Holy Spirit Seminary is a Catholic provincial seminary for Queensland located in Brisbane, Australia.
Queensland is the second-largest and third-most populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. To its north is the Torres Strait, with Papua New Guinea located less than 200 km across it from the mainland. The state is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 square kilometres (715,309 sq mi).
Brisbane is the capital of and the most populated city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of 2.5 million, and the South East Queensland region, centred on Brisbane, encompasses a population of more than 3.5 million. The Brisbane central business district stands on the historic European settlement and is situated inside a peninsula of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range, sprawling across several of Australia's most populous local government areas (LGAs)—most centrally the City of Brisbane, which is by far the most populous LGA in the nation. The demonym of Brisbane is "Brisbanite".
Before the seminary relocated to St Paschal's parish in Wavell Heights in 2002 it was known as the Pius XII Provincial Seminary, [1] founded in 1941 at Beehive Hill in Banyo. The number of students peaked at 134 in 1967, but later gradually declined.
Banyo is a northern suburb of the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a community split between residential and industrial land usage, the latter being attracted by the accessibility of local transport, including the Gateway Motorway.
By 2007 vocations were increasing, and Holy Spirit Seminary was re-founded by the Queensland bishops. In 2008 the Seminary returned to the grounds of the former seminary at Banyo, and is co-located with the Australian Catholic University's McAuley campus. The seminary serves the Catholic province of Queensland, covering the Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville and Toowoomba dioceses as well as the Brisbane archdiocese.
Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses, and also maintains a campus in Rome. In 2016 it had 24,458 students.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, established in 1929, covering the Darling Downs and south west regions of Queensland, Australia.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Australia located in Brisbane and covering the South East region of Queensland, Australia.
Cardinal William Levada opened the new seminary campus following the completion of construction in May 2008 at a cost of $4.5 million. Preaching at the dedication of the chapel, Cardinal Levada said "convestitum Spiritu Sancto" (clothed with the Holy Spirit) was more than a motto for the seminary. [2]
William Joseph Levada is an American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. From May 2005 until June 2012, he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI; he was the highest ranking American in the Roman Curia. He was previously the Archbishop of Portland (Oregon) from 1986 to 1995, and then Archbishop of San Francisco from 1995 to 2005.
There were eight resident students including five Africans and a further three students in pastoral placements. The seminary Rector, Father Michael McCarthy and the Vice-rector Fr Ken Howell were present.
In 2006 there were seven students for the whole of Queensland studying in the Seminary, including one man in his 60s. Fr. McCarthy said a "desperate shortage" of priests across Queensland had prompted the church to look further afield. [3] At that time the dioceses of Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and Toowoomba had no seminary students. "The church cannot operate without priests and the seminaries in Nigeria are extraordinarily dynamic, packed with 600 and 700 students," Father McCarthy said.
Originally designed for 16 seminarians, it was extended in 2010 to accommodate the 31 men in training at that time. In February 2012, six students entered the Seminary and in June 2012, eight more commenced: four for Brisbane, two for Townsville and two for Umuahia, Nigeria. In 2015 twenty students were studying there.
Umuahia is the capital city of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria. Umuahia is located along the rail road that lies between Port Harcourt to its south and Enugu city to its north. Umuahia has a population of 359,230 according to the 2006 Nigerian census. Umuahia's indigenous ethnic group are the Igbo.
Monsignor Tony Randazzo, a former official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was appointed Rector of the seminary at the beginning of 2009. Currently the spiritual formation director is Fr. Paul Chandler O.Carm.
Monsignor John Grace, formerly Vicar General in the Diocese of Rockhampton, was appointed to the position of Rector in 2016. He had left the seminary as a young priest at the end of 1970. In February 2016, four new men joined the seminary, bringing the total number of students to 18. Among these students there were fourteen from the Archdiocese of Brisbane, two from Diocese of Toowoomba and the Diocese of Townsville respectively, and one from Rockhampton although none from the Diocese of Cairns.
In 2017 five new seminarians joined the Seminary.
