Spring 2026 – Athenaeum Magazine
See the full Spring 2026 issue of Athenaeum below. This issue celebrates the education of everyone who discerns vocations through MTSM.
Lay formation in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati through Mount St. Mary’s Seminary is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Started by Rev. Robert Hater as the Lay Ministry Program, it has evolved into its current model as the School of Theology and is prepared to help prepare the lay faithful for another 50 years and beyond. Samuel B. Johnson, Ph.D., the Dean of the School of Theology and Joey Belleza, STL, PhD (Cantab.), the Program Director for the School of Theology, write about what the first 50 years was like and what their vision for the next 50 is.
One of the foundational pieces of the School of Theology is the Master’s Degree program, where students take their studies of the Scriptures and Theology deeper. This issue meets with students pursing their Master’s Degree along with Connie Song, the Director of the Maly Library to discuss what that process is like.
The purpose of both the Seminary and School of Theology is for its students to go out into their parishes and communities and bring what they learn to the faithful. This issue also recognizes those who graduated, whether it be the men in formation for the priesthood who have received the Master of Divinity or those in the School of Theology.
On the Seminary side, while 17 men will be ordained to the priesthood in the coming weeks, their brother seminarians in the classes below continue to receive their formation and go through discernment. Athenaeum recognizes the seminarians who received Admission to Candidacy and were installed into the Ministry of Acolyte and the Ministry of Lector.
In the fall, a new permanent deacon cohort began their three years of formation that, God-willing, will see them ordained to the permanent diaconate in Spring 2028. In addition to recognizing the men who have begun this stage of discernment, Athenaeum also goes inside what a weekend in the permanent deacon program is like, from time spent in prayer to time in the classroom to time socializing with their fellow candidates and the seminarians in formation for the priesthood.
In faculty news, Athenaeum takes the time to get to know Mikail Whitfield, Ph.D., more following his promotion to Associate Professor of Liturgy and Sacraments in January. Dr. Kenneth Craycraft, the James J. Gardner Family Chair of Moral Theology and Professor of Moral Theology at MTSM, took on an additional role in January when he became the full-time host of Driving Home the Faith on Sacred Heart Radio. Athenaeum caught up with him to discuss what that new role looks like and how MTSM has played a role in it.
In priest faculty news, Rev. Daniel K. Hess, S.T.L., is taking a new position with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations in July. He talks about his new position and his time at MTSM. Taking over for Father Hess as Director of the Propaedeutic Stage will be Rev. Jacob Willig, a 2018 MTSM graduate, he talks about returning to MTSM, his time as Chaplain of the Newman Center at Miami University in Oxford and getting to work with his brother Rev. Michael Willig, who serves as Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
There is also space to remember our recently departed friends in the ‘In Remembrance’ section.
Athenaeum is published twice a year for alumni, patrons and friends of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology. To be added to the mailing list, contact: Heidi Walsh at 513.233.6159 or hwalsh@athenaeum.edu.