Recent News
Fr. Trung in the news
June 29, 2010 - Our new rector, Fr. Trung Nguyen, was recently interviewed by the Texas Catholic Herald. View the article here
Two new appointments to the Seminary Faculty
May 14, 2010 - Cardinal DiNardo announced two new appointments to the Seminary Faculty:
New Director of Pastoral Formation - Fr. Dominic Pistone, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
Father Dominic Pistone was ordained for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston on March 3, 1978. He was born on March 29, 1952 in Galveston, Texas. His parents are Dominic (deceased) and Bertha Pistone, and he has one sister, Mary Ann Eskew (she is married to Deacon Harold Eskew). He grew up in Santa Fe, Texas and entered St. Mary’s Seminary in 1970. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of St. Thomas in 1974 and his Masters of Divinity from the University of St. Thomas in 1977. He served in St. Paul (Nassau Bay), St. Ambrose (Houston) and St. Theresa (Houston) as Parochial Vicar before being named the Pastor of St. Luke (Houston) in 1984. He served at St. Luke’s until 1994, when he was named Pastor at St. Paul (Nassau Bay). He served at St. Paul’s until 2002, when he was named Pastor of St. Clare of Assisi. He has been at St. Clare’s until he accepted the appointment to return to St. Mary’s Seminary as the Director of Pastoral Formation, beginning in July 2010. In addition to his pastoral assignments during these years he continued his education, earning a Doctor of Ministry in Liturgy from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana in 2005. He has served in numerous committees in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, including 11 years as the Chairman of the Priestly Life and Ministry. He currently is on the Archdiocesan Committee for Standardized Curriculum. He co-authored a text book on the Sacrament of Confirmation (Creatively Preparing For Confirmation, Brown ROA Publishers, 1991) and published Effective Worship with Teens: Resource Manual with DVD in 2005.
Cardinal DiNardo, Fr. Cahill and Fr. Pistone
New Formation Advisor - Fr. Francis Macatangay, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
Fr. Francis Macatangay was born on October 4, 1971 in Batangas, Philippines. His parents are Benjamin and Remedios Macatangay and he is the oldest of five children. After studying in the seminary and at the University of the Philippines, he came to St. Mary’s Seminary to begin his theological studies for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in 1994. His home parish in Houston was Notre Dame. He was ordained to the presbyterate of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston on May 22, 1999. He served as Parochial Vicar at St. Theresa in the Park, St. Cecilia, Our Lady of Fatima (Galena Park) and at St Matthew before he was asked in 2006 by then Archbishop DiNardo to pursue further academic studies. He will be defending his doctoral thesis in Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University on June 16, 2010. His thesis is an analysis of the wisdom instructions in the Book of Tobit. He previously earned a Masters in Philosophy.
Fr. Macatangay
New Rector Announced by Cardinal DiNardo
May 7, 2010 - Daniel Cardinal DiNardo spoke to the Seminary community this morning to announce the appointment of a new Rector for Fall 2010. Fr. Trung Nguyen will be the Rector. Cardinal DiNardo has asked Fr. Cahill to take a position in the Archdiocesan Curia, and as he thanked Fr. Cahill for his service to the Seminary these past twelve years, he expressed his confidence and hope for the future of St. Mary's. In addition to the appointment of Fr. Nguyen as Rector he announced several other additions to the Seminary Faculty. Fr. Dominic Pistone will be the Director of Pastoral Formation, and Fr. Francis Macatangay will be a Formation Advisor.
Fr. Trung Nguyen
Rector
Fr. Joseph Trung Van Nguyen was born on May 22, 1965 in Da Lat, Vietnam. He is the middle of seven children. Providentially, "Trung" in Vietnamese means middle or center. His family was one of the earliest "boat-people" to escape to the US in 1975. After high school, Trung enlisted in the US Navy Reserve, did his Basic Training in Orlando, Florida, and graduated as the "Honor Recruit" of his company. Fr. Trung was ordained a priest on May 21, 1994. His first priestly assignment was at St. Helen, Pearland where he served as vicar for the Hispanic community. After receiving his JCL from Catholic University of America in May 1999, Fr. Trung served as the vicar for the Vietnamese at Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral & a Judge for the Diocesan Tribunal from June '99 to June 15, 2001. He did further graduate studies in Rome for two years; was a parochial vicar at St. Laurence, Sugar Land from July 15, 2003 to Feb. 1, 2005; served as the Parish administrator
of St. Philip the Apostle in Huffman from Feb. 2005 to June 2005; and worked as a parochial vicar at St. John Vianney for one year before coming to St. Mary's Seminary as a Formation Director in June 2006. He was named Vice Rector in August 2009. His interests are sports (tennis), music, and fishing.
New Strategic Planning Process
June 15, 2009 - The Seminary began a Strategic Planning Process this spring and will present the results to Cardinal DiNardo in July. These results will be in the form of specific goals and action steps to accomplish in the coming years. We hired the firm of Dini Partners to guide us in the process and are presently establishing task teams to address different areas for our future growth. What really has been driving this process is our work and prayer to continue increasing the number of seminarians for our dioceses. We have almost doubled in size in the last ten years and have set the goal to double again in size in the next seven years. As we prayed to have 100 seminarians by 2010, our new prayer will be for 200 seminarians by 2016! As you can imagine, to sustain that type of growth will involve concentrated vocations’ work and also a lot of work to develop our faculties and facilities. Please remember this process in your prayers.
Rev. Dean Wilhelm returns to Austin
June 1, 2009 - One of our faculty members is returning to his home diocese. Bishop Aymond has assigned Father Dean Wilhelm to serve as the pastor of St. William’s Catholic Church in Round Rock. Fr. Dean has been here for four years and served the last three years as Vice Rector in addition to his responsibilities as Formation Director. His love of the priesthood, good humor and love of the seminarians were trademarks of his ministry here at St. Mary’s. As he goes back to parish work we will certainly remember him in our prayers for priests.
Welcome Msgr. Michael Mulvey and Rev. Michael Grey
June 1, 2009 - As the Seminary grows in number of seminarians one of the most crucial tasks for me as the Rector is to continue to form and develop our formation faculty. In the Fall of 2009 we will be adding two new members to our formation faculty. Reverend Monsignor Michael Mulvey is currently the Vicar General of the Diocese of Austin. Ordained in 1975, he has served the Church in a variety of ministries, as a Pastor, High School Chaplain, Director of Centers and Schools of Spiritual Formation for Diocesan Priests of the Focolare Movement, and as the Director of Spiritual Formation at St. Mary’s Seminary from 1986-1992. In addition to his vast pastoral experience, he holds a License in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Monsignor Mulvey will join the Faculty as Vice Rector and Formation Director.
Father Michael Grey, CSSP, is currently involved with the Campus Ministry at the University of Houston and Texas Southern University. He was ordained in 1979 and has served as Pastor, Professor of Theology, Director of Permanent Diaconate Program for Lake Charles and also as an Ordinary Confessor for a Discalced Carmelites Monastery. He earned a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Duquesne University in 1997 (with a topic on Christian citizenship in the Declaration on Religious Liberty). He will join the Faculty as Spiritual Director.
Class of 2009 Priestly Ordinations
May 15, 2009 - The Seminary is preparing right now for the Priestly Ordinations of our largest class since 1967! The class of 2009 includes five to be ordained for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, five to be ordained for the diocese of Austin, two for the diocese of Tyler and one each for the dioceses of Dallas and Corpus Christi.
