Pledging Their Fidelity
Opening the new academic year by celebrating the Mass
of the Holy Spirit is a longstanding tradition at Sacred Heart.
The tradition continued on Friday, September 5, when the
entire seminary community came together in the main
chapel for the 12 pm Mass. The community joined main
celebrant Msgr. Todd Lajiness in entreating the Holy Spirit
to bless the coming school year and all the works of the
seminary and its students.
The Mass of the Holy Spirit is the occasion for
another important yearly ritual. After the homily, new
faculty members approach the altar and stand before the
congregation. There they place their hands on the Gospels
held by the rector and make a Profession of Faith and a
complementary Oath of Fidelity.
The profession is an expanded version of the Nicene
Creed, wherein the faculty member “accepts everything
definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on
faith and morals,” while giving “religious submission” to
the authority of the pope and College of Bishops. The oath
asks of a person to “hold fast to the deposit of faith in its
entirety.” Both pledges the Holy See requires of teachers of
Making the Profession of Faith and Oath of Fidelity this year were Fr. Mathias
Thelen, left, a priest of the Diocese of Lansing who will assist in seminarian
formation; Dr. Ilaria Ramelli, Bishop Kevin M. Britt Chair of Dogmatic
Theology and Christology; and Karolyn Surmont, part-time instructor.
theology and philosophy in seminaries and “teachers in any
universities whatsoever who teach disciplines pertaining to
faith or morals,” in keeping with Canon Law 833 and the 1989
directives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
All “Fore” the Seminarians
It was a little cloudy, a little chilly—
but, thankfully, the dreaded rain held
off. But the weather doesn’t matter
much to participants of the Desert
Classic golf outing. Golfers always
show up with eagerness to support the
seminarians—in rain gear and galoshes
if need be. And they