“I have appointed you as covenant of the people and light of nations” (Isaiah 42: 6).

The Regional Seminary marks its 65th anniversary this week. The Catholic News of 23 January 1943 carries a brief “comment” about the start of the Seminary which received its first students a few days earlier, on January 19.

It speaks of a growing “West Indian self-consciousness”, seeing the new institution as a contribution towards this movement. Although brief, the story seems to capture the mood of the time.

 In his homily, Archbishop Count Finbar Ryan using the parable of the mustard seed as his text, also alluded to the Seminary’s opening as “the beginning of a momentous contribution towards the cultural and social life of the people designed by Our Divine Saviour when he commissioned his Church to carry to all nations the knowledge of his Gospel”.

The Archbishop understood that the ministerial priesthood was vital for the commission which the Church received from Christ. The Pastoral Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992) states: “Without priests the Church would not be able to live that fundamental obedience which is at the very heart of her existence and her mission in history, an obedience in response to the command of Christ: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’" (Mt. 28:19).

Today, 65 years later, the Caribbean Church must be grateful for the vision and courage of Archbishop Ryan who, undaunted by naysayers of the time, set up the Seminary in the cradle of the Mount St Benedict Abbey. The monks of the Abbey administered the Seminary for the first 30 years of its life.

Begun as an Archdiocesan Seminary, the institution opened its doors to students from other Caribbean dioceses, years before it was formally adopted by the Antillles Episcopal Conference in 1970 and became the Regional Seminary.

Catholic laity

Pastores Dabo Vobis describes the seminary as “above all an educational opportunity in progress”.

It is so, first of all, because it relives and continues the experience of formation which the Lord provided for the Twelve. But, it is also true that the seminary, as it adapts to the deep and rapid transformations of the society will be faced with difficulties and also must find new ways of satisfying the demands of the Church and society.

Over the years the Regional Seminary, in addition to training candidates for the priesthood, has also offered academic training to religious sisters and brothers, to Catholic laity and members of other Christian denominations.

The serious problem of the shortage of priests has served to make even clearer the role of the laity. In its own way, the lack may have contributed to the development of the lay apostolate in the Caribbean region.

But the more the apostolate develops, the more our dioceses need well-formed, holy priests after the heart of the True Shepherd.

The 1943 “comment” said: “It is proper that some of our people should enter the sanctuary of God.” It greatly understated the importance of the institution to the Caribbean Church.

We congratulate the Regional Seminary on reaching this milestone and thank God for the service it has given to the region.