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  • Stewards of the Mysteries of God: Immaculate Conception Seminary, 1860-2010
  • Michael J. Mcnally
Stewards of the Mysteries of God: Immaculate Conception Seminary, 1860-2010. By Robert James Wister . South Orange, NJ: Immaculate Conception Seminary, 2010. 496 pp. $40.00.

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Institutional history has long since fallen out of favor among contemporary historians. Yet, human beings create institutions to serve their needs. Although institutions succeed because of the efforts of outstanding individuals, their purpose is to outlive any one person no matter how outstanding. Surely these organizations are worthy of historical study.

In Roman Catholicism, the seminary is the premier ecclesiastical institution tasked with forming priests to serve their times and people, but times change and so do seminaries, as is evidenced by Wister's book which covers a span of 150 years.

American culture and the trans-Atlantic connection were engines of change for seminary life. Up to the 1920s, the rigid monotony of seminary life was interspersed with celebrations by seminarians who put on "literary and musical entertainments," which were also part of academic institutions throughout the United States at the time. Later, the production of plays became a staple of seminary extracurricular life, and still later Field Education.

The trans-Atlantic connection also brought about changes in seminary life. The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore imposed on American seminaries a European structure, with the Minor Seminary consisting of high school and the first two years of college and the Major Seminary consisting of the last two years of college (Philosophy) and four years of theological studies. That Council also mandated a board of deputies charged with overseeing the temporal and spiritual affairs of the seminary. In the early part of the twentieth century Roman officials desired to isolate seminarians from the "temptations the world." As a result, the Newark Seminary moved to rural Darlington in 1927. Beginning that year, seminarians spent the whole summer at Darlington, save two weeks in June and two in September. Moreover, the 1917 Code of Canon Law demanded a [End Page 71] separation of the internal forum from the external forum, requiring a full-time spiritual director for seminarians. The Code also enumerated proscribed seminary officers. Although the Seminary Rule was central to seminarian's lives from 1860, following Roman directives and the 1917 Code of Canon Law, a new all-inclusive Seminary Rule was published in 1927, covering detailed instructions about literally every minute of the day. The Rule of 1927 was designed to produce docile, self-less, and obedient priests. The dictum of the time was: "You keep the Rule, and the Rule will keep you."

One of the book's strengths is Wister's treatment of the effects upon Immaculate Conception Seminary of the trans-Atlantic spiritual earthquake of Vatican II and the massive American cultural upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.

Vatican Council II set in motion a renewal of seminaries, which was then followed by guidance from subsequent post-Conciliar documents from Roman authorities and American Bishops. But even more than ecclesiastical directives, American culture, which former seminary structures attempted to keep at bay, now rushed headlong through seminary gates. These Conciliar mandates and massive American cultural upheavals created an unstoppable tsunami. Now seminary education was more like American education (the end of cycle courses and the Latin manuals). The "Darlington Summers" ended, the Rule was abandoned. Seminarians earned more freedom within and without the seminary. Faculty were better educated and became more specialized in their fields of expertise. Both faculty and students became dissatisfied with the pace and quality of change. So widespread were these alterations that a seminarian from 1890, 1920, 1940, or even 1960 would not recognize his Alma Mater if he could somehow be transported to the late twentieth century.

Yet, there were aspects of the seminary that did not change. Leadership was always important. Seminary Director/Rectors such as Corrigan, McQuaid, Salt, and Ciuiba made a difference with their talent and energy. Seton Hall College/University had an ongoing relationship with the seminary, from its beginning in 1860 to its move back to the college's campus in 1982, as did the Bishop of...

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