Dear generous people of SEAS,
 
I’m a grateful adopted son of this wonderful parish, and I’m so excited that I’m a priest now for the Diocese of Tucson. Thank you all for helping me get here! Your prayers, affirmation, and support truly have been instrumental for me. You have helped provide our Catholic Church with another joyful vocation to ordained ministry. And with our newer seminarian, Robert Villablanca, there is yet another opportunity to show your personal support for his vocation to the priesthood.
I’m writing to tell you that without the Annual Catholic Appeal I would not be a newly ordained priest today. As you can imagine, the cost of forming seminarians into priests is not low. Each year, our Diocese uses the ACA to help pay for room & board, academic, pastoral, personal, and spiritual formation of all of our Tucson seminarians. Depending upon location, one year of seminary can cost as much as $35,000 annually. But I can tell you from my experience at Mundelein Seminary (from which I graduated just two months ago) that it’s worth every single dollar. Providing our Church with the well-formed priests we truly need requires well-maintained facilities, top quality academic and formation faculty, and many other programs which supplement seminarians’ development toward fruitful full-time ministry.
I feel blessed to know you, the good people of SEAS. I know that this is a generous parish. I know that you will consider giving even a bit more this year than you have in the past, because you want to help our seminarians to continue to grow into their roles as future pastors, c onfessors, healers, and preachers. You want them to become the priests that we, the Church, truly need in these tough times.
Brothers and sisters of SEAS, be assured of my continued prayers for you as I begin my priestly ministry. Know also that my brother in Christ, seminarian Robert Villablanca, is grateful to be a part of this community, and that he is also praying earnestly for you. Please do take the time to say a prayer for us as we go forward. May our God, who is never outdone in generosity, bless you all abundantly.
 
Yours in Jesus through Mary,
 
Fr. Tom Quirk

To make a donation to the Annual Catholic Appeal please  click here.