Author Description

Based on interviews of former minor seminarians, PREORDAINED focuses upon the experiences of adolescent males (conservatively, 100,000 of them; 39,000 in 1963 alone) swept into American Catholic minor seminaries between 1950 and 1980. Seminary construction and enrollment spiked wildly and then plummeted radically during the years in question. Few "future priests" remained for long in their seminaries; only a small percentage “persisted” into a major (adult) seminary, and very few of those eventually were ordained. How did schoolboys end up in these institutions? Pursuit of a vocation by definition involved the surrender of a boy to someone else’s control. How and why did parents let their young sons “choose” to enter seminaries at thirteen or fourteen years of age? And how did such surrender affect the boys? PREORDAINED discusses types of boys who entered the seminary, what life (including emotional and sexual development and, in some cases, abuse) was like in such institutions, how difficult it was to leave though the desire to do so often was immense, and, finally, how enduring was the experience for those who left. Ultimately and overall, though former seminarians point to positive elements of their experiences, few would argue that the concept of boys contained in a boarding school so that their potential as someday-adult priests would not be eroded is a healthy one. The book closes with a look at the few minor seminaries remaining in America today.