'Follow Me' to the Seminary: Record Number of Seminarians Begins Formation at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver
- André Escaleira, Jr.
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
This back-to-school season, nearly two dozen new seminarians are answering God's call to discern his will for their lives and are beginning priestly formation for the Archdiocese of Denver.
There’s an excitement in the air as students across the archdiocese head back to school, complete with new backpacks and uniforms, new classes and teachers.
True for the youth hitting the halls of their Catholic schools anew, the dynamic is altogether present on the campus of St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, too, where 23 men have just had their “first day of school,” down to the new uniforms (so to speak), classes and formators.
This largest entering class in seminary history kicks off the 2025-2026 academic year, which has welcomed 90 archdiocesan seminarians, a 38% increase from 65 last academic year and a 60% increase from the 56 seminarians the year before. The record number of brand-new seminarians for the Archdiocese of Denver also nearly doubles last year's record (13) for an entering class.
“God has blessed us with 23 men who have followed his call! During this Jubilee year, it seems the Lord is blessing us abundantly through them, and what a gift they are to our archdiocese,” said Father Jason Wallace, archdiocesan director of vocations. “I’m grateful to my brother priests and deacons who have accompanied these men day in and day out as they’ve discerned what God was calling them to. For those of you reading this article, please pray for these men, for all of our seminarians and for all those discerning God’s will, that he might raise up priests after his own heart to serve his people generously and courageously.”
The uptick in vocations comes at a pivotal time, as the Archdiocese continues to feel the weight of a vocational shortfall, currently made manageable thanks to the devoted service of religious priests and priests from other states and countries. With only 148 archdiocesan priests in active ministry throughout Northern Colorado and 148 parish locations to serve, many more priests are needed.
Thanks be to God, many men are heeding his call. The archdiocese’s recent Called By Name campaign saw 900 men nominated to consider a priestly vocation. A subsequent vocation retreat welcomed more than 70 of these men to the seminary campus to begin considering what the Lord might be asking of them.
“I am grateful that our faithful recognized this pastoral potential in so many young men in our archdiocese,” Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila said of the recent Called By Name campaign and renewed energy around building a culture of vocations. “Our archdiocese needs more priests to shepherd, to father, our parish communities by offering the sacraments, especially the Most Holy Eucharist, and calling each of us to deeper conversion and encounter with Jesus Christ.
“The priesthood is a beautiful vocation, a pure gift, and I am grateful to the Father for calling me to be his priest and his bishop,” he continued. “I pray that these men — and many more — will draw near to Jesus Christ, the vine, and abide in relationship with him. Please pray with me that they might respond faithfully, generously and courageously — all so that, in Jesus Christ, all might be rescued and have abundant life, for the glory of the Father.”
From Cradle Catholic to 30-Something Seminarian
For the 23 men entering priestly formation at St. John Vianney, this back-to-school season brings with it a new excitement and joy, along with new challenges.
For Johnny Cabazos, a Denver native in his 30s, the new stage is punctuated by “a wide range of emotions.”
“I’m excited, but I’m also nervous, a little overwhelmed and, at times, even a bit sad,” he shared. “There’s a quiet fear in leaving behind the life I’ve known, the comforts and the routines, and stepping into something completely unknown. And yet, there’s also deep joy, peace and a real sense of hope.”
In short, Cabazos said, “I feel alive.”
The St. Francis de Sales, Denver, parishioner and Arrupe Jesuit High School graduate was born and raised Catholic, having had a “strong foundation” laid throughout his childhood. He served as an altar server and he studied and even grew to love theology. But, in college, he drifted from faith, “chasing success, money and comfort.”
“But thanks to God’s grace, and the strong foundation that was laid in my formative years, I eventually found my way back to the Church,” he told the Denver Catholic.
First drawn to consider the priesthood around age 9, the young altar server was struck by his closeness to the altar. Over the years, priesthood would return to his mind — and be brushed away just as quickly, until COVID. As he was forced to reflect on life more deeply in that time, the childhood call returned with a vengeance.
