Last Updated: Friday - 09/24/2010

Parishioners asked to donate $2M for seminary, college

WCR PHOTO | GLEN ARGAN Construction workers discuss their next move Jan.7 during a discussion in what will be the new cafeteria for St. Joseph Seminar. Seminary construction is expected to be finished in May.

EDMONTON - Fundraisers for the new St. Joseph Seminary and Newman Theological College buildings will come to parishes across the Edmonton Archdiocese March 13-14 to start raising $2 million.

The $2 million is what the Cornerstone of Faith campaign hopes parishioners will contribute to help pay the $15 million shortfall between the $42.3 million the archdiocese received for selling the former seminary and college property near St. Albert and what it needs to pay for the new buildings.

Roughly 75,000 families are registered with parishes in the archdiocese and if each gave $100, that would pay the full $7.5 million the campaign still needs to raise, said Lorraine Turchansky, the archdiocese's director of communications.

"We think raising $2 million through the parishes is pretty reasonable," Turchansky said in an interview.

$7.5M ALREADY RAISED

Wayne Provencal, archdiocesan financial administrator, said a $4 million federal grant and $3.5 million garnered through "the quiet portion of the Cornerstone campaign" have already cut the $15 million shortfall in half.

WCR PHOTO | GLEN ARGAN The seminary chapel, seen here from across a courtyard, will be one focal point of the new campus.

The archdiocese plans to raise the remaining $5.5 million with contributions from corporations, large individual donors, other dioceses and the Knights of Columbus, Provencal said.

The Cornerstone committee and consultant Ron Coulombe have held about half a dozen meetings with a total of 275 parish leaders from across the archdiocese in preparation for the parish campaign, he said.

The parish Cornerstone campaign will follow one month after the annual parish collection for St. Joseph Seminary and Newman College.

That campaign, which raises operating funds for the two institutions, will always be necessary, Turchansky said.

WCR PHOTO | GLEN ARGAN The area alongside the cafeteria shows natural light which is used in many places throughout the Seminary.

Over the last three years, that collection has raised between $250,000 and $285,000 a year, Provencal said.

COMPLETION IN SIGHT

Meanwhile, construction on the two buildings is proceeding well on the college and seminary buildings on the site of the Catholic Pastoral Centre near central Edmonton.

The seminary building and its large chapel will be completed in May and the new Newman College facility will be finished in August, said Garnet McKee, the archdiocese' project manager. The blessing ceremony for the new seminary is set for Sept. 14.

Stained glass windows from the old seminary chapel will be re-installed in May, the statue of St. Joseph has been restored and is ready to be erected and the landmark statue of Jesus is on the new site and ready to be restored.

Cold winter weather has slowed construction, but it is still ahead of schedule, McKee said. "November was a great month; December was not a great month."

Currently, 38 seminarians attend St. Joseph Seminary, but the new building will have room for 60 and a capacity to expand to house 90 seminarians.

St. Joseph Seminary is the only major Roman Catholic seminary in Canada between Mission, B.C., and London, Ont.

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