Series on seminarians

[This is the third and final in a series on diocesan seminarians.]

SPARTA  Over the years, Wade Trainor, a diocesan seminarian, has opened himself to the possibility of God calling him to the priesthood by opening not only his heart, but also his mind to a rigorous, intellectually stimulating academic study of the faith. Helping to guide him on this journey have been high-school teachers and seminary professors along with intellectuals of ancient times such as Plato and Aristotle and theologians of the early Church such as St. Paul and St. Gregory of Nazianzus.

“This [academic study] has enabled me to go deeper into my faith,” said Trainor, 24, who has just entered his third year of theology study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He credits an early influence, Jeffrey Bond, who taught him courses including history, political philosophy, AP literature and AP theology as a student at Pope John XXIII Regional High School, Sparta. “He gets being Catholic. He lets the truth speak for itself. He brought into class Plato, Aristotle and in the vast philosophical and theological heritage of the Church that the Reformation was departing from to make sense of our faith. I fell in love with the intellectual tradition of our faith, which is about following Christ and living for God’s purposes,” he said.

From St. Jude Parish in Hardyston, Trainor has dived deeper into his faith through the teaching of a few of the Jesuit priests at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, while he is enrolled as a student at North American College. He has enjoyed courses on the Fathers of the early Church, the letters of St. Paul and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, a fourth-century theologian who faced problems such as difficult relationships with his strong-willed friend, Basil, and his own father.

“My studies at the Gregorian have made Paul come to life as a person and shown the early Church fathers to be witty men — not dour and staid but passionate and intelligent men who at the time were deciding what the priesthood was going to be like,” said Trainor, who anticipates being called to ordination as a priest of the Diocese in 2022.

Trainor’s intellectual curiosity started to grow on the college level at St. Andrew’s Hall at Seton Hall University in South Orange. There, he lived in community with a wide range of men — some who were 18 years old and older men with work experience. He enjoyed his courses in philosophy and theology at the college seminary, from which he was graduated in 2018.

The roots of Trainor’s faith and vocation grow from his parents: his father, Thomas, a retired N.J. State Trooper who has helped out at Pope John and works in security in the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office, and his mother, Katharina, a homemaker who worked as a secretary at the former Immaculate Conception School in Franklin, where he was graduated from in 2010. Also instrumental in his spiritual development are his brothers: Joe, 36; Mark, 34; and Clayton, 29, who all grew in their faith as they got older. The family would attend Sunday Mass, pray every night at bedtime and volunteer for events at St. Jude’s. Trainor and his brothers also served as altar servers, he said.

“Back then, I was interested in my faith and thought that it was important to grow in and learn more about the faith. At the time I didn’t realize the full importance of it,” said Trainor. He counts Father William Collins, former pastor of St. Jude’s and now a retired priest, and Father Martin Glynn, former Immaculate Conception pastor and current pastor of St. Mary Parish in Denville, as early influences.

As a junior at Pope John, Trainor began discerning a call to priesthood, asking himself, “Why not you?”

“At the time, I couldn’t come up with a good answer. I was making excuses. I just hoped, that whatever my vocation, that I would shine the light of God and be the salt of the earth,” said Trainor, who made his decision during his senior year at Pope John. “Then, I told my parents. They weren’t expecting it, but they weren’t surprised either,” he said.

During this time, Trainor received encouragement from Father Collins and Father James O’Rorke, a retired priest who also had served as St. Jude’s pastor. He also heard God’s call more clearly through participation in summer diocesan Quo Vadis Days discernment retreats for young men. He said these experiences gave him a “spiritual high” with their mix of “structured prayer as a community, talks by priests and seminarians who took time out for us, and time for recreation” with fellow retreatants.

Another major influence for Trainor was Father Daniel O’Mullane, former Pope John chaplain and teacher who now serves as pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (OLMC) in Boonton. Even though Trainor had no classes with the priest at Pope John, he would speak with him in his classroom during free periods and attended daily Mass in the chapel.

“Father Dan helped me in my formation and discernment,” said Trainor who noted that Father O’Mullane had reviewed his application to St. Andrew’s before he submitted it. “Father Dan questioned my understanding of the question on it about celibacy. He said that originally I had given an intellectual answer. Instead, he asked me how celibacy informs my life personally,” he said.

In fact, Trainor stayed at OLMC after the Diocese called him back to New Jersey from Rome amid the coronavirus lockdown in March. He set up for Masses, accompanied Father O’Mullane on home visits and helped him on a long tour around Morris County with stops in Sussex County to bless people’s homes.

“It’s great to see Father Dan’s pastoral zeal and a parish that is growing and is interested in what we are doing — reaching out to people to let them know that we remember them [during the pandemic]. I was happy to be a part of it,” Trainor said.

During his seminary formation so far, Trainor also has completed apostolic experiences at St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa, the Neumann Centers of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark and other local colleges, a parish in northern Italy and at the Vatican as a tour guide.

“At Pope John, Wade was a committed student who was not living in pursuit of grades but searching for the truth. The Gospel is about the transformation of our lives and he has taken up that challenge. He is in formation with a goal: conformity to Christ,” Father O’Mullane said. “Wade has a deep prayer life. The people of Mount Carmel love him. They experienced his commitment to Christ, which helped draw Christ out in their own lives,” he said.