“I began to realize how many signs the Lord had placed in my life, signs I had either ignored or brushed off,” he recalled of the beginning of his more serious discernment of priesthood. “As someone who tends to think analytically, I wanted to be certain before making such a significant commitment. Entering seminary in my 30s meant real sacrifice. I wasn’t interested in ‘trying it out.’ I wanted to be confident that this was where the Lord was truly calling me.
“The deeper I discerned, the more I could see how God has been patiently preparing me all along: calling me, shaping me and waiting for me to respond,” he continued. “Could it have been easier if I had responded earlier? Maybe. But I’ve come to trust deeply in God’s providence. I believe there were lessons I needed to learn and growth that had to happen first. In hindsight, it’s clear that everything has unfolded according to his perfect timing.
“And even now, entering seminary isn’t the end of discernment, it’s the continuation of it. Discernment is not a one-time decision but a daily ‘yes’ to the Lord. It’s a lifelong journey of conversion, of choosing Christ over the comforts and distractions of the world,” Cabazos explained. Each day is an opportunity to pick up our cross and follow him more closely. Seminary is just the next step.”
(Photos provided)
Guided By Providence and Mercy
In God’s perfect timing, God led Cabazos to St. John Vianney to discern his will. And he doesn’t arrive to seminary alone. By his side are twenty-two other men also moved by grace, including Luke Yanoshak, a first-year Denver seminarian from Pennsylvania.
A cradle Catholic, Yanoshak drifted from the Church in college, until health issues during a semester abroad in Spain drove him to prayer.
“I didn’t really know who else to turn to, because I was all alone, except the Lord,” he shared of the Saturday prayer. “So I got down and I prayed. And the first thing I felt was him move my heart to go to Mass the next day.”
After Mass the next morning in Madrid’s cathedral, Yanoshak felt a pull to explore the rest of the church. Before he knew it, a door opened, and a tuft of white hair emerged. The aged priest to whom it belonged looked right at him, pointed at him and said, “You. Come here.”
The surprise Confession that followed was a moment of providential grace for Yanoshak, as a “huge weight” fell from his shoulders and the seasoned confessor gave supernaturally effective advice.
“The Lord is calling you to come back,” the priest told him. “The Lord is asking for you to be new, a beloved son.”
As he returned to campus to finish out his senior year, Yanoshak carried that mercy with him, fighting for daily conversion.
“This time, I felt like I was a lot closer to God, and I was going to Confession more often. I was fighting this two-sided part of my heart that was in contention with each other,” he told the Denver Catholic. “This whole senior year, I was struggling, but I felt a call to fight for closeness with God, to fight against sin.”
After graduation, Yanoshak moved to Denver to work in engineering and found himself deeply alone until an old friend, a devout Catholic, visited him.
“When they walked in the room, my dark little apartment lit up with their joy and laughter, their zeal for life and zeal for God” he remembered. “This was the first time I’d ever witnessed people my age zealous for Jesus, his sacraments and his love. This was all brand-new to me, because I thought it was an old person thing; I thought it happened later in life. But, sitting there with them, watching them ooze out this peace and love, I realized then that they had a piece of Truth that I didn’t have, and I needed it.”
In short, “these people were just in love with Jesus, and that was revolutionary for me,” Yanoshak said.
Through the example — and the challenge — of these friends, he prayed a simple prayer: “Lord, show me how to love you.” Though he didn’t know where to begin, he asked to be “plunged into the deep end.”
Within months, he’d developed an active prayer life and found faithful friendships — the community he’d longed for. And, in that context, the priestly call he’d first heard as a middle schooler reechoed in his mind.
“Ever since I prayed that prayer, God has done everything else,” Yanoshak said. “He’s taken me away from my old sin. He’s taught me how to fall in love with him. He’s showed me how to adore the sacraments. He’s finally reignited this desire or this call that I had.”
Far from an easy process, Yanoshak described his discernment as a “war of my heart.”
“I’ve always been scared that once he would have my heart, that my life would be miserable; it would be empty; I wouldn’t be fulfilled,” he shared. “But how opposite that is compared to reality. Reality is, I feel like I’m the most full version of myself that I’ve ever been because the Lord is filling me.”
