-year seminarian for the Diocese of Venice new to the North American College, said morale is very high and support is phenomenal. The seminary students are focused on the “end game” which is ordination and return to their home dioceses. “They realize that this is transitional. God willing that I’m ordained, I’ll go back to the Diocese of Venice to serve as a priest. … But it’s a great place to be in Rome.”

Father David Ruchinski, a newly ordained priest for the Diocese of St. Augustine who is completing a fifth-year program for a license in spirituality, said the “wow” factor is one of the best things about studying in Rome. “Every day I walk to class I walk by things that people may wait all their lives to see. You can get jaded to those things, and yet every now and then, there’s just that moment when I say, ‘Wow, I’m in Rome’ and that’s really cool.”

Father Alfaro said, “I thank God every day because I don’t want to take for granted this opportunity, unworthy as we are.”

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