I enjoyed reading the discussion of Maryknoll's approach to minor seminaries post World War II, when the Society was deluged with applications for entrance into Maryknoll from both military veterans and civilians.

Not mentioned in your observations of diocesan-realted Maryknoll minor seminaries is the fact that Maryknoll, in addition to the Venard, did establish its own junior seminary, one that accepted high school freshmen and sophomores and "Specials." This school, a converted mansion that had been donated to Maryknoll, was located at 1075 West Market Street, in a wealthy section of Akron, Ohio - just up the road from the residences of several families associated with such tire manufacturing companies as Firestone, Goodyear, and a couple others whose names now escape me. Located nearby on the other side of the street was Our Lady of the Elms, an upscale motherhouse whose members staffed Catholic high schools. (One of the sisters was kind enough to give me piano lessons during the second semester of my sophomore year and on through the month of June.)

The Akron Maryknoll Junior Seminary opened om September 5, 1945, three days after the official surrender of Japan in the aftermath of World War II. In the third-floor ballroom, double-decker bunks, with two units adjoining each other and separated by four feet from the neighboring two-set units, provided (cramped) sleeping quarters for forty-two students (some of whom begged for fresh air in the course of the nights). The front yard, now a multi-purpose sports field, was the venue, for outdoor sports activities, even though provision had to be made to adjust for a big tree that shaded a shortened left field for baseball and provided an obstacle inside the football sideline. A Japanese immigrant and his wife were the cooks for this gang of approximately sixty people. On one day each week, Mrs. Podobnik, a good cook and an immigrant from Slovakia (then Czechoslovakia), took on the cooking chore. Because there were no laundry facilities available to the students, we sent our laundry home via the post office service, and in five or six days the clean clothes arrived, the cookies were removed and eaten, and a day or two later again out went the laundry case to poor mom.

Three priests, Fathers George Carroll, Al Harding, and George Gilligan, who also taught a couple courses, used the seminary as their base for promotional work.

In the course of its two years as a junior seminary - sometimes called a preparatory seminary - approximately seventy-two students passed through the portals of this mansion-turned-seminary. (Only one of these aspirants persevered through to ordination at Maryknoll.) Beginning in the fall of 1947 the mansion was used for several years as a novitiate for the Maryknoll Brothers, with Father Robert Sheridan serving as superior and novice master.

The faculty from September 1945 through May 1947: Fathers Reginald Markham, rector, William Kupfer, George Krock, Ed Brophy, Hugh Byrne, John "Stretch" O'Donnell (he who played the mandolin) , Lloyd Glass, and Brother Dennis.

Most of the specials were veterans just recently returned to civilian life whose first educational goal was to learn the rudiments of the Latin language before going on to the Venard to complete the high school curriculum or begin college education, as the case may be. (At that time, the Venard offered four years of high school-level and two years of college-level education. The college-level courses ended in 1949 when the high school graduates were sent to Lakewood, New Jersey, or Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Those who finished the sophomore year at Akron were sent on to the Venard,) The specials had a difficult time adjusting to this situation in that they, some hardened by battle, were now living with fourteen and fifteen-year old kids, most of whom suffered homesickness from September through December. The specials became "big brothers" to their teen-aged fellow junior seminarians.

The "Maryknoll Spirit" was inculcated in this Maryknoll setting, but within the archdiocesan (Cleveland) setting we had sports relationships with the local Catholic high schools. Many of the priests of the archdiocese came to know the Maryknoll Gang.

Like all of you, over the years, particularly during my six years on promotion, I saw the diocesan bishops and priests grow away from the understanding and acceptance that Maryknoll is THE Catholic Foreign Mission Society of AMERICA. Maryknoll kept close to the big hitters of the East such as Cardinal Spellman of New York and Cardinal Cushing of Boston, but I don't know what specific actions Maryknoll could have undertaken to instill a sense of ownership in the minds of the bishops and priests of the United States. I believe Fathers John Considine, James Keller and Al Nevins were aware of the need to cultivate relationships with the bishops and priests of the United States, but after their retirements, I am not aware that not much attention was paid to this matter. As the years passed, it became harder and harder for the promoters to secure an abundance of "church dates." Turn downs by pastors increased and, eventually, many dioceses began to allocate slots to various religious orders or societies, leaving little or no wiggle room for the pastors.

