Bishop Keith J. Chylinski

By Bishop Keith J. Chylinski • Posted May 21, 2025

The following is the address of Bishop Keith J. Chylinski at the Concursus graduation ceremony held May 14 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Bishop Chylinski will assume new responsibilities of overseeing Catholic education in the Church of Philadelphia and will be succeeded as rector of the seminary by Father Christopher Redcay. 

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Dear Archbishop Pérez, Archbishop Adams, Bishop Fitzgerald, Bishop Schlert, members of the Board of Trustees and benefactors, my brother priests and deacons, religious, seminarians, family and friends and most especially, dear graduates:

It is hard to believe that a year has already been completed at our new campus. It seems like just yesterday we were scrambling to move furniture into the newly constructed buildings, and yet it also feels as if we have resided at Lower Gwynedd for a very long time! God in his goodness has showered us with his abundant grace over this past year, the first at our new home, and I am truly grateful to him.

At my opening rector’s address this year, I mentioned how the transfer of an entire seminary campus, as stressful and difficult as it can be, is actually a very graced opportunity. It gives us all a chance to go back to our roots. Why does a seminary even exist? Why did many saints, including our patron, advocate such a model of forming future priests?

The answer came to me as our new home was being designed and built; as the steel and wood began to rise out of the ground, and the buildings took shape, with its walls, windows and floors. It struck me that the sole reason that we were doing this was so that we could reflect God to the world, by surrounding and saturating our future priests, deacons and students with him who is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.

Dear graduates, congratulations! I hope and pray that throughout your years of study and formation at St. Charles, you have encountered the Good, the True and the Beautiful in abundance. God is truly with us! Through his Word and his eucharistic presence, through the skilled teaching of our faculty, through the dedication of our administration and staff, through the bonds of friendship formed among your peers, you have all been afforded this graced opportunity to know God more, to love him more, and to serve him more. Please be generous in sharing what you have received with others. The sower went out to sow! Exiit qui seminat!

As my time as rector and my tenure at St. Charles comes to a close, I wish to thank God for this privileged opportunity to help form the Church’s next leaders and educators. I rejoice in him for any good that was accomplished and repent for any weaknesses or failures. Please forgive me. But through it all, it has been a very blessed 11 years. I truly love this seminary.

I am grateful to Archbishop Pérez for having given me this special opportunity to serve as rector. Thank you for your confidence and support. Thank you to our Board of Trustees and to our gracious benefactors, who have been such an invaluable source of assistance to us and have made the continuation of this institution possible.

I am grateful for all of the hard work, dedication, and friendship of our priests, administration, faculty, and staff. Thank you for all that you have done for me and for the seminary and its mission. And finally, I thank the seminarians, deacon candidates and students. Thank you for entrusting yourselves to the process of formation and education. Thank you for your “yes!” It gives me and all of us such great hope!

I am leaving this beloved seminary with sadness, yet gratitude, and with great peace in my heart, knowing that it will be led by such a fine, dedicated priest as Father Redcay. I am filled with confidence that as rector, he will be taking this institution to new heights. Father is a man of prayer, and he listens to the Holy Spirit. I am anxious to see how St. Charles will flourish in the years to come.

As we close out this year of formation, and our ceremony concludes today, let us remember that our journeys of faith continue, within each of our vocations. And whatever path is given to us, the Lord assures us of His grace.

Stay close to Him. In the end, nothing else matters but Him. Nothing else compares to Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty itself. And He will be with us until the end of time. May God bless you always!