NZCBC president and Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn said the bishops considered three options: remediate, rebuild or relocate.

“We decided that the best option is to remediate the current buildings,” he said. “The whole thing still needs to be costed in 2019 terms.”

Bishop Dunn said they might need to “raise up to $4.5 million from diocesan levies and fundraising”.

The bishop said they are also hoping to get Government assistance in terms of funding.

“We hope to get $1.3 million from the Ministry of Business,
Innovation and Employment,” he said.

The leaky building issues were discovered in 2016. At the time, the cost to resolve the problems was estimated at $6 million.

Bishop Dunn said this will be one of the issues reported on to Pope Francis in the New Zealand bishops’ Ad Limina visit in October.

Apart from the seminary, the bishops will also report on whatever developments there are on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, as well as updating the Pope on their plans for a single national Catholic theology tertiary education provider, Bishop Dunn said.

He added that each bishop will also report to the Pope on the developments within his own diocese during the past eight years.

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Matthew White and Kinh Nguyen are both studying for priesthood for Wellington archdiocese.

Mr White had been a teacher at St Patrick’s College in Silverstream for the last nine to 10 years, when he decided to join the seminary.

“I’ve just had that call for a while and sort of ignored it. I finally did something about it,” he said. “I feel that God’s calling me here and I’m taking it year by year. I’m learning a lot of things about my faith this year. And happy to be here.”

Mr White said there had been some very personal difficulties that he’d been through in the past few years which served as some sort of “catalyst” for his decision to finally try to become a priest.

One difficulty was the death of his mum.

He said his girlfriend was also wanting to get married, but “I couldn’t do that until I have come here and sorted this out . . . until I’ve answered this call of God”.

He said he has heard the call in his heart for a while. “Not when I was little, but I’ve been ongoing for some years and I’ve sort of ignored [it]. I felt I was called to be a lay pastoral leader. I had to do quite a lot of training for that for more than five years,” he said.

After that training, he worked in a parish, which he thought showed that
he had a vocation.

Mr White is not the first to answer the call later in life. His advice to those who have been ignoring God’s call and wondering whether it’s too late to discern is to “just do it”.

“Just listen and be courageous to accept that call. Act on it. You’ve got nothing to lose,” he said.

He also thanked his colleagues and students at St Patrick’s for being supportive of his decision.

Mr Nguyen is originally from Vietnam, where young men wanting to become priests are “super abundant”.

He said a large number of young men would want to apply for a place at
the seminary, but only a few pass the entrance examination.

Mr Nguyen said that after graduating from high school, during the Lunar New Year in Vietnam, he met a cousin who was a priest.

“I met my cousin who was a religious priest. I was really attracted by the image. I looked at him as holy,” he said.

His cousin encouraged him to become a priest, but Mr Nguyen had his doubts.

“He asked me, ‘why don’t you try a religious order?’ But I told him, I’m not worth it. He told me no one is worth it because [being a priest] is priceless,” Mr Nguyen recalled.

His cousin gave him a list of congregations that he [Mr Nguyen] could join.

Mr Nguyen chose the Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini) or SVD.

“In order to become an SVD member in Vietnam, we had to undergo university or college first. So, after passing the entrance examination to SVD in Vietnam, I had to take another exam to university,” he said.

He joined the SVD community as an aspirant, while studying at the university.

After graduating from university, he spent another eight months preparing for another exam to get into the seminary.

He passed the exam, but he was struggling with the idea of becoming a religious priest.

“I sought permission to leave the congregation,” he said. “When I left SVD, I was allowed to stay in a parish in Saigon and there my task was to help the priest prepare for the Mass, being an altar server. After a few months, I realised
that I was truly interested in a life as a parish priest.”

A friend who was already a seminarian at Holy Cross suggested that he [Mr Nguyen] come to New Zealand.

He said it was hard for his family, at first, to accept his decision to move to another country. But he said they are
now happy for him and are supportive.

“Pray for your priest. No one can walk alone in this life. The priest needs your help and the help of other people as
well,” he said.

[his cousin presented]

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The New Zealand Catholic bishops are currently considering three options for Holy Cross Seminary on Vermont St, Ponsonby, which was found to have leaky building issues a few years ago.echo $variable;

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Jose O’Sullivan, who is studying for Christchurch diocese, is 20 years old. “Which makes me the baby of the seminary,” he joked. Mr O’Sullivan said his family had a big part to play in his discernment. “My family has always been there and very supportive,” he said. “Growing up, I always had a great respect and even love for the priests that say Mass. It’s been in my heart since I was about ten years old,” he said. “I never denied it to myself but I definitely didn’t shout it aloud to the rooftops. It’s my little secret with God.” Mr O’Sullivan said that as a child, he was always teased about becoming a priest when he grew up. After he left high school, he went to Catholic summer school Hearts Aflame and followed that up with a year at the Catholic Discipleship College. “When I finished the year, I knew I had to pursue this calling to be a priest, but for some reason I completely rejected it and went on to studying knowing it was the completely wrong thing to do,” he said. He studied Quantity Surveying for a semester. “Eventually, God caught up with me and said, hey, what are you up to? Kicking and screaming, I went to my parish priest and the vocations director and God has worked his wonders from there,” he said.

Connor Eatwell, 24, is also studying for Christchurch diocese. “When I was younger, my parish priest used to say to me, ‘Connor, you are going to become a priest.’ And I always thought, ‘no way’,” he said. He said his Mum and Dad had big families and he wanted that for himself. “At some point throughout my life, it would come out in prayer. I always said ‘no’ and pushed it to the side,” he said. A cradle Catholic, Mr Eatwell said his faith was developed through high school, especially with Catholic Youth Ministries as well as the Brothers of St John. “Faith grows. And bit by bit you start to follow Christ more closely.” Mr Eatwell has a degree in mechatronics engineering and had worked for two years for a company in Christchurch. He was in a relationship with a woman and was engaged for about four months. He joined Hearts Aflame where he was asked by the vocations director if he wanted to be a priest. “‘Well, funny you should say that, but I’m engaged’,” he recalled telling the vocations director. It was some sort of a turning point for him. Up until then, he had no one to talk to about pursuing priesthood. “I didn’t ‘hear a call’,” he said. “But it’s more a case of stepping out in faith and seeing what God does with your trust.” “I’m still not certain by any means. I’m just trying to take it one step at a time and see where God is leading me,” he said.

Joseph Pham, 24, is studying for Auckland diocese. He said he first thought about becoming a priest when he was 16 years old. “When I see the priest, I think I want to be like him someday,” he said. Mr Pham gained a bachelor’s degree in finance and banking in Vietnam. He received a scholarship to study in Finland, but opted for New Zealand instead. “I didn’t take it and I applied to study in New Zealand just because I saw beautiful photos from my friends on facebook. I was attracted to the beautiful country,” he said. He did several jobs here including being a marketing assistant and working on a dairy farm. All that time, he was “feeling a call from God”. He was associated with the Auckland Catholic Youth Ministry and he would always share their activities with his Vietnamese youth group on facebook. “I just thought I was being a little bit selfish if I just worked for myself,” he said. “I want to do something better for my life. It is a big decision.” He told his parents who are still in Vietnam about his decision. “My Mum was worried and my Dad was a little bit 50/50. I’m the only boy in the family. But he supports me now,” he said. The idea of becoming a priest was something he kept in the back of his mind because there were too many distractions, he said. “My vocation is God’s call. If he kept calling me, I have to answer. I can’t deny it,” he said.

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