By Patrick Downes Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva is pleased with the selection of Jesuit Father George F. Schultze as president-rector and vice chancellor of St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California, where seminarians for the Diocese of Honolulu earn their theology degrees.
Archbishop of San Francisco Salvatore Cordileone, chancellor of the school’s board of trustees, made the appointment, which the archdiocese announced on Feb. 16. Father Schultze, a California native who has been on the seminary’s faculty since 2005, begins his new job on July 1.
“Priests from the Diocese of Honolulu have been trained at St. Patrick’s Seminary for many decades,” said Bishop Silva in a statement to the Hawaii Catholic Herald.
He explained that the appointment was made because the Sulpician Fathers, who specialize in seminary formation, “decided to withdraw from St. Patrick’s after 118 years of serving there.”
In addition to the president rector, he said “a half dozen” Sulpician faculty members also need to be replaced.
“I am therefore happy to know that Father George Shultze will be serving as the new president rector,” the bishop said. Having been a faculty member for 12 years, he is “familiar with its needs and with the dioceses that send seminarians to study there.”
The Diocese of Honolulu has six seminarians now at St. Patrick’s, which also enrolls students from California, Nevada and the Northwest.
Father Schultze already has held various administrative positions at the seminary and has served there as a spiritual director. Before that he was on the faculty and staff of the University of San Francisco College of Professional Studies. He has advanced degrees in business, philosophy, theology and social ethics.
A new vice-rector has also been selected, Bishop Silva said. “In addition, new professors and priest-formators are already screened and contracted, and the search for a few more is going well.”
“We are most grateful to the Sulpicians who have so lovingly dedicated themselves to the formation of our priests,” Bishop Silva said. “I am grateful to the staff of St. Patrick’s Seminary for meeting the challenge of change and moving positively into the future. I know our seminarians will continue to be well formed for the priesthood.”
