Seminarian Mathew C. Frisbee is pictured with Cincinnati Coadjutor Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr. (Photo courtesy of The Athenaeum of Ohio)

Cincinnati Coadjutor Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr presided Dec. 8 over the rite of admission to candidacy for holy orders in the Chapel of St. Gregory the Great at The Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati.

Admission to candidacy for holy orders has two aspects:

— An aspirant is publicly declaring that he is committing himself to a program of formation for service to God and to the Catholic Church as an ordained minister.

— The Catholic Church, in the person of the archbishop, is publicly accepting the aspirant into the ranks of the candidates for holy orders.

Acceptance into the ranks of candidates does not constitute a right to receive ordination to the diaconate or priesthood. It is a first official recognition on the part of the church that there are preliminary signs of a vocation to holy orders that remain to be confirmed in subsequent years of formation.