Father Derek Covert and seminarian Jeff Starkovich also greet Holy Father .

ROME – On January 9, His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI received in a special audience at the Vatican, members of the Pontifical North American College on the occasion of the institution’s 150th anniversary. Upon entering the audience hall, Pope Benedict personally greeted all those gathered, including The Most Rev. Glen John Provost, Bishop of Lake Charles as well as Rev. Derek Covert, studying in Rome, and Lake Charles seminarian Jeff Starkovich.

 The College’s rector, Rev. Msgr. James F. Checchio, presented the students, priests, faculty, staff, and alumni of the College assuring the Holy Father of their loyal support and prayers.  After the rector’s words, the Holy Father addressed all present and imparted his Apostolic Blessing.  The text of the rector and the Holy Father’s addresses can be found below.

Most Holy Father,
As we mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the North American College by your predecessor, Blessed Pius IX, we turn to the bold words of the psalmist, chosen long ago as our College’s beloved motto, Firmum Est Cor Meum, and pray that our hearts may remain steadfast as we strive to carry out the noble ministry of training priests and being priests after the heart of Jesus Himself.  Steadfast as well is our College’s rich tradition of forming shepherds unabashedly loyal to the Church of Christ and to the successor of Peter, Prince of the Apostles.

Your Holiness, the seminarians, student priests, alumni and faculty of the College recall with gratitude your pastoral visit to the United States and continue to take to heart and prayer the many inspiring homilies and challenging messages you offered our brothers and sisters in the Lord who gathered to welcome you from across our great nation.  We were particularly motivated by your encouraging words to the priests and seminarians in New York:  “Strive for a pattern of life truly marked by charity, chastity and humility, in imitation of Christ, the Eternal High Priest, of whom you are to become living icons.”

For these 150 years, our Alma Mater has helped form over 5000 seminarians and thousands of priests to become the living icons we all so desire for the Church.  Through our private and liturgical prayer, our intense theological studies, and our loyalty to you and to the rich teachings of the Church, we hope to be able to lead into an ever fuller union with our Lord those portions of the flock which have been, or will be, entrusted to our care by your brother bishops.

Today, we remember with gratitude the many faculty members and our many generous friends who have sustained the College over these years.  We are particularly grateful to the bishops of the United States for answering the requests of Blessed Pius IX to establish the College and the desire of Pope Pius XII to rebuild the College.  Likewise, we are grateful to our bishops for supplying us not only with good, holy seminarians and student priests, but also with well qualified faculty members to lead our community.

Following the example of our Mother and patroness, Our Lady of Humility, we rely on the grace of God to sustain us in all our efforts and to bring fulfillment to the good work He has begun in our College.

Holy Father, we pledge anew today our love and, above all, our prayers, for you.  We again thank God for your leadership and priestly example, as well as for the special bond that we, as a Pontifical College, are privileged to share with you.  As we pray that the Lord will continue to sustain you in your Petrine ministry, we hasten to ask as well for your apostolic blessing on those of us gathered here as well as on our families, benefactors and alumni whose pastoral responsibilities at home prevented them from joining us in Rome for this celebration.  Holy Father, we love you; we pray for you; and we wish you ad multos annos!
 - Rev. Msgr. James F. Checchio


Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,
I am pleased to welcome the alumni of the Pontifical North American College, together with the Rector, faculty and students of the seminary on the Janiculum hill, and the student priests of the Casa Santa Maria dell’Umiltà. Our meeting comes at the conclusion of the celebrations marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the College’s establishment by my predecessor, Blessed Pius IX. On this happy occasion I willingly join you in thanking the Lord for the many ways in which the College has remained faithful to its founding vision by training generations of worthy preachers of the Gospel and ministers of the sacraments, devoted to the Successor of Peter and committed to the building up of the Church in the United States of America.

It is appropriate, in this Year for Priests, that you have returned to the College and this Eternal City in order to give thanks for the academic and spiritual formation which has nourished your priestly ministry over the years. The present Reunion is an opportunity not only to remember with gratitude the time of your studies, but also to reaffirm your filial affection for the Church of Rome, to recall the apostolic labors of the countless alumni who have gone before you, and to recommit yourselves to the high ideals of holiness, fidelity and pastoral zeal which you embraced on the day of your ordination. It is likewise an occasion to renew your love for the College and your appreciation of its distinctive mission to the Church in your country.

During my Pastoral Visit to the United States, I expressed my conviction that the Church in America is called to cultivate “an intellectual ‘culture’ which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the pressing issues which affect the future of American society” (Homily at Nationals Stadium, Washington, 17 April 2008). As Blessed Pius IX rightly foresaw, the Pontifical North American College in Rome is uniquely prepared to help meet this perennial challenge. In the century and a half since its foundation, the College has offered its students an exceptional experience of the universality of the Church, the breadth of her intellectual and spiritual tradition, and the urgency of her mandate to bring Christ’s saving truth to the men and women of every time and place. I am confident that, by emphasizing these hallmarks of a Roman education in every aspect of its program of formation, the College will continue to produce wise and generous pastors capable of transmitting the Catholic faith in its integrity, bringing Christ’s infinite mercy to the weak and the lost, and enabling America’s Catholics to be a leaven of the Gospel in the social, political and cultural life of their nation.

Dear brothers, I pray that in these days you will be renewed in the gift of the Holy Spirit which you received on the day of your ordination. In the College chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady is portrayed in the company of four outstanding models and patrons of priestly life and ministry: Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Pius X, Saint John Mary Vianney and Saint Vincent de Paul. During this Year for Priests, may these great saints continue to watch over the students who daily pray in their midst; may they guide and sustain your own ministry, and intercede for the priests of the United States. With cordial good wishes for the spiritual fruitfulness of the coming days, and with great affection in the Lord, I impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to all the alumni and friends of the Pontifical North American College.
 - Benedict XVI

(Photos and translations courtesy of the Pontifical North American College)