ARCHDIOCESE — Six men in their first year of study at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary were formally accepted as candidates for Holy Orders during a Mass in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great Dec. 8. Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr presided. 

Admission to candidacy for Holy Orders has two aspects. An aspirant is publicly declaring that he is committing himself to a program of formation for service to God and to the Catholic Church as an ordained minister. In addition, the Catholic Church, in the person of the archbishop, is publicly accepting the aspirant into the ranks of the candidates for Holy Orders.

 

Acceptance into the ranks of candidates does not constitute a right to receive ordination to the diaconate or priesthood. It is a first official recognition on the part of the church that there are preliminary signs of a vocation to Holy Orders that remain to be confirmed in subsequent years of formation.