The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix is making more room at St. Mary’s Basilica to educate and train future priests.
The opening of a new residence comes a year after the diocese launched the Nazareth Seminary.
According to research from Georgetown University, the number of priests in the U.S. has fallen almost by half in the last 60 years.
The opening of St. Mary’s House will allow prospective priests to study in downtown Phoenix.
At a ribbon cutting event Tuesday, Bishop John Dolan said the program is designed with small classes of about 20 people in mind.
“It isn’t this big massive institutional model where you might have 70 to 80 guys in the same house and someone can get lost in the shuffle. Someone can fall under the radar and you don’t know who you are really getting when you’re ordaining them," Dolan said.
At the same event, the diocese announced plans for a multimillion-dollar interfaith building tentatively called the Samaritan Outreach Center. John Muir is the vicar general for the Diocese.
“As the pastor of the Basilica, I meet people here every single Sunday who are Catholic, not Catholic, they just come here because it’s a beautiful place and we just want it to be as welcoming and open and inviting as possible," Muir said.
Muir added they hope to break ground in the next 14 months.
