In 2003 Most Holy Trinity Seminary acquired 50 acres of
land near Brooksville, Florida, (about 30 minutes north of
Tampa) with a view to constructing a new building and
relocating its operations there.
The new
seminary building is designed in the Spanish Mission
style. It will feature a large church with a Roman
Classical interior and about 40 rooms opening onto an
arched walkway around a central courtyard.
Construction began in January 2005.
Help us get
from here:
A view of the incomplete church and campanile in
mid-2006
to here:
A Letter from the Most Rev. Donald J. Sanborn,
Rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary
My dear
Catholic people,
As you know,
since April of 2005 we have been building the new
seminary in Brooksville, Florida.
Through the
extraordinary generosity of a few people, we thus far
have been blessed to have enough funds to purchase the
land, draw up the plans, pay all the engineering fees,
the impact fees, the building permit fees, and many
other charges, as well as to bring the actual
construction of the building to near completion.
The total of what I have just described is approximately
$2.4 million.
In order to
complete the building, however, we need about $400,000.
From the
picture above, you can see that the building is about
75% complete. At the present time, I do not have
enough money to bring it to completion. For this
reason, I must turn to the people in all of the parishes
who will benefit from the priests who are formed by the
seminary, and ask them to help in this most important
project.
Seminarians inspect their future home
It is an old
saying that "the seminary is the heart of the diocese."
Although we do not have a diocese, we bishops and
priests have many people who look to us for the
continuation of the true Faith and the true Mass and
sacraments in this time of general apostasy.
Therefore the hearts of this great undertaking of
continuation is the seminary. For we who were
ordained in the 1970s are getting old, and young blood
must be right behind us to take over when we fail.
I think that
all would agree that it is imperative that the
priests who take over be trained in exactly the same
faith and ideals which we have. We do not want to
hand over these parishes to just anyone, to priests who
might lead the people astray with false doctrines, or
lead them to compromise with the Novus Ordo.
There's still plenty of work to do...
So the work
of the seminary is the most important work of the whole
traditional movement, a work from which all benefit, and
therefore a work which all should support. I am
now asking for this support.
If we can
keep the money flowing, we could be in this new building
by the end of February of 2007. But if we must
interrupt the fast progress, not only will it delay the
project, but in the end it will cost significantly more.
At the present time, the seminary is in a very
problematic situation. The priests and seminarians
are living in run-down trailers next to our parish in
Brooksville, trailers which have been lent to us by a
parishioner at no charge. Another parishioner has
lent us a house at no charge, but it is about 17 miles
away. We are in our second year of these
intolerable circumstances, and we cannot do this any
longer. The seminary will not survive as an
institution if it does not soon obtain a suitable
building.
This year we
have thirteen seminarians, and already five are
interested for the 2007-2008 academic year. We
have not time to lose.
Please give.
Sincerely
yours in Christ,
Most Rev.
Donald J. Sanborn
Rector
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