A seminary’s origin and future: A Q&A with Bishop Kemme

Editor’s Note: With the news that the Diocese of Wichita will establish St. Philip Neri Seminary later this month, the Catholic Advance sat down with Bishop Carl A. Kemme late last month to discuss the development, its implications, and his hopes for the country’s newest Catholic seminary.

What is the core of this news that we want to convey to the Diocese of Wichita’s faithful?

The formation of priests is one of our diocese’s great responsibilities. Many dioceses depend on other dioceses and other seminaries to accomplish that. For the last nine years, we have been able to form our men during their college years here with such success that we now think it’s important to officially recognize the house of formation as a true canonical seminary. It was a seminary, but it was called the St. Joseph House of Formation. Now it is going to be established officially as a seminary, a place of formation for the priests of our diocese.

It’s another sign of the vitality of our diocese. This step simply recognizes that, and I think we can be very proud of that ministry and service. Accepting that responsibility of training future priests for the diocese is going to be a huge part of it.

There are slightly more than two dozen college-level seminaries in the country. What does that say about Wichita that it has one now? 

For Wichita to be among a number like that is almost unheard of. Most seminaries are in major archdioceses where the numbers in the past have been larger. Smaller dioceses like ours would use those seminaries. Many provinces have a major seminary, though many don’t. Many regions have major seminaries – as ours does. But this will be a college seminary that serves not only the Diocese of Wichita, but currently the dioceses of Salina and Dodge City.

Few practical considerations that pertained to how things worked at the St. Joseph House of Formation will change with the launch of St. Philip Neri Seminary, but there are still some formal distinctions worth mentioning. Can you explain that?

Sure. Essentially, there’s little difference. We’re still going to operate the same way. It’s going to be in the same buildings, with the same staff and so forth. 

Canonically establishing something adds a layer of acknowledgment that goes well beyond the diocese. We will now be acknowledged by the Holy See in the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Dicastery for Clergy. The dicastery does not supervise, but lends its support for those in formation. There will be acknowledgement by other bishops that Wichita now has a college seminary. You don’t want to say something is “merely a house of formation,” but in some ways that is treated differently. 

Nine years ago when we started the house of formation, we had no idea if it would be successful. It was a bit of a risk, you know, and a lot depended on how many men would come. Over the years, our numbers have grown significantly. That and the people who advised me told me this was the right move. It seemed to make sense to do this in the 10th year.

When you think back to your mindset back then, and look at where we are now, how has it developed? 

Very few people will probably remember – though I certainly do – how in our earliest deliberations and decisions about the house of formation, it was really only going to be a two-year program. After the first two years, we would send the men off to another college seminary to finish their program. Very quickly after we started, we realized that our numbers were heading in the right direction, and that, through with our partnership with Newman University, we could actually do a full four-year program. So we went from two years to four, and added the propaedeutic stage. 

When a man comes in who has already completed what is basically his college undergraduate work, then he stays with us one year in what is called the propaedeutic stage, which is really an introduction to seminary life. From there, he goes on to a pre-theology program in a major seminary. At one time, I thought about the pre-theology program, which is basically forming men with what is an undergraduate degree, mainly in philosophy, but it seemed that would kind of compromise our space a little and maybe stretch our resources in terms of personnel. So we decided to use those other programs in the major seminaries and concentrate only on propaedeutic and college formation.

Getting back to the matter of official distinctions and so forth, this means that Fr. Chad Arnold gets a new title.

A seminary is led by a rector, so he will be the rector. A rector stands in for the bishop. The bishop is to be the chief formator, but he delegates that to a rector, and so he will be installed. A rector has an official position in the Church, and so Fr. Chad will be called upon to make a public profession of faith and an oath of fidelity to the Church. He was not required to do that as director of the St. Joseph House of Formation, but he will have to do that as rector of the new St. Philip Neri Seminary. In the seminary world, he will be recognized more for what he already does. 

As you consider the strengths he brings to the table about the work that he’s doing, is there anything you particularly want to highlight?

He’s right for the job. He has proven himself. Fr. Mike Simone was the first director of the house of formation, with Fr. Chad working under him. Later, it seemed a good idea to move Fr. Simone to a parish and have Fr. Chad step into the director’s role. I am really confident that he is the right man to be rector. He has already proven himself to be the right man. The men have a lot of confidence in him, as do the priests.  He will continue to do an incredibly good job. I have no worries about that at all.  

Is there anything else to mention about the practical aspects? 

Any Church organization like that has to be guided by statutes. We have been pulling those together over the last several years in terms of our policies and such. There’s a decree of the establishment of the seminary which will be an official document in our archives. We will read that decree on the opening night, Aug. 26, in which I will formally establish the new seminary. Other than that, the men will go back to their classes and get to work.

Do you recall a specific moment in which you realized this was the move to make? 