(A side note: during my two years on promotion in parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, not once was I turned down by a pastor of a Byzantine Ruthenian-Rite Church upon asking for a promotion date. In order to give these priests the opportunity to have a free weekend while I was at the parish, I asked Superior General Bishop John Comber if I could set aside six months in order to become bi-ritual in the Roman and Ruthenian Rites and then return to promotion work. This would have been easy for me to accomplish for I was very familiar with the Ruthenian Rite, having grown up attending the Divine Liturgy services of the Ruthenian Rite with my mother who was of that Rite and one of whose sisters was a nun in the Ruthenian Rite order of the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The response from Bishop Comber was a fast "No".)

Maryknoll has a very interesting and multi-faceted history.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND TO ALL MARYKNOLLERS!

Tom Adams - '58

On Dec 31, 2012, at 9:10 AM, DAVID STANG wrote:

>
>
> From: wambura3@msn.com
> To: lrn-lsw.obrist@windstream.net
> Subject: RE: [Interchange;1579] US and MM Seminary systems
> Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 08:10:01 -0700

> > Thanks Pat and Larry for you viewpoints on Maryknoll versus Diocesan. Jesuits always had their seminaries as did many other orders and societies. Could Maryknoll have instilled a Maryknoll spirit without their own seminaries? I remember being asked as a Sophomore whether we wanted to go to the Venard and there were four of us and we all said we wanted to go to the Venard. St. Gregory Seminary did not have the rural, agricultural and Missionary feeling to it. Also all twelve years were on the same piece of property so there was a lot of intrigues between the lower and upper classes. Several years after we left St. Gregory the Major Seminary building burnt down. I don't know if anyone died and what was lost. However Pat the question of what type of relationships we could have built up over the years is truly a valid question. I know the Pastor of our Parish in Dayton treated us very poorly and kept my twin brother, who was ordained a Precious Blood priest and I at a distance from the parish. I don't remember being asked to help out with services nor was my twin brother. Some of this could have been due to Vatican II. The pastor was a staunch conservative.

>
> David Stang

>
> Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2012 23:47:36 -0600
> From: Lrn-Lsw.Obrist@windstream.net
> To: pmurphy49@aol.com
> CC: Interchange-Maryknoll@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [Interchange;1579] US and MM Seminary systems

>
> Pat:
> Fascinating history and overview from your experience and Dan Maloney's of the
> separate but equal seminary systems of diocese vs Maryknoll prior to 1950 or so.
> Arrived at GE in Sept.1960 after contacts in my small Nebraska town with Fr. Peter Byrne from Denver.
> Had no clue about MM earlier reliance on the local sems to feed into the Knoll. Most fascinated
> about the origins of the CU in Wash DC as failed seminary.
> My uncle, Msgr. Lawrence Obrist lamented in 1928 of Fr. Martin stealing one of his classmates,
> Fr. Eddie Weis, switching to MM after a visit to St. Francis Sem in Milwaukee.
> See now that without the duel sem experience, the bishops certainly lost interest in their mission
> arm and not want to chance losing candidates. Happening here in Lincoln diocese where bishop
> set up his own sem to make sure fully indoctrinated with orthodoxy lest they fall prey to any one
> liberal sem or mission sending group. He then also ushered in the only other US sem for the
> Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter established in 1994 to serve English-speaking seminarians to celebrate
> all of the liturgy in Latin!!!

>
> Thanks for the wisdom and experience of our MM elders!!

>
> Larry O.
> Lorraine A. &/or Lawrence D. Obrist
> 5309 Antler Court
> Lincoln, NE 68516-2407
> (402) 423-7170
> Lrn-Lsw.Obrist@windstream.net
> When the power of love overcomes the
> love of power, the world will finally know Peace.
> Be a Blessing. Be Blessed.

>
> Contact Me