Detroit — After morning Mass, eighth-grader Joseph Goldenbogen approached Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron with a question. The youngster, who grew up near the archbishop’s hometown of Fair Haven, wanted to know whether the chief shepherd of the Archdiocese of Detroit knew a common acquaintance.
Whether the archbishop did or not — “Everybody knows everybody from Fair Haven,” he said — the two shared something else in common from their days in the archdiocese’s northeast region: the opportunity to serve at the altar at a young age.
Joseph was one of 118 altar boys in eighth grade or high school who spent a day with the archbishop at Sacred Heart Major Seminary on Aug. 1 to tour the facility, learn about seminary life and ask questions about the priesthood.
After Mass, Archbishop Vigneron fielded questions that ran the gamut:
“How many years did it take you to become an archbishop?”
“Did you enter the seminary right out of high school?”
“Will you play ping pong with me?”
Although the archbishop graciously bowed out of the table-tennis challenge, he said seeing so many young, enthusiastic faces at the seminary brightened his day.
“It gave me a lot of joy,” he said in an interview with The Michigan Catholic. “God is calling enough fellows to be priests. The problem is audition. Are they hearing the call, and are we getting in the way? That’s what we have to think about.”
Archbishop Vigneron said his own experience as an altar boy growing up allowed him to grow in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and open his heart to what God was calling him to do.
“I loved it. I was always happy to be called upon to serve,” the archbishop said. “We had a wonderful sister who was in charge of the servers, and she used every occasion of dealing with us to give us a catechesis about being devoted to the Eucharist.
“One of the important things is to open yourself up to prayer,” he added. “The more a person is open to prayer, to being attuned to God, the easier it is for God to speak.”
With a survey showing more than 80 percent of priests having been altar boys, the seminary day was something of a no-brainer for Fr. Tim Birney, director of priestly vocations for the archdiocese, who served as an altar boy himself at a young age.
“I try to do a lot of my programming based off the data,” said Fr. Birney. “So I thought, I need to do more programming just geared toward altar boys.” And having the archbishop on hand to interact with the young men and celebrate Mass was just “incredible,” Fr. Birney added.
“I didn’t think about being a priest as an altar boy, but I was, looking back on it now, drawn to serving at the altar, and it did help me to participate more in Mass,” Fr. Birney said. “It definitely kept me very connected to my faith.”
Noah Bednar, 16, who attended the seminary day with other altar boys from St. Kieran Parish, Shelby Township, said serving at Mass has helped opened his eyes to the beauty of what the Church offers.
“As you serve Mass, you realize that there are a lot of mistakes that are made every single Mass. People realize this if they serve a lot,” said Noah, who also volunteered as a lector during the archbishop’s Mass. “I think that’s just in the nature of how Mass is and how our faith is. Everything’s very forgiving in nature. The whole fact that young people are able to go and serve and help out, it not only speeds up Mass for you when you’re there — otherwise you’re counting the clock, that’s what I’d do when I was little — but once I started serving, I realized there’s a lot more to our faith.”
Noah, who has been a server for 10 years, said having good, holy priests and deacons in his own life has given him a strong example to follow as he considers the seminary.
“There are a lot of priests who have had a strong influence on me. One of them — not a priest — was the deacon who married my parents,” he said.
Likewise, Brian Palmer, 14, of National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Royal Oak, said having an older brother currently attending Sacred Heart Major Seminary was a key reason he decided to check it out for himself. But being an altar server has already given him a unique perspective on the priesthood, he said.
“You’re a vital part of the whole Mass. You help everything revolve around the Eucharist. You help people become devoted to it,” Brian said.
The altar boys from more than 30 parishes — many in large groups —spent the day with dozens of seminarians and diocesan priests.
Fr. Benjamin Kosnac, pastor of SS. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Sterling Heights, brought the largest contingent of altar boys to the event. At the Slovak parish, it’s not uncommon to see 20 servers for a single Mass, with a staggering 220 youngsters signed up to serve at the parish.
His own formational experience as an altar boy growing up in his native Slovakia prompted Fr. Kosnac to make altar service a cornerstone of the youth ministry at SS. Cyril and Methodius, he said.
“I was permitted to be an altar boy at the age of 5, and I had some older brothers who watched over me a little bit. At the parish where I was growing up, the boys served whenever they were at holy Mass. So at SS. Cyril and Methodius, you will see often large numbers of altar boys serving the holy Mass because they love to be part of it.”
Keeping the young men engaged and involved in the liturgy, Fr. Kosnac added, is among the best ways to keep them attentive to God’s call.
“I believe it is being in the presence of Christ himself,” he said. “Like Archbishop said today, how can I spend my life in the most efficient way, the most complete way? How can I do what’s best in my life?”