Now, as he enters seminary, he looks forward to continued healing and growth with God.
“I realize I have so much more growth to undergo in order to become any sort of father. I’m very excited to see the hidden parts of my soul that I’m unaware of that really need to blossom, grow and heal,” he explained.
Most of all, he hopes to learn how to love God the way he desires to be loved.
“When I was starting to apply, I was really struggling. I remember asking in prayer, ‘Lord, is this really what you want? What do you want from me if I go here?’ And what I heard was, ‘Come, learn how to love me,’ which is a mirror of that first prayer I prayed,” Yanoshak said. “I think this is what I’m most excited for because I am going to learn how to love the Lord as he wants me to. That’s the hope. The answer to all of my prayers lies in loving the Lord. If I learn how to love the Lord, then everything else will come.”
(Photos provided)
Seeking After the Sacred Heart
That call to love the Lord and his people more deeply, to embody the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which burns for love of his people, resonates deeply with Owen Chase, a new seminarian from Evergreen.
Born and raised Catholic, he was raised in the faith but “was very caught up in the world,” he said, until a high school retreat changed things for him.
“Through a new life of prayer, I began to see our Lord as the perfect friend I had always longed for, and a perfect guide for me to know what truly makes for a fulfilling life in this world,” Chase shared.
As he grew in faith in Christ and love for him, he began to notice a deep desire to evangelize — a dynamic that led him deeper into vocational discernment.
“In that same period of receiving an increase of the gift of faith, I also had a great desire to share the life of our Lord with everyone, and I felt that a good and holy way to make him and his divine teachings known would be by becoming a priest,” he explained. “In desiring the priesthood, I have felt moved to ask our Lord, ‘What is it that will please you the most?’”
Over time, as he asked that question of Jesus, he came to see the priesthood as a profound gift “and an invitation to us who are called to serve at his altars to be closer to him, to know him more clearly and love him more dearly.”
In prayer, he realized the gift of the priesthood is profoundly pleasing to Jesus’ Sacred Heart. Through his priests, Jesus draws his people close to himself in his sacraments and in his Church. And through these means, he draws them close to himself forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, as he begins his first year of seminary, Chase finds himself asking a different question in prayer: “What type of priest does our good God want me to be for him?”
While the particular answer and concrete circumstances are yet to be revealed, “I do know that my mind and heart have been wondering what our Lord has in store for me,” he shared. “I am very much excited to meet so many wonderful people and to learn so much about our faith, but above all, I really hope I can take advantage of all the graces offered to us as seminarians in our spiritual life.”
For Those Seeking
As Cabazos, Yanoshak and Chase prepared to start seminary studies as part of this largest class in seminary history, they all had one bit of advice for those seeking truth, beauty and goodness — for those seeking God. In short, they said, keep seeking.
“If you are seeking spiritual fulfillment, my advice would be to seek it in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose love is boundless and who knows and seeks to provide for your every need,” Chase said.
“Take time to listen. God speaks quietly, through prayer, through people, through moments in your everyday life,” Cabazos added. “Give yourself grace. You don’t have to have all the answers right away. And lean into prayer.”
“You aren’t made for this world. All the desires of this world point you to Heaven,” Yanoshak shared, wishing he had realized that truth sooner. “The world goes to nothing, and you’re meant for Heaven with God. Open your heart to him and trust. It won’t be obvious; it won’t be easy, but trust that he will not only give you what you need, but give you whatever you need in abundance and give you a heart that is reborn in his own image. Seek him, if you’re seeking goodness.”
As they continue to seek after the Sacred Heart of Jesus, engaging their formation, praying and discerning, Cabazos, Yanoshak and Chase — alongside the 20 other new seminarians — hope to become the men and, God willing, the priests God wants them to be.
But they can’t do it alone.
“On behalf of all seminarians, deacons, priests, bishops and our Holy Father, please pray for us! We cannot be holy without God’s graces, which he rewards to those who turn to him in confidence and boldness,” Chase concluded.
