Published Saturday, August 3, 2002
Herald Staff Writer
The Rev. William G. Rice will see his duties as parochial vicar at the Church of Notre Dame in Hermitage come to a conclusion at the end of September when he heads to Rome to continue his studies.
"My assignment was for three years, with a possible interruption for studies within those three years, and that's what has happened," he said of his pending one-year assignment in Rome.
Rev. Rice -- who has served since October 2000 as assistant to Monsignor John B. Hagerty, Notre Dame's pastor -- will begin working Oct. 1 on a Licentia in Sacred Theology degree concentrating in moral theology.
During this time, he will live with other graduate-level students in Casa Santa Maria in Rome while attending the Alphonsianum, a graduate school specializing in moral theology. Named for St. Alphonsus Ligouri, the school is part of the Pontifical North American College in Vatican City, and is located in the headquarters of the Redemptorist priests near St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome.
Bishop Donald W. Trautman, of the Catholic Diocese of Erie, is seeking more young priests to become teachers in diocesan schools, and chose the 28-year-old Rev. Rice to be among those to further the cause. The assignment, to which the bishop had alluded during the past year, became finalized in February.
Priests in the Diocese of Erie are sent to Rome by invitation of the bishop, according to Monsignor Lawrence E. Brandt, chancellor of the diocese. "It presumes a very good academic record... It is exceptional to be chosen for such work. I know of no other priest in recent memory to be sent from the Shenango Valley," said the chancellor.
"Father Rice did his undergraduate studies in theology in Rome, so it was sort of a natural progression for him also to do his graduate work there," said Monsignor Brandt. "I have known Father Rice since he was a seminarian. I have always had the highest regard for his talents, his gifts and his intellectual capabilities. I also have high regard for him as a priest. He will be a great asset wherever he goes."
Bishop Trautman does not make such decisions alone, according to the Rev. Rice. "He has a personnel board and a director of clergy personnel -- all are priests," he said. "They give him advice, but it is ultimately the bishop's decision."
The Rev. Rice said priests can make assignment requests. "When I come back from this year, I can request to be sent to DuBois (Pa.) Central Catholic High School, my alma mater, and teach there because it's near my folks. It depends on where I'm needed at the time and where the Bishop wants me to go."
The Rev. Rice said his goal would be to return to the diocese as a teacher in a Catholic secondary school. "That's where my vocation was fostered as a youngster, when I was in high school. I had good priests at my high school growing up and I would like to return that while I'm a young priest. Perhaps I can even inspire a vocation to the seminary. I really made the decision to go to the seminary in high school. It became my focus."
The 1992 alumnus of DuBois Central Catholic High graduated in 1996 from Gannon University with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and philosophy; and from St. Mark Seminary, both in Erie.
He served as a deacon from the summer of 1998 at the Church of the Beloved Disciple in Grove City until the time of his ordination in September 2000 in St. Peter Cathedral, Erie.
Because Bishop Trautman would like for him to earn the degree in moral theology, the Rev. Rice said he personally would like to make it high school specific. "The presentations I'm going to prepare in Rome, I want to be geared toward Catholic high school students in the Diocese of Erie; for 10th-graders, especially."
While this area of study was assigned to him as a seminary student, Bishop Trautman could have chosen any topic. "He could have said, 'I want you to go get a doctorate in Canon Law or a Licentia in spiritual theology,' There are all kinds of things."
The degree for which he will study, qualifying him to teach in a Catholic high school or college, is one step below a pontifical doctorate. "It's not a civil degree," he said. "If I were to leave the priesthood and try to teach at Hickory High School (in Hermitage), I would have no place in being there because I don't have a teaching certificate or a master's degree."
Writing a tesina, or a large paper that teaches something, will be part of his course work. "Specifically, I think I want to work with Biblical moral theology. That would be where the roots of moral teaching are in the Bible."
No stranger to the Italian city, Rev. Rice spent four years there as a student prior to his ordination. Traveling this time as a priest, however, will afford him more independence. "In the seminary, I had very little freedom to come and go as I pleased," he said. "I had formation classes to go to at the seminary, all kinds of practica I had to do and apostolates. As a deacon, I was assistant campus minister at the University of Dallas in Rome. Before that, I worked at Bombina Jesu Hospital, a children's hospital in Rome, where I visited leukemia patients every week."
While in Rome, he will have no parish assignment as he does at Notre Dame. "I will be full-time at school," he said. "It will be relaxing in a sense, because I don't have any responsibilities that way, but it will be tough. That probably will be the toughest thing about it, because I won't live in a parish. I won't have that environment of a daily Mass congregation and Sunday congregation."
The Rev. Rice said the experience this past academic year of teaching freshman theology at Kennedy Catholic High School while fulfilling his duties at Notre Dame was a blessing. Monsignor Hagerty had to grant him permission to teach in the Hermitage-based high school.
Rev. Rice said Monsignor Hagerty graciously picked up the slack, giving him time to teach. "He worked harder so I could work harder at the high school. It was extremely generous on his part, and it speaks of the good relationship we have. He knew the bishop wanted me to teach at high schools, and he saw this as a step to prepare me. My time, in the year and a half I've been here, has really helped prepare me for the next step."
As a seminarian, the Rev. Rice said he did spend time thinking about what alternative paths his life could have followed outside of the priesthood. "But I, couldn't think of anything else that would make me happy like I am now, and that's the confirmation that I'm doing God's will."