Bishop Bruté College Seminary sees new leadership as anniversary approaches
Father Andrew Syberg stands on Aug. 1, 2023, in a chapel for first-year seminarians at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis. He was recently appointed as the new rector of the archdiocesan-sponsored seminary. (File photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis will have a new team of priests leading it when it marks the 20th anniversary of its founding later this year.
Father Andrew Syberg will be the seminary’s new rector after having served on its formation staff since 2017 and as vice rector for the past three years. He will succeed Father Joseph Moriarty, who began ministry as Bishop Bruté’s rector in 2016.
Father Peter Marshall will be Bishop Bruté’s new vice rector, while continuing to serve as pastor of St. Jude Parish in Indianapolis.
And Father C. Ryan McCarthy will be the seminary’s new spiritual director while continuing to minister as pastor of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish in Indianapolis.
These three priests take up their new ministries at Bishop Bruté on May 31.
Archbishop Charles C. Thompson values the witness that Father Moriarty gave in his ministry at the seminary and that its three new leaders will give there.
“What all four of these priests bring to their roles of formation, education and pastoral ministry is a very Christ-centered focus on holiness and mission in service to the people of God,” he said. “It is their witness as much as or more than anything they might say that leaves a lasting impression on the young men entrusted to their care and leadership in preparation to ordained priesthood.”
The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has sponsored Bishop Bruté since its beginning in 2004. Dioceses across the Midwest send college seminarians there in addition to those from the Church in central and southern Indiana.
This year, nine men who graduated from Bishop Bruté and went on to major seminary formation will be ordained priests for dioceses in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Through its 20 years, 54 of the seminary’s alumni have been ordained priests.
From its start, seminarians at Bishop Bruté have also been enrolled at nearby Marian University.
A few weeks before Father Syberg began his leadership of the seminary, he spoke with The Criterion about his experience in serving there since 2017 and how it’s strengthened his hopes for the future of the archdiocese.
“The biggest thing has been and will continue to be working with the seminarians, seeing their love and devotion of the Church,” he said. “We’re in good shape. The guys coming down the way for the priesthood have a great devotion to the Lord. Their enthusiasm is infectious.”
Father Syberg is also confident in the formation that Father Marshall and Father McCarthy can provide to the seminarians at Bishop Bruté.
“It’s a big commitment by our archdiocese to the seminary,” he said. “I’m very grateful that they’re coming. They’re both highly intelligent and resourceful. They bring a lot of experience of being pastors.”
Father Marshall also brings experience in priestly formation, serving as an adjunct spiritual director at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad from 2010-13 and at Bishop Bruté from 2018-24. He also served as Saint Meinrad’s director of spiritual formation from 2013-19.
Father Marshall also earned a doctor of ministry in Catholic spirituality and spiritual formation at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
“This experience and education has been a great foundation in working with seminarians over the years,” he said. “I enjoy working with people, helping them to hear God’s invitation to live more fully as disciples and to courageously follow their vocations.”
Father McCarthy sees how his experience as pastor of parishes across central and southern Indiana, including for the last 11 years at Holy Rosary, will aid him in helping form young men for ordained ministry.
“I am hoping that my years of pastoral care in the parish and my experience in the confessional will allow me to give some very practical advice for young men hoping to discern priesthood,” he said. “The practical application of the truths of the faith to the lived-out lives of his people is the job of every pastor.”
Father Marshall spoke of how St. Jude Parish, in his five years of leadership there, has had seminarians assisting in ministry on a regular basis.
“St. Jude has enthusiastically embraced our responsibility to assist in the formation of future priests,” he said. “Our vocations committee is very active in promoting all vocations and has been a great support to me. I think that continuing as a pastor while working in the seminary allows me to offer our future priests a helpful perspective on the life they are preparing for.”
Father Syberg said it will be good for the seminarians at Bishop Bruté to see that priests who serve on its formation staff also have other pastoral assignments in the archdiocese.
“This is part and parcel of the life as priests,” he said. “You are going to be stretched and pushed. A lot of things are going to be asked of you. And that’s OK. It’s good for them to know even this early on [in their formation].”
Archbishop Thompson said Bishop Bruté is “a gift to our local Church,” though one that still comes with “the challenges of staffing and finances.”
“The formation of priests for service to the people of God is a serious responsibility,” he said. “Over the course of 20 years, several of our priests have been formed at Bruté Seminary and educated at Marian University. We are blessed to have both just down the same road from one another and, especially, with such a strong partnership and shared mission.”
Father Marshall echoes the archbishop in speaking about the importance that Bishop Bruté now has in the life of the archdiocese.
“I truly believe that the presence and success of Bruté College Seminary is a sign of the vibrant faith life of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis,” he said. “As a local Church, we have made a commitment to invest in the discernment and formation of young men who are serious about being Catholic and serious about listening for God’s invitation to a deeper life with him. This commitment continues to bear great fruit in the Spirit as even those men who discern out of the seminary continue to live the life of prayer and discipleship that they learned at Bruté.”
(For more information about Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary, including ways to support it, visit bishopsimonbrute.org. For more information on a vocation to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis visit HearGodsCall.com.) †
Related story: Father Moriarty ends 26 years of ministry in vocations, priestly formation
