Pittsburgh Catholic Newspaper - News and Features

News & Features

Religious priest begins work at seminary
archived from: 2013-01-18
by: Pittsburgh Catholic Staff Report

Sulpician Father Howard Bleichner is a Pittsburgh native

A Pittsburgh native has come home to serve on the staff of St. Paul Seminary in Crafton.

Sulpician Father Howard Bleichner is serving as assistant spiritual director at the seminary, under Father Benedetto Vaghetto. He most recently worked as an adjunct professor of systematic theology at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, Calif.

Father Bleichner, who started his new position Dec. 21, is teaching at the seminary in conjunction with Duquesne University. He also serves as an adviser to the students and resides at the seminary.

He is looking forward to new challenges, noting that he is coming from a larger institution with an emphasis on graduate programs, to one focusing on undergraduate courses.

“It feels good,” he said of his new assignment, “though coming from California in December feels a little different, to say the least.”

Father Bleichner attended St. Basil grade school and high school in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and attended the University of Muenster in Germany, St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe and St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He also studied at Duquesne and the University of Tuebingen in Germany.

He was ordained in 1967. He has served as a professor of systematic theology, chairman of systematic theology and vice rector of St. Mary’s Seminary, and a professor of systematic theology and chairman of systematic theology at St. Patrick’s Seminary.

From 1978-88, he served as president-rector of St. Patrick’s Seminary and University, and from 1989-92 as executive director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He also served as an adviser for the U.S. bishops, International Synod of Bishops on Priestly Formation and as rector of Theological College of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Father Bleichner has written and edited numerous publications and papers. In addition, he has led many priests’ retreats in dioceses and archdioceses around the country.

E-mail this story