Vocations The Seminary of Denton (USA)
- Seminarium BMV de Guadalupe -

Near the broad fields of Denton, Nebraska stands a magnificent Romanesque building.  The glory of the building lies not only in the beauty of its multi-coloured architecture, but in the prayer life and studies taking place daily within its walls, spiritual and academic efforts dedicated to the formation of priests for service to the Roman Catholic Church.
The building is Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, one of two major seminaries of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.  The history of the seminary begins nearly a decade ago.

In 1994 Bishop James C. Timlin of the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania approved the establishment of a seminary in a former retreat center in Elmhurst.  That fall the first seminarians began their studies at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.

It was soon apparent that with the increasing number of applicants it had become necessary to look for a new seminary site.  In 1998, after an extensive search, Father Arnaud Devillers, F.S.S.P., then North American District Superior, announced publicly, "The new seminary will be located in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska where we have been welcomed by Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz".  

In October 1998 ground was broken for the seminary.  Bishop Bruskewitz’s words expressed his faith in the Fraternity’s undertakling, " I look forward to the completion of this seminary in the year 2000.  I pray that Christ and His Blessed Mother may look upon this enterprise which is undertaken for the glory of God and the good of His Holy Church".

Under the direction of Dr Thomas Gordon Smith, dean emeritus of the school of architecture of the University of Notre Dame and Father Charles Van Vliet, F.S.S.P., Vice-Rector, construction was begun.  By the spring of 1999 the seminary had assumed its structural form.  Much of the success of the ongoing construction, and the reality of a traditional seminary in North American, was attributed to the never-ending prayers and the never-ceasing generosity of the Fraternity’s benefactors.

On October 16, 1999, amid Gregorian chant, venerable Latin prayers, brocade vestments, incense and in the presence of several hundred priests, seminarians and laity Bishop Bruskewitz blessed the seminary’s cornerstone.  Pope John Paul II had previously blessed a crucifix which now hangs above the seminary's main entrance.
Throughout another Nebraska winter, through spring and summer months construction continued.  In the fall of 2000 Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, under the rectorship of Father James Jackson, F.S.S.P., welcomed nearly fifty seminarians.

Under the direction of its Rector, Vice-Rector and a faculty of over a dozen clerical and lay teachers seminarians, numbering sixty, move through a year of spirituality and seven years of philosophy and theology studies, steps leading them as Fraternity priests to pastoral service in the Church.