“What better place?”: Refiguring Priesthood at St. John’s Seminary, Boston, 1965–1970

In the years immediately following the Second Vatican Council, faculty and students at St. John’s Seminary in Boston struggled mightily to come to terms with the council’s significance. Students in particular, well-attuned but not overwhelmed by broader currents of social change in the United States, felt an exhilarating and daunting sense of responsibility for the remaking of the Catholic priesthood. Their contributions to the seminary student newspaper, Impact, witness to the eagerness, confusion, and idealism of the moment. Vatican II and associated documents seemed to open the way for a new appreciation of the need for holistic self-discovery, deepened personal relationships, and clerical political involvement in the formation of priests. Deeply informed by psychological and historical pressures related to the idea of “maturity,” seminarians, faculty, and other observers sought to adjust priestly formation to meet the demands of the era without gutting the distinctive disciplines, communal integrity, and spiritual tenor of traditional priestly training.