Living in community. Fasting from technology and commerce. Reading the major documents of the church. Spending hours in silence.

For the past six years, men preparing for the priesthood have been doing just that during what is call the “propaedeutic stage” — a year mandated by the Holy See for the men to develop their spiritual life more deeply before entering the rigors of academic study.

This new stage was announced by the Holy See in 2016 for seminary formation around the world. While it was not mandated in the United States until 2022, the Archdiocese of Chicago implemented it early, said Father Patrick Gorman, director of Chicago seminarians and director of the propaedeutic year.

All archdiocesan seminarians live out the propaedeutic year at Bishop Quarter House, located on Holy Name Cathedral’s campus, and they are often joined by seminarians from other dioceses who will also attend Mundelein Seminary.

At present, in addition to local seminarians, 10 men are living at Bishop Quarter House from the dioceses of Cheyenne, Wyoming; San Jose, California; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Joliet and Peoria.

These seminarians have already completed college or college seminary and plan to start the six-year major seminary program at Mundelein. They can be ordained after completing major seminary.

“The community aspect is a very important part of the year — that the guys live in community together, learn how to live together and grow together and challenge each other and offer correction to one another,” Gorman said.

From Sunday through Friday, the men fast from technology and commerce. That means no cell phones or computers except for Saturdays, which is their day off. On Sundays, they can also use their phones to call family.

Even when they can use their phones, the men cannot use them to access the internet or social media because they all have what Gorman calls, “dumb phones.”

“There’s an element of poverty in the year,” Gorman said. “We do ask them to leave behind some of the things of the world to enter into this year in a very intentional way. The year really is focused on growing in prayer, growing in discernment and growing in self-knowledge.”

The fasts help the community grow closer.

“Something like the technology fast means when we’re together, we’re together. We’re not on our phones,” Gorman said. “We’re not looking things up. We have conversations. Sometimes we don’t know the answer and we can’t Google it and that’s OK.”

It also creates space in which the men can relate to each other in different ways. For example, they often go for walks together, play board games or play music in the evenings.

Each day at Bishop Quarter House begins with a holy hour at 6:30 a.m., followed by interior time from 7:30 until 10 a.m. Next, the seminarians attend class until noon. Classes are seminar-style, pass or fail, with no grades or papers.

“The idea is to relieve them of the burden of the academic work so they can focus on things like prayer and community and growth and self-knowledge,” Gorman said.

Class topics include Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the documents from the Second Vatican Council, prayer and formation. During this year, seminarians read the entire Bible, the Catechism and the constitutions of Vatican II.

Archdiocesan priests teach the classes as well as giving their time in other ways, Gorman said.

“One of the really beautiful parts of the year is how many priests come in and support the program,” he said.

The men have unstructured time in the afternoons. They receive spiritual direction and formation every other week and many take advantage of counseling.

Part of the year is helping the seminarians learn to use their free time in a balanced and healthy way, Gorman said.

They also do their own laundry and make their own breakfast and lunch. The men take turns cooking dinner for the whole group in teams of two.

Cooking is also part of formation, Gorman said, because when new priests get into a rectory, they will need to know how to cook. It also builds an appreciation for what it takes to prepare a meal, since priests are often invited to dinner at people’s homes.

Evening prayer starts at 5:30 p.m. and dinner is at 6 p.m.

On Wednesdays, the men go to the Mission of Our Lady of Angels in West Humboldt Park, which is run by the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago, to do various jobs that the community needs done and prepare lunch for a Bible study for people from the neighborhood.

On Fridays, they take part in fun activities like playing pickleball or attending a Chicago Cubs game.

Every Sunday, they visit a different parish to experience the archdiocese’s diversity and to meet priests to learn about their lives.

“The propaedeutic year was implemented to give the men a strong foundation for when they go up to Mundelein into the major seminary,” Gorman said. “And to create space in seminary formation for them to really focus on prayer, learning themselves and discernment.”

The year is also called a “second discernment ,” he said, allowing those who participate to really unpack their discernment and to confirm that God is calling them to priesthood.

“It gives them a chance to have the space to really revisit that discernment and to bring it, hopefully, to stronger grounds, so that when they go up into major seminary and things get busy that they have that foundation that they can build upon,” Gorman said.

Karlo Leonor is one of the seminarians in the propaedeutic year. Unlike the other men in the house, he had a career in business for 12 years before entering the seminary.

“This is a very significant transition for me, from working a high-powered white collar job 50 hours a week to a very structured but also fluid time we can decide how to use,” said Leonor, 36.

Leonor said he is grateful to have this year before making the bigger transition into seminary studies.

“This is kind of a protected year and space where we can really just ponder a lot and reflect on our calling and how we got here,” he said. “It helps me to slow down from my frenetic career to really praying more and focusing on health too.”

Fluent in Tagalog, Leonor is also using his spare time to learn Spanish so he can minister to people in their native language.

“I find it very life-giving, and it is also giving me a good picture of what seminary looks like before Mundelein but also what priesthood in Chicago especially looks like,” Leonor said.

Liam McCarthy had some reservations entering into the year because of the sacrifices of not seeing his family or working and not using his phone.

“Once you get into the year, you realize it’s definitely a big blessing to be able to focus on your relationship with God,” McCarthy said. “I just wish that more people — guys everywhere — would be able to experience this year. It’s so good to grow in your spirituality and to learn more about our faith. To just enter into that fully for a year is an amazing experience.”

Luke Lato went through the propaedeutic year in 2023 and said the greatest gift was coming to understand “the beautiful difference between solitude and isolation.”

“Isolation is when you’re by yourself and you feel alone. That’s when you turn inward and it can become an unhealthy place to be,” Lato said. “That’s not what we’re called to be in. We’re communal, relational people.”

Learning how to grow in moments of solitude is key to a priest’s life, he said.

By having time without the usual distractions of technology, Lato said, he was able to enjoy simple activities like going on a bike ride. It was during such times that he discovered that when he is alone, he’s not totally alone because God is always with him.

“Those are moments of solitude,” Lato said. “It’s just me and Lord alone on my bike ride and I’m just delighting in him.”

Matt Duff also went through the propaedeutic year in 2023. Like Leonor, he had a career before entering seminary.

“I was really excited to go and have nothing to do but to work on my relationship with God and my spiritual life,” Duff said. “Before I was doing that with a 9 to 5.”

He appreciated the structure of the program and all of its resources, such as the spiritual direction and counseling, and all the priests who came in teach a class.

“All those guys are super dedicated to sharing their experience, their life, their heart with you, not knowing whether or not you’re going to continue,” Duff said. “To get into the program and to realize that what its goal is to build you up spiritually. and its human dimension, to be able to figure out who you are so that you can give yourself to as a gift to the church and to God.”