Fr. Stephen Burr is no stranger to Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
A member of the seminary’s faculty since 2008 and its vice rector and dean of seminarian formation since 2017, he loves spending his days teaching, mentoring and praying alongside those studying within the 102-year-old institution’s winding Gothic walls.
He loves the community — eating meals together daily, celebrating Mass, praying the Liturgy of the Hours and venturing into the neighborhood to serve others.
He loves the seminarians, especially watching them grow into the men God intended them to be as they prayerfully discover their vocations.
It’s a part of who he is as a priest.
“Seminary priesthood is a heightened level of spiritual fatherhood,” Fr. Burr told Detroit Catholic. “A priest is always a father to his community, but here we live with the seminarians. We’re always there for them. We’re not only the spiritual fathers, the leaders, the teachers, but also the protectors, the ones who guide and the ones who challenge, just as a father would be to his son.”
Fr. Burr, 45, became Sacred Heart’s 14th rector and president on July 1, succeeding Msgr. Todd Lajiness, who has served in that role for the past nine years.