The academic year ends this week at Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology. Ten students – including four Cleveland seminarians who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 15 – will receive master’s degrees at the May 6 commencement exercises. In addition, six faculty and staff members are retiring.
In anticipation of their retirement, the seminary community celebrated the combined 135 years of teaching and service contributed by these professors on April 30.
Those with the longest tenures are Father Gerald Bednar and Edward Kaczuk, each with 34 years of service to the seminary and school. Next in seniority among the 2021 retirees is Father John Loya.
Father Bednar has served as chair of the systematics department and as a formator and vice-rector for Saint Mary Seminary. He served as moderator for the Social Concerns Committee and was administrative trustee of the Outreach Trust Fund. In addition, he coordinated the Mullen Lectures and served on a task force to start Project Hope for the Homeless. He has served as chairman and trustee of the organization from its onset. Father Bednar combined his legal training with his love of literature and theology. He offered to help coordinate cultural events and possibly teach an elective course in the future.
Kaczuk began his service at Borromeo Seminary and then accepted the role of music director for Saint Mary Seminary. He has consistently helped seminarians find their voices – liturgically and ministerially – building confidence and liturgical style by helping cantors and choirs prepare for liturgical celebrations, enhancing the liturgy with handbells and other instruments. He plays and owns countless musical instruments. Kaczuk has served as chair of the Assessment Committee. As a member of the Spiritual-Liturgical Life Committee, he collaborated with Father Michael Woost to ensure that the seminary community understood what “full, active, and conscious” participation looks like. He will to continue to help Saint Mary next year with the transition of a new music director and may make an appearance from time to time as a guest musician.
Father Loya and Father Mark Hollis, who has 11 years of service, were spiritual fathers and accompanied many seminarians into the priesthood and beyond as their spiritual directors.
Father Gary Yanus, who has spent 15 years at Saint Mary, taught canon law with the jurisprudence of the Church and with a pastoral heart. He has a passion for the law, a deep love for the Church and almost 40 years of priestly service to the diocese, where he serves as judicial vicar.
Father John Manning returned to the seminary in 2012 after the sudden death of Father Thomas Tifft. Father Manning taught Church history and the history of the diocese, courses that he also taught in what he called his first incarnation as a seminary professor in the mid-1970s. He continued to teach until he received permission to retire on July 1. After adjusting to retirement, Father Manning plans to return to teach American Catholicism and the history of the diocese from time to time.