Saint Francis de Sales Seminary Rector Fr. Luke Strand speaks on stage in front of the 90 men in formation during the annual Seminary Dinner on Oct. 4. Of those 90 men, 80 are on campus in St. Francis for all five dioceses in Milwaukee and several dioceses across the United States, and 10 are in undergraduate studies. (Photo courtesy of Saint Francis de Sales Seminary)
The 2024-25 academic year started off with a full house at Saint Francis de Sales Seminary.
This year, 27 new men arrived on campus to pursue formation for the priesthood, bringing the total number of seminary residents to 80 — the largest number in more than 30 years.
Fr. John Baumgardner, Vice Rector and Director of Human Formation for the seminary, had two words to say about what has been called the “vocations boom” in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee: “Praise God!”
Charles Pomroy is one of the new men on campus. A graduate of Immaculate Heart of Mary College Seminary in Winona, Minnesota, Pomroy grew up at St. Mary Parish in Menomonee Falls. He described the large, diverse group of men in formation as a sign of hope for the Church’s future.
“We all come from such different walks of life,” he said. “It brings hope into the church and into our own hearts. Every day, these other guys are walking with me, going through different, yet very similar, things.”
Fr. Baumgardner described the men as “holy, joyful and hardworking.”
“There is great spirit in the house,” he said.
“We have 80 guys who just inspire you every day to live a life of virtue,” said Pomroy. “Fr. Luke (Strand, Rector of the seminary) made a comment about how the seminary forces you to live Christian holiness because you see other men doing it, and it makes you want that. It’s a healthy and virtuous competition. It’s not belittling others, it’s not a comparison game, but you see others living a life of virtue, and you see the goodness there, and you just want that so badly.”
Fr. Baumgardner said “the vocation directors here in Milwaukee and from our sending dioceses have done a tremendous job in walking with the young men discerning God’s call in their life.”
That bears fruit not just in the seminary enrollment but in the life of the Church throughout the archdiocese.
“Having a seminary here in Milwaukee also means that 80 seminarians are in our parishes on the weekends, offering a witness to these local communities,” Fr. Baumgardner said.
Events like the upcoming Duc in Altum Retreat (Dec. 20-22), St. Andrew Dinner (Dec. 27) and summer vocation camps provide “concrete next steps if the Lord has stirred something in prayer” within the heart of a young man discerning the priesthood, Fr. Baumgardner said.
Pomroy’s own first encounter with the vocation office was at a vocation camp at the seminary in middle school, where he got to meet seminarians (including the current Director of Vocations, Fr. Michael Malucha, who was a seminarian at the time).
Pomroy said he feels the vocation office has excelled at creating and maintaining relationships with men who have expressed a calling to discern the priesthood.
“I don’t think there was a year that went by that someone didn’t make contact with me in some way,” Pomroy said. “It never allowed me to forget about the movement in my heart that the Lord had been working through, even though I didn’t want to respond to it. There were people and priests in my life who didn’t allow me to get too far away, which I think is a real blessing, because I very easily could have slipped through the cracks.”
“Young people today face significant challenges to living their faith,” Fr. Baumgardner said. “Seeing such a large group of men willing to lay down their lives for Christ and his Church is truly amazing. They realize that much suffering will likely come their way, but the men are not afraid to sacrifice and give everything to the Lord.”
That courage, said Pomroy, is bolstered by the spirit of accompaniment the vocation office embraces.
“They just care. They care about us. We’re not numbers,” he said. “Yes, we need more priests. But we need to make sure we give men space to receive that call and then respond to it. And that’s not done by pressing or pushing but giving space to allow that to just to work in the Lord’s time, and be there when it does.”
The seminary announced the public phase of its Zeal for the Lord’s House campaign Friday, Oct. 4, at the annual Seminary Dinner at the Baird Center in downtown Milwaukee. The campaign, which has already raised about $43 million, will allow for an infrastructural overhaul of areas of the historic seminary, which was founded in 1845 and built in the 1850s during the episcopacy of Milwaukee’s first archbishop, Most Rev. John Martin Henni.
In a video shown to the dinner’s 2,000 attendees, Fr. Baumgardner emphasized the importance of maintaining a seminary here in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
“What makes it so special is the fact that men are being formed here, for service in the Church here in the Midwest and beyond,” he said. “They love the Church Universal. They could be anywhere, of course, but they want to be here.”
“It’s a blessing to be in Milwaukee,” said Pomroy. “I get to live in the archdiocese that I want to serve. The seminary is our home. This is the place for you to really dive into your discernment, into your faith and how you respond to the Lord generously each day. Being here is a blessing.”
