College Catholics

Junior makes life-changing decision

Danny Shine, a graduate of Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis stands with his mother, Kate, father, Kevin, and younger brother, Will. Danny is attending Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland this fall. (Submitted photo)

By Kamilla Benko

Danny Shine has heard the same question many times over the last couple of months. Girls come up to him and ask, “Can you marry me?”

But they’re not proposing to him.

It’s the most common response from his female friends when Shine tells them he is entering the seminary, the first formal step to becoming a priest.

Whenever he tells them of his decision, the first thing the girls ask is if he will be the priest at their weddings. But the question always comes out a bit funny.

“I joke, ‘Where were you six months ago?’ ” he said with a laugh.

Shine is a member of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish in Carmel, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese.

He decided to enter the seminary after years—not months—of discernment.

He said the seeds of becoming a priest were planted during an eighth-grade retreat. Then-seminarian Christopher Shocklee, who is now a priest in the Lafayette Diocese, jokingly told him that one in every three men is called to be a priest.

Father Shocklee told him to think of his two best friends.

“Could either of them be a priest?” Father Shocklee asked.

“I was like, ‘No,’ ” said Shine. “Then [Father Shocklee] said, ‘Well, I guess that leaves you!’ ”

Shine continued discernment while he attended Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis. The 2007 graduate ran cross country and starred in the spring musical during his senior year.

He also joined the student group Students Encouraging Religious Vocations (SERV).

“Becoming involved with SERV helped me in speaking openly. It sort of made vocations something I could speak about without fear,” he said.

But he was not ready to commit to seminary and enrolled as a history major at Purdue University in the fall of 2007.

“Freshman year, I continued [my] discernment, but I was more focused on adjusting to that new situation,” he said.

“By Christmas break [of my] sophomore year, I was at a point where I needed to know [if I have a calling],” he said. “I don’t know if God wants me to be a priest, but I’m next to certain that God wants me to go to seminary.”

He will attend Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.

Though most college students will not be entering a seminary, many will make decisions that will have a large impact on their futures.

Shine said that speaking with friends and praying helped him with his life-changing choice. He encourages people to pray for college students who are entering an exciting and influential time in their lives.

“We [as a community] need to be praying for college students,” he said, “and we need to be living our lives to the best of our abilities so [students] see they don’t have to compromise.” †