PHOTOS: Cardinal Explores 'The Catholic Imagination' in Candid Seminary Talk
- Sheryl Tirol
- Oct 2
- 5 min read
Cardinal J. Francis Stafford sat before a packed audience in the Cardinal Stafford Library at the St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, his usual ecclesiastical formality softened by an unexpected vulnerability.
The event, the inaugural lecture of the seminary’s ongoing “fireside chat” series, revealed a side of the church leader rarely seen, as the cardinal shared intimate details of his childhood struggles and the profound questions that shaped his calling to religious life. Attendees encountered a man grappling with the same fundamental questions about suffering, violence and meaning that occupy ordinary believers like them.
"You feel like you're sitting at the feet of the rabbi," said Daniel Campbell, director of the Lay Division at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, who moderated the discussion. "You feel like you're really participating in a conversation on the deepest and most meaningful things of life."
The cardinal's most striking revelation centered on how the Korean War profoundly affected his understanding of bringing children into what he perceived as an increasingly violent world. Speaking with characteristic directness, Cardinal Stafford shared his youthful struggle with violence and vocation.
"Do I want to be trained to kill my fellow human beings?" the cardinal recalled asking himself as a college student facing potential military service. "Do I want to bring children into this violent world? I really faced that as a 17- or 18-year-old."
Campbell found this admission particularly moving.
"It's a great paradox, because what it did is it brought him to a different vocation, in which he did bring children into the world, not biologically, but spiritually, through Baptism and the sacraments," he shared.
The cardinal also shared deeply personal stories from his childhood, including his mother's prolonged battle with tuberculosis, a family affliction that spanned four or five generations. His mother was hospitalized twice, including a three-year separation when he was between the ages of nine and twelve. During this time, he lived with extended family while his mother underwent multiple operations.
"I knew that she could die. I was very aware of that, insofar as a child at that age understood it, but I think I understood it pretty well," he said.
This early confrontation with mortality and family trauma, Cardinal Stafford acknowledged, shaped his understanding of suffering.
"Being able to, as one experiences through that violence, see good that can come out of it, through the hand of Christ, who ultimately experienced the greatest violence," Campbell explained. "It's this great paradox of this tremendous violence. It causes you to question where you're going in life and what your vocation is, but with the Catholic imagination, you're able to perceive the deeper realities and the goods that can still come from it."
The concept of "Catholic imagination,” the ability to perceive deeper spiritual realities within earthly experiences, served as the evening's central theme. Cardinal Stafford defined it through the lens of Jesus' teaching methods.
"The Catholic thought, the Catholic understanding of the reality of our experience, is expressed in our Catholic experience through the parables," he explained. "Christ’s basic way of teaching was through stories, experiences that he took from his own life and spoke of them in his understanding of the Kingdom of God."
(Photos by Daniel Petty/Denver Catholic)
Drawing from Christ's Parable of the Sower, Cardinal Stafford described how seemingly insignificant experiences can yield profound spiritual fruit.
"The Kingdom of God is like a seed," he said, referencing Matthew 13. "It will sound insignificant. We are insignificant. He says to himself, ‘My Father is able to proclaim this mystery of His Kingdom only through human beings.’"
This perspective, the cardinal explained, allows believers to find meaning even in violence and suffering. As Campbell noted after the event, it demonstrates how "with the Catholic imagination, you're able to perceive the deeper realities and the goods that can still come from it."
Cardinal Stafford grounded his theological discussion in the practical reality of family life, emphasizing how sacred moments unfold in everyday settings.
"The seed there for your children is the breakfast table. It is sown at the breakfast table. It is sown at lunchtime and dinner time. It is sewn in the car," he said. "Everything that is being done in your home is the sowing of the seed of the sacrament."
The cardinal connected this understanding to the sacraments themselves, particularly Baptism, which he described as fundamentally about dying to self.
"In Baptism, you die to yourselves, and you come forth from the water gasping for breath. And understand that you have been reborn in order to show love, acceptance, patience, kindness to one another," he explained.
Drawing from his own experience as a priest, Cardinal Stafford acknowledged the difficulty of such self-sacrifice.
"I am a priest of God, and the chief challenge that I have as a baptized priest is that I have died for myself for your sake, and that is the meaning of the life of every other priest," he said.
This vulnerability, Campbell noted, makes the cardinal remarkably relatable despite his elevated position within the Church hierarchy.
"He knows that he has different sufferings from you and me, but he suffers too,” Campbell explained. “And it's not just this glorified life of a cardinal prince of the church with palaces and vestments, but he has real difficulties and struggles too."
The conversation represented the sixth such intimate discussion Campbell has facilitated with Cardinal Stafford over his tenure as lay division director. Each encounter, he said, leaves participants with much to contemplate.
"You almost leave with a headache, because it forces you to really think about things in ways you never have," Campbell explained.
The evening's impact extended beyond mere intellectual exercise. Campbell described the experience as "edifying” because it demonstrated how faith leaders can acknowledge doubt and struggle while maintaining their calling.
The cardinal's admission about questioning whether to bring children into a violent world created what Campbell called "a real vulnerability" that resonated particularly with married Catholics, who are called to be "open to life" as a fundamental aspect of their vocation.
The seminary's Catholic Imagination Lecture series represents an effort to foster the kind of in-depth spiritual discussions that organizers believe should be more prevalent in Catholic culture. Future sessions will explore literature, including J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," and examine how stories can illuminate spiritual mysteries.
In short, the series aims to provide exposure to substantive dialogue about faith, even for those encountering such discussions for the first time.
The conversations tackle fundamental questions that Campbell believes are essential but often avoided: "What's really important in life? How do we find meaning in life? Why are we here? Where are we going? How do we find joy and peace?"
The series deliberately welcomes participants regardless of their theological background or education level. While some conversations may prove more intellectually challenging than others, Campbell emphasized that accessibility remains paramount. The goal is to create opportunities for spiritual encounter rather than academic exercise, "giving people the opportunity to encounter Christ, engage in a relationship with Christ, through conversations that should be the normal Catholic conversation," Campbell explained.
The Tuesday event highlighted both the power and the risk of religious vulnerability. By sharing personal struggles with violence, family tragedy and vocational uncertainty, Cardinal Stafford modeled a form of spiritual leadership that acknowledges doubt while maintaining faith.
For Campbell, who has witnessed similar conversations in private settings, the public nature of the discussion amplified its impact.
"It's one thing to have that conversation just privately, but to have it publicly and have you all be able to participate in it and see the depth of his thought and the way he can challenge us, it's a real blessing," he shared.
