‘It’s always good to come back home’

By Emily Chaffins -

 

Photography: EMILY CHAFFINS | FC

MIAMI | It’s been more than 50 years since Father Jorge Perales was a seminarian at St. John Vianney College Seminary (SJVCS) in Miami, but it’s like he’s never left.

Although he graduated from SJVCS in 1972, Father Perales returned as a priest, working as a part-time faculty member in the 1990’s and 2000’s and advancing to full-time faculty member in 2015. Now, an assistant professor and chair of theology, director of liturgy, and spiritual director, Father Perales reminisced about his academic and professional experiences in view of the seminary’s 65th anniversary this year.

“It’s the place where I was prepared to become a priest, which is my vocation, my life,” he said. “Now, it’s a great joy contributing to the formation of other priests.”

Approximately 120 alumni – priests and laypeople – traveled from as far as New England to swap stories about their seminary days at the Alumni Vespers & Reception Mar. 14, 2025. The on-campus event was the second in a series of festivities for the 65th Anniversary of SJVCS, the first of which was the Friends of the Seminary gathering Feb. 7.

During the Alumni Vespers & Reception, alumni prayed vespers at St. Raphael Chapel, just as they would have done during their time as seminarians. At the reception that followed, attendees caught up with old friends over dinner; watched a documentary about seminarians’ formation that included interviews with SJVCS students and faculty; and listened to the SJVCS Schola Cantorum choir perform. The song, which will also be featured at the seminary’s 65th Anniversary Spring Concert Saturday, Apr. 26, was “Behold How Good It Is” by Vincentian Father John J. Buckley – a former SJVCS professor whom Msgr. Pablo Navarro, rector of SJVCS, described as “a brilliant man and a musical genius.”

According to Msgr. Navarro, Father Buckley’s former classmate, iconic composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, once joked, “I’m glad he became a priest because he’d have given me a run for my money.” 

After the reception, some of the alumni stopped by the library to view a display of photos depicting different periods of SJVCS history.

“It’s always good to come back home,” said Father Matthew Gomez, dean of propaedeutic. “I’m privileged to be on staff, getting to celebrate Mass at the altar of the chapel where I prayed as a seminarian.”

Father Perales and Father Gomez are not the only two alumni still serving the seminary. Msgr. Navarro, who earned his associate of arts at St. John Vianney, noted, “With the exception of one priest, all of our faculty are alumni.”

Father Bryan García, vice-rector and dean of seminarians, was studying at the seminary at the time of its 50th anniversary, which was the last time the alumni celebrated an anniversary together. “It’s cool to see people who were in the seminary during my time here again,” he said. “It’s exciting to see where life has taken us.” 

A South Florida legacy

According to Msgr. Navarro, St. John Vianney College Seminary is “the only freestanding, fully bilingual, English-Spanish seminary in the U.S.”

SJVCS stands out from other seminaries because “we are such a hodge-podge of cultures and languages,” said Msgr. Navarro. “Sometimes, other seminaries send their seminarians to Latin America to learn Spanish. We don’t need to do that. Here, if they go to Burger King, they have to speak Spanish!”

For today’s priests, the ability to speak both English and Spanish is important, since “we’re seeing the Church growing, and a great part of this growth is Hispanic,” he observed.

According to Father Perales and the SJVCS History page, the seminary was originally established as a minor seminary in 1959 under Archbishop Coleman Carroll, offering four years of high school and two years of college. The Congregation of the Mission or “Vincentian Fathers” came from Philadelphia to become the seminary’s original staff. Soon after the seminary dropped its high school program in 1974, the teaching was transferred to diocesan priests.

Msgr. Navarro remembers his teachers fondly. “I still carry many things I learned from the Vincentian Fathers.”

Eventually, St. John Vianney converted into a college seminary, where seminarians receive their first four years of college before moving onto St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach for their final years of formation.

“Because we’re a college seminary, it’s the beginning of formation, so not all seminarians become priests,” Father García explained. “Whether they leave St. John Vianney to go to St. Vincent de Paul and become priests, or they leave to become husbands, the seminary is a significant foundation for the Church in South Florida, and Florida in general.”

At one time or another, SJVCS has formed priests for other locations, including Charleston, the Bahamas, and Puerto Rico. Today, seminarians hail from the dioceses of Miami, St. Augustine, Venice, Orlando, and Atlanta.

Erich Vazquez, Class of 2022, still remembers an encounter he had at the beginning of his time at SJVCS.

“I was just sitting in the chapel as a new seminarian,” Vazquez recalled. “An older seminarian pointed at my heart and said, ‘Don’t let the fire of your heart cool down.’” The moment made a big impact on him.

Vazquez is nearing the end of his priestly formation at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, currently in his pastoral year working at a parish. He credits SJVCS as the place that “made me from a boy into a man.”

Dr. John Reveille, an alumnus and a Texas-based rheumatologist who stood up to share his testimony during the Alumni Reception, concurred. Although he discerned out of the seminary, he said, “The four years I was in seminary were, without question, the most important four years of my life.”

Join the celebration

• The whole South Florida community is invited to attend the seminary’s 65th Anniversary Spring Concert on Saturday, Apr. 26 in St. Raphael Chapel. The concert is free of charge. A pre-concert reception (ticket purchase required) begins at 5 p.m. followed by the free concert at 7 p.m.