c. 1996 Religion News Service

CHICAGO (RNS)-Like many college students, Juan De La Cruz and his buddies live in the balance between work and play.

Last year, their teams won the university’s intramural soccer, football and softball championships. Some of them formed a band, recorded a CD and play gigs around town.

But after graduation, instead of pursuing careers in their fields of study-communications, psychology, history and so on-many of these young men plan to study for the Catholic priesthood.

The students of St. Joseph’s Seminary at Loyola University represent a new face of the Roman Catholic priesthood, as well as changing ideas about what a life of ministry means.”Our church is not a church of a dead God,”says De La Cruz, 20, a singer in the band who dresses in the uniform of a nightclub kid-all black.”We’ve got to go with the times.” De La Cruz and six other seminarians decided the best way to communicate their calling was to record their music. Last October they made a 10-track CD of folk/traditional Pan-American music titled”Vianimae,”or”journey of the soul.” The group, which so far lacks a name, made only 1,000 copies of the CD, but producer Denise La Grassa says it’s selling well.”Tower Records (in Chicago) is sold out,”she said.”Vianimae”was even featured on one of Chicago’s most popular radio stations on a program highlighting up-and-coming local bands.”Music is an art, and I consider myself an aesthetic person,”De La Cruz said.”This was an opportunity to really develop my musical instinct … and to really reach out.””Our vision was to let people know what St. Joseph’s feels about music … and God,”added another member of the group, Ramon Silva, 24.

De La Cruz talks of a need for a”new priesthood,”a new vision of how clergy can meet the needs of a changing society.”It’s not just about being up at the altar, being a priest,”he said.”It’s about an everyday thing, about wanting to (minister) and it coming from the heart, and making a difference in people’s lives.” Added Frank Eannarino Jr., who wrote most of the songs on the CD:”My musical life is an expression of my spiritual life. Writing and creating in general is the human expression of trying to find God.” Many churches are realizing the need to capture the interest of their parishioners in unconventional ways, whether through drama, issue-oriented sermons or contemporary music. The St. Joseph’s seminarians see the demands of a generation raised on television and hope to bridge the gap between God and MTV.

Though”Vianimae”is an album of sacred and liturgical music, it is anything but traditional. Several of the band members are from South America, and the album reflects a Latin feel, particularly a raucous Tejano version of Beethoven’s”Ode to Joy.””I think everyone was a little surprised,”Silva said.”They were expecting to hear the angels in the background and the church music and the organ, and it wasn’t that at all.” St. Joseph’s seminary moved from a suburban location to the main Loyola campus two years ago. The seminarians have made a concerted effort to make their presence known, in the classrooms as well as on the playing field. They want fellow students to know they are just like everybody else.”We bleed just like them,”Silva said.

According to”Full Pews and Empty Altars,”a 1993 study of demographic changes in the Catholic priesthood by University of Wisconsin sociologist Richard Schoenherr, there will have been an estimated 40 percent decline in the number of active priests between 1966 and 2005. Many parishes around the country, and several within the Chicago Archdiocese alone, have been forced to close in part because of an insufficient number of parish priests.

The band is doing its part to combat the shrinking priesthood. All proceeds from”Vianimae”are going into a scholarship fund for future seminarians, and band members said they hope to record more CDs in the future.

They also hope the”Vianimae”project will attract students to the seminary.”It’s a recruiting tool,”De La Cruz said.”Get guys on the way in. `So do you play? Do you want to be on a CD? Come on over,'”he said.”Just the idea is cool,”Silva added.”Wow, seminarians with a CD.”

MJP END FALSANI