His Road to Seminary Began at a Papal Mass

By JOHN WOODS

By the time this issue arrives, Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States will be just about two months away. For those of us in the Catholic Press, it would be hard to imagine a bigger or more all-consuming story than the one right in front of us.

Things are already starting to heat up, with myriad planning details to settle. But along with the daily grind, I think it's also important to pick up one's head and revel in the excitement that the visit is generating, at least once in a while. How fortunate are New Yorkers to again be at the center of a papal trip.

Earlier this week, I got a reminder of the good feelings that the pope's trip is inspiring in the archdiocese when I spoke to a couple of seminarians from St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie.

The seminary itself is the venue for a youth gathering with the Holy Father involving more than 20,000 young people from upper elementary grades through college. Its chapel will be the site of a personal meeting between the pope and a number of young people with disabilities. The Dunwoodie seminarians, along with many others from around the United States, will participate in the day's events as will others who are in formation for religious life.

At least one St. Joseph's seminarian took part in the last papal visit to New York, when Pope John Paul II came in 1995. Now a second-year theology student, Dan Tuite was just 12 years old when he and his classmates at the Academy of St. Dorothy on Staten Island traveled by bus to Pope John Paul II's Mass in Central Park, which was attended by more than 100,000 people. The October day was dark and damp with rain, but Tuite told me that while praying with the Holy Father and the massive crowd of Catholics gathered there he began to understand what the Universal Church was all about. "There was an electric feeling," he said. "I was happy and excited to be there."

Fast forward 10 years, to April of 2005, the month that Pope John Paul II died. By that time, Tuite was a senior majoring in politics and history at SUNY-Stony Brook, deciding which direction his life would take. Seeing the crowds that turned out to honor the pope and watching coverage of the conclave that would elect his successor, Pope Benedict, played a big role in shaping Tuite's decision to enter the seminary.

Tuite considers it "an amazing full circle" to be studying at St. Joseph's at the time when Pope Benedict will visit New York. He said he and his fellow seminarians are excited, especially about the prospect of serving at Mass with the pope, as some may have the opportunity to do at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Deacon Ronald Perez, a fourth-year seminarian at St. Joseph's, views the visit of Pope Benedict in the month before he is to be ordained to the priesthood as a "great blessing."

Deacon Perez, a Filipino-American who is the class and house deacon at St.

"Who knew in my final year that we would get a visit from the Vicar of Christ himself," Perez said.

As Catholic New York presents its preview stories about the papal visit, I'd like to remind our readers that February is Catholic Press Month. Please keep our staff in your prayers, and keep reading Catholic New York as we do our best to bring you every angle of this truly uplifting story.