Nashville Bishop announces thirty-four men to study for priesthood as 2012-13 seminarians

Today, the Most Rev. David R. Choby, Eleventh Bishop of Nashville, announced at the monthly breakfast meeting of the Catholic Business League that thirty-four men would be studying to become priests for the Diocese of Nashville during the 2012-13 academic year.

The men range from 18 years of age to 53 years of age.  The average age is 29 years old, and there are fourteen seminarians who are 25 years old or younger.

Among the seminarians, there are ten converts to the Catholic Faith from Protestant Christian and non-religious backgrounds, including both men to be ordained priest in 2013.

In 2011, there were 77,736 Catholics in the diocese, making up 3.2 % of the total population in Middle Tennessee.  This means that during the 2012-13 school year, there will be one seminarian for roughly every 2,300 Catholics in the diocese.

The men, listed by projected year of ordination to the priesthood, include:—

Class of 2013

Rev. Mr. Terry McGowan
Justin Raines (to be ordained deacon this October in Rome)

Class of 2014

Michael Fye

Phillip Halladay

John Hammond

Gervan Menezes

Anthony Mutuku

Paul Nguyen

Christiano Nunes da Silva

Class of 2015

Andrew Bulso

Benjamin Butler

William Carmona

Austin Gilstrap

Eric Johansen

Brendan Johnson

Class of 2016

Dominic Nguyen

Rodolfo Rivera

John Michael Simpson

Class of 2017

D. E. Barker

Joseph Fessenden

Andy Forsythe

An Nguyen

Anh Tuan Phan

Class of 2018

Rick Childress

Westley Hahn

Michael Nolte

Anthony Stewart

Leo Trujillo

Class of 2019

Rhodes Bolster

Colin Johnson

Mark Simpson

Zach Souza

Luke Wilgenbusch

Class of 2020

Juan Carlos Garcia

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O GOD, who willed to provide shepherds for your people: pour out in your Church a spirit of piety and fortitude, to raise up worthy ministers for your altars and make them ardent yet gentle heralds of your Gospel; through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit: one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Collect for Vocations to Holy Orders, Roman Missal).