Schuler Seminarian Fund campaign still needs your help

The Catholic United Financial Foundation and the Schuler Seminarian Fund are reaching milestones in a $1 million campaign to endow the fund in perpetuity.

We’ve passed the halfway point in the largest capital campaign in the history of Catholic United Financial Foundation. We are funding the Schuler Seminarian Fund in perpetuity, and though we are on track to reach our $1 million goal within our timeline, we still need your help.

I thought it might be beneficial to hear the perspective of someone who really knows what our seminarians go through. Fr. Michael Becker, Rector of St. John Vianney Seminary, writes below of the benefits our Schuler Fund provides, and how seminarians feel the squeeze of financial stress when it comes to college tuition and fees.

After you read Fr. Becker’s note on the Schuler fund, and find yourself moved to donate or to talk about it, please, call me at any time to discuss it.

Robert Heuermann
Executive Director
1-877-275-7145

We at St. John Vianney College Seminary are very appreciative of the Monsignor Schuler Seminarian Fund. Our seminarians are blessed each year by the grants they receive from this fund.

Many of our men come from large, Catholic families who have moderate to little means. With the University of St. Thomas’s tuition, room, board, etc. now at almost $54,000 per year, it gets more and more difficult for our middle- to lower-income families to send their sons to St. John Vianney College Seminary and UST. To our men, every dollar counts toward their college costs and can make a difference as to whether they remain here or must leave so as not to accumulate large student loan debts. As we all know, being a priest does not give the men a comparable salary to the student loans they may have from their education at UST.

We at SJV are a community of brotherhood, advocates and educators who desire that every seminarian may grow in faith and maturity ensuring that he has the opportunity to reach his life aspiration without having to worry about the cost of college or being burdened with large college loan payments.

The staff and seminarians would like to thank everyone at Catholic United Financial for all the effort, kindness and financial support they put into this initiative every day of every year for the success of our seminary and seminarians.

Fr. Michael Becker
Rector, St. John Vianney Seminary