Patrick Novecosky, editor of this blog, is an occasional correspondent for the National Catholic Register. In the following article, published in the April 6 issue, he writes about Florida’s regional major seminary and the Sunshine State’s vocations boom.
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Blessed John Paul II Inspires Florida Seminarians
BY PATRICK NOVECOSKY, REGISTER CORRESPONDENT
Seminarian Julio De Jesus poses with Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski
Julio De Jesus was only 16 when he came to the United States with his family from the Dominican Republic. As a teen in a new country, he struggled with leaving behind his friends, his language and his culture, but he knew he would not have to leave his faith behind.
In his effort to discern his vocation, De Jesus said that Pope John Paul II was his anchor.
“He was a role model for me to make my decision to go to the seminary,” said De Jesus, 42, a student at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla. “When he died in 2005, that was when I made my decision to enter the seminary. He was a normal person. He was a sportsman, he was in theater, but he left everything for the Lord. I thought, ‘If he could do it, I could do it.’”
