Going to school on Saturdays – We made it work!

Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

         It was an unusual system of education, but we had to deal with it if we wanted to attend. Cathedral Prep Seminary in Brooklyn was the “minor seminary” as it was called since it’s inception in 1914. It was known as a “day hop” seminary. We went there because we thought that God might possibly be calling us to be priests. Entering the school as a High School Freshman in 1959, there were about 150 of us, freshly graduated from the eighth grade in various parochial schools.

         The first thing we noticed was that there was not enough room in the building to house all the students. Three classrooms were “rented” from nearby St. Joseph grammar school on Pacific Street. They called it “the annex.” We did not feel connected to the one freshman class who were able to get into the main building. We, in the annex, rarely crossed Atlantic Avenue to enter the main campus, unless it was a special event or rare occasion when the entire student body needed to be united. We had faculty members who were new and others who had been teaching at Cathedral for several years. My freshman Latin teacher was Msgr. Vincent Keane, who wound up being a friend and model priest! Msgr. Howard Basler was new also, and we probably had more pranks in his class than any other. In sophomore year, we all went to the main building, located at 555 Washington Avenue on the corner of Washington and Atlantic Avenues. It was an austere looking building with architectural features like “Spires” (our school newspaper) and “Gargoyles” (our school literary journal). A Queens branch opened in 1963 and is still operating. The Brooklyn building closed in 1985.

         At Cathedral, we received a “classical education” with a brilliant and dedicated faculty. It was an education that included four years of high school and two years of college in the same building. It was demanding in many ways – at least two hours of homework every night, and no outside sports teams; What was most unusual, having Thursday as a day off and attending classes on Saturday. I still remember trying to convince the subway booth attendant to honor my train pass on Saturday morning! I remember showing him my school bag and insisted that I would not be carrying this bag loaded with books on a Saturday unless I was going to school. It took a while to get use to this new way of life, but eventually it became routine. Thursday would be a day to either hang out with classmates or do some of those chores around the house that Mom and Dad needed me to do.

         After six years of “school on Saturday,” I went to the “major seminary” only to find out that they too had classes on Saturday – at least for the first two years! I guess it just goes to show that my education had no “weekends off,” certainly preparing me for weekends in the Priesthood. I can’t complain at all! I received a great education!