Photo Caption: Six of the Diocese of Peoria’s 34 seminarians are featured on the new cards, which along with a new website and poster series help create a “culture of vocations.”

By: By Tom Dermody

They don’t come wrapped with a brittle stick of bubble gum like their baseball counterparts, but the Diocese of Peoria’s first set of Seminarian Trading Cards are quickly spreading interest in — and even prayers for — a different kind of hero to admire and emulate.

“Our seminarians are definitely heroes because they follow God’s will, not their own dreams,” said Msgr. Brian Brownsey, director of the Office of Priestly Vocations.

To promote the seminarians’ stories and invite prayer and thought around the Diocese of Peoria and beyond, the vocations office worked with Converse Marketing of Peoria to design not only the trading cards but a series of related posters and a revamped website, comeandfollowme.org. (See related story Much to see, ponder at diocese’s new vocations website.)

Six seminarians were selected to be featured on the trading cards, which have been sent to all Catholic schools and now are being shipped to parish religious education programs as well.

The seminarians featured — Deacon Jacob Rose, Adam Cesarek, Alex Davis, Chase Hilgenbrinck, Sam Mangieri III, and Micheal Pica — were chosen from among the 34 studying for the Diocese of Peoria because they are well known through leadership in Emmaus Days, the summer Bible school Totus Tuus, or have compelling personal stories. Hilgenbrinck, for example, is a former professional soccer player.

“A lot of people will pick up the cards and say, ‘I know him,'” said Amy Chovan, coordinator of the Office of Priestly Vocations, whose desk in recent weeks has been covered with trading cards being prepared for shipment.

The front of the cards feature illustrated images of the seminarians, their name, and the website address. And just as in sports trading cards, the back features statistics: birth date, home parish, year in the seminary.

To get more personal and share their faith, the seminarians also answer three questions on the back of each card:

— Why did you become a seminarian?

— What did you do before seminary? and

— Tell an interesting fact about you?

“The priests I knew growing up and in high school were my heroes,” said Deacon Rose, a native of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Peterstown who is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood next May. “After having profound encounters with the mercy of God and the sacraments, I realized that I wanted to go on to share that with other people just as those priests did for me.”

Michael Pica, from Holy Cross in Champaign, initially hoped to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a physical therapist.

“I wanted to change health care to be more people-oriented, and of course I wanted to change the world,” he writes. “Oh, and have a wife and children.”

During his time at Bradley University in Peoria, however, “I learned that I was called to holiness.”

“I knew that holiness is lived out in many different ways, but I wondered if I could grow in my own holiness if I went to a seminary . . . to discern more seriously whether God is calling me.” Pica is now studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Maryland and is on track to be a member of the ordination Class of 2016.

Interesting facts range from Pica’s once crashing a golf cart into a tree stump (with two University of Illinois athletes aboard) to Davis having attended 13 different schools. Cesarek called country music and baseball his “secondary evangelistic efforts,” and Mangieri formerly wanted to make commercials.

Msgr. Brownsey and Chovan said the appeal of the cards seems to be highest among boys and girls in grades 3 to 5. But others are embracing them as well, including priests and college students.

“A homeschool group was thrilled about them,” said Chovan. So are the seminarians’ families. “One family wanted 200 extra,” she said.

Each trading card ends with the diocesan seminarian prayer: “Lord, help me to want to be what you want me to be.”

Msgr. Brownsey called the seminarian trading cards, posters, and new website all part of the goal of “promoting a culture of vocations” in the diocese.

Those interested in obtaining sets of cards are invited to call Amy Chovan at (309) 671-1550 or write her at achovan@cdop.org.