By Elena Perri • Posted February 7, 2025

Shepherds are prominent figures in the Bible, and Jesus is often called the Good Shepherd.

As the newly appointed rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Father Christopher Redcay is looking forward to his new role as shepherd of the seminary and the approximately 140 seminarians currently enrolled there.

“What excites me is that in many ways I feel like I’m being asked to be the pastor of the seminary,” Father Redcay said. “I just want my heart to be reflective of the Good Shepherd as I shepherd and guide the seminary community.”

Father Redcay’s appointment takes effect July 1 when he will succeed Auxiliary Bishop Keith Chylinski who has served as rector since 2022.

Bishop Chylinski, who was ordained a bishop in December 2023, will begin overseeing the archdiocesan Office for Catholic Education on July 1.

As director of spiritual formation at the seminary since 2023, Father Redcay ensures that every seminarian has a spiritual director, and he meets with small groups of seminarians every two weeks. In addition, Father Redcay oversees retreats for the men in the Theology Division and conducts monthly conferences on different topics with each class.

“A lot of spiritual formation is listening,” he said. “We say that God is the real director, and the spiritual director is helping the seminarians to listen and understand what the Lord might be saying and where the Lord might be leading them.”

Following his ordination in 1989, Father Redcay served as parochial vicar at Holy Innocents Parish in the Juniata section of Philadelphia.

He has held various positions in Catholic high schools, including faculty member at Roman Catholic High School in Philadelphia, school minister at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor and assistant principal at Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster.

A 1980 graduate of Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown, Father Redcay served for six years as president of Kennedy-Kenrick, which succeeded his alma mater. (Both schools have since closed.)

“The schools had already merged, but it was the same building, and five or six teachers were still there from when I was a student 20 years earlier,” he said. “It was just a nice experience having been taught by them, and then all of a sudden, we’re working together. I loved it.”

In 2007 he became pastor of Our Lady of Ransom Parish in Northeast Philadelphia, and four years later, he was assigned as pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Malvern.

After 16 years as a pastor, he was then named director of spiritual formation at St. Charles Seminary.

“I was 34 years ordained when I returned to the seminary, and I thought, ‘Wow, usually most of the staff and professors come back at a much earlier time,’ but it was the right thing at the right time.”

Father Redcay had been a spiritual director for seminarians for 15 years prior to working at the seminary full time. In his role he would meet monthly with up to three seminarians at the seminary or at St. Patrick’s or Our Lady of Ransom.

Attending the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha, Nebraska was a “phenomenal experience,” said Father Redcay, who earned a certificate in spiritual direction from the institute in 2020.

“It really was like a burst of energy that I received from my experience out there,” he said. “The whole idea of being ‘a beloved’ was so clear there, and I think that’s where that deeper desire to make sure our future priests and our current priests know they are beloved came from.”

For the next four months, Father Redcay will be shadowing Bishop Chylinski and learning about all aspects of the seminary and its operations.

“There’s a little bit of a learning curve,” he said. “As much as I want to be the pastor here, the seminary has different parts of it that need to come together. I’m excited to learn all that too.”

Father Redcay is looking forward to ensuring that priests are energized and prepared for carrying out Archbishop Pérez’s pastoral plan.

“We need our priests to be on fire for the love of the Church, but ultimately it has to be the love that they have for the God who loves them,” he said. “I think that priests need to be the leaders in bringing people back and engaging people. Being able to have a part of that in the seminary is exciting.”