DETROIT — So vital were the changes Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka made to Sacred Heart Seminary during his time as archbishop of Detroit that he is often referred to as the institution’s “second founder.”
Its modern name – Sacred Heart Major Seminary – reflects the addition of a Graduate School of Theological Studies that was the key component of the major transformation of the seminary Cardinal Szoka brought about in 1988.
With the addition of the graduate school – or “theologate” – it became possible for a seminarian to receive all the training and formation required for ordination at Sacred Heart.
Archbishop Allen Vigeron, after having served as rector of SHMS, had said, “his decision to open the theologate, and to make it part of what had been just the college seminary, really merits his being called a second founder after Bishop (Michael) Gallagher, and he really has ensured, I think, the survival of the seminary into the next generations.”
Besides the theologate, there was a major revamping of the seminary’s undergraduate program and the addition of programs at both the college and graduate school levels to prepare lay people for various lay ministries.
Cardinal Szoka says he was faced by a choice on whether to turn St. John’s Provincial Seminary in Plymouth Township into a major seminary, or focus efforts on Sacred Heart. Several factors went into the decision, he says, not the least of which was the fact that Sacred Heart Seminary was situated in the heart of the city.
Cardinal Szoka’s plans also included a major renovation of the building, which has stood on Chicago Boulevard, between Linwood and Lawton since the mid-1920s. The work included painting and remodeling, a lot of new interior woodwork and doors, and replacement of the building’s hundreds of windows.
Cardinal Szoka’s legacy is honored not only by the honorary doctor of laws (LL.D.) degree SHMS gave him back in 1996, and by the naming of the seminary’s library after him, but also by the continuing fidelity of the institution to his vision for it.
Today, the seminary has about 100 men studying for the priesthood – for the Detroit archdiocese and several other diocese, as well.
Sacred Heart Major Seminary is known nationally for its faculty, and for its innovative curriculum, including its distinctive New Evangelization program, based on ideals put forth by Pope John Paul II. The seminary also educates hundreds of catechists and lay Catholics with certifications and degrees for non-clergy.
Looking back on his years in Detroit, Cardinal Szoka has identified the transformation of the seminary as one of the high points of his ministry here.