Not exactly a time, but a season. Last year, Fr. Chad and I spoke about it from time to time in our monthly meetings. I think I brought it up: “What do you think about maybe making the house of formation into a seminary?” We talked through that a lot: what that might mean, what it wouldn’t, what it would and would not entail, that sort of thing. Within a very brief period of time, it became, “Yeah, we should do this.” Then we invited the vicars, the presbyteral council, and other priests to offer feedback. Everyone we spoke with showed great enthusiasm and support for it. 

You mentioned that the seminarians from Dodge City and Salina at the house of formation will become students at seminary. Do you envision seminarians from even more dioceses coming here once it has this status?

It’s hard to say, but we are not actively recruiting other dioceses. I want it to be principally for the Diocese of Wichita. At first, the St. Joseph House of Formation was not really ready to invite other dioceses. Then, a couple of years ago, we discerned that it was time. We thought we had something really worth sharing, so I approached the bishops of Salina and Dodge City to let them know if they were interested, they were certainly welcome to consider it. 

There was no pressure or anything like that. Both of them visited it and liked what they saw. Since then, they have sent men, and will continue to do so. However, because of our own strong numbers, we are not really able to take in huge numbers from outside the diocese with our current facilities.

I also informed then-Archbishop Naumann about the house of formation. The Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, was very respectful, but there have not been any indications that it wants to send seminarians here, and I doubt we can accommodate the numbers that it might have.

Even as the St. Joseph House of Formation has grown, it still seems very close-knit. It’s a setting in which the men seem to all know each other. They all have their familiar dynamic and friendships, and perhaps too much growth could jeopardize that.

You might be interested to hear that I don’t want St. Philip Neri Seminary to be too big. I want it to be big enough where we can do good things – and big things – but I don’t want it to lose the personal touch so that these men become more like numbers than actual persons. I think where we have landed now is that we are sufficiently full. We are not overflowing, but there is a good number of men in the house and now in the new seminary. We have really hit the sweet spot. In terms of numbers, I think we will have 42 or 43 there next year.

Can you discuss how the name St. Philip Neri was chosen and share any thoughts you have on the saint himself?

It was a beautiful experience coming to that name. I wanted everybody, including the seminarians, to have a part in offering suggestions. When the time came to open that up, we asked all our priests and seminarians to submit their suggestions. We compiled a list with a ton of good ideas – many more than I could have ever come up with. 

Last April when we were on pilgrimage in France, I was trying to come up with a good name. Unbeknownst to anyone else on the pilgrimage, Fr. Chad and I were going back and forth about different names. He’d go to prayer; I would go to prayer. He’d bring this; I’d bring that. We wanted a unique name. We not only wanted to name it after a priest, we wanted a name that was not used at another U.S. seminary, which is kind of hard. There are lots of St. John Vianneys, lots of St. Josephs, lots of names after our Lord or our Blessed Mother, all of which are beautiful and good. Of course, there was the possibility of Fr. Kapaun, but he is yet to be declared a blessed or a saint. 

So these different ideas came in and we were at the seminary in Ars when Fr. Chad and I were going back and forth about it. I remember going up to my room, thinking, “St. Philip Neri.” So I tried that on: “St. Philip Neri Seminary, Wichita, Kansas.” I thought, “That’s kind of cool.” I don’t know everything about this saint, but I know he was an incredible 16th-century priest in the city of Rome with a great love for humanity and the beauty of nature. He was very kind and was known for a great sense of humor, telling jokes, and making people laugh. 

That was during a very tough time in Rome, amid a lot of plagues and suffering. Many people had abandoned the faith, and here was this priest just joyfully living his priesthood in the midst of it all, bringing people the person of Jesus Christ. I thought, “What an amazing witness for our times. We need priests with that joy, sense of humor, and balance to meet people where they’re at and bring them to a higher level.” Philip Neri did that in the 16th century, and I think he’s going to be a great witness and a great intercessor for us in our time.

I sent Fr. Chad a text that said “What do you think about St. Philip Neri?” After a bit of silence, he responded, “I’ve been thinking about that too.” When we got back, we hadn’t told anybody about this exchange, but it was funny how that name was suggested numerous times. There were many other good suggestions to which we gave time for consideration and prayer, but we always came back to St. Philip Neri.

Are there any other aspects of this news you want to discuss at this point?

I would simply ask the people of the diocese to pray for our new seminary and continue to invite young men to consider discerning with us. We are really excited about the young men that are coming this year, as well as the men that are already there. It’s an exciting time to be in discernment and formation, especially for our diocese. As I go about my various ministries, I hear young men say they are discerning or thinking about coming to the seminary. That’s always exciting to hear. But, again, I want to ask people to help us by continuing to support us with their prayers. We hope to make this the best college seminary in the country.