Notes from Rome By the Most Rev. Joe Roesch, MIC Father Jovanete Vieira, MIC, my Vicar General, flew from Rome to join me for the visitation. You’ll read about a new development this year in the American Province on page 12. The decision was recently made to send our seminarians to a new seminary for their theological training: St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, the seminary of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. So after we finished our visitation of our Marian Formation House in Steubenville, Ohio, Fr. Jovanete and I headed west. It’s easy to forget how large the United States is. Our flight took about five hours and there is a three-hour time difference between the East Coast and the West Coast. It took some time for our body clocks to adjust after we arrived. We received a warm welcome from our Marians, from seminary staff, and from other seminarians. Our men are blending in well. Father Jim McCormack, MIC, is the rector of the Marian Residence there where he lives with 10 of our seminarians. They are staying in a wing of St. Patrick’s, a beautiful building that’s over 100 years old and situated on 40 acres of grounds. Along with our men, St. Patrick’s is attended by diocesan seminarians from the U.S. and from other parts of the world, along with some other seminarians from religious communities. The seminary helps each man to develop and to mature as a person. An individual plan of growth is worked out that is followed through the years of their formation. Formation work is more of an art than a science. There is no one cookie-cutter formula to prepare people for priestly ministry and for perpetual vows. Saint Patrick’s has a fine reputation among Catholic seminaries in the United States. They provide a wonderful, well-rounded formation for the priesthood for the men there on many levels — spiritual, intellectual, apostolic, and human. Father Andy Davy, MIC, is the superior of the Steubenville House and our Provincial Prefect of Formation. He stays in close contact with the formation staff at St. Patrick’s. He and other Marians will come periodically to visit our men there. Along with all that they are learning there, our seminarians are also gaining valuable pastoral experience: teaching those who want to become Catholic, ministering in a jail, helping the poor, ministering in a hospital, working in parishes, and offering catechesis to children. Father Jim is also helping out in a nearby parish. And the setting in itself is a blessing. While there, we visited nearby Stanford University. In the Bay area, there are redwood forests and plenty of places to enjoy the beauty of nature and activities such as hiking and mountain biking. Although we have Marians who come from California and some Marians have visited there and studied there through the years, we have never had a residence of Marians living in the Golden State. Therefore, this is a new experience for us as a province. Many Marian Helpers from California have been hoping through the years that the Marians would someday do some sort of pastoral ministry in California. Perhaps, if it is the will of God, a door will open for us. Please keep all of our men in formation in your prayers! GO WEST, YOUNG MEN After my retreat and vacation this year, I had the opportunity to visit our Marian houses in the United States, which is something that we do every three years during a General Visitation. The Most Rev. Joe Roesch, MIC, is the Superior General of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. He lives in Rome. Listen to his podcasts, including “Saint Faustina’s Diary in a Year,” on TheDivineMercy.org/podcasts and DivineMercyPlus.org/podcasts. Marian Helper • Winter 2025-26 • Marian.org 7 Father Joe and Br. Jacob talk about the Marian seminarians in California.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==