The Distinguished Alumni Award is given to an alumnus of The Saint Paul Seminary who has lived an exemplary life as a leader in the Church. We have two 2026 recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award: Bishop Andrew Cozzens and Dr. Robert Kennedy. The following is an interview with Bishop Cozzens:
Nell O’Leary Alt, JD: Bishop Cozzens, would you please share a little about your vocation story and also your time here at the Seminary?
Bishop Cozzens: I actually don’t remember a time I didn’t want to be a priest. From the moment of my First Holy Communion, especially I experienced a draw to be close to Jesus in the Eucharist and thought that God wanted me to serve Him as a priest. I didn’t always speak about that openly, especially in high school because it didn’t help you get dates. But deep down, even in high school, if you would’ve known me, I would’ve told you I was thinking about being a priest. After attending Benedictine College, I had the privilege to serve as a missionary for Net Ministries and I knew as that time was coming to an end that I needed to go to Seminary.
It was at this same time that the Companions of Christ, a fraternity of diocesan priests in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, was just beginning to get permission to study for priesthood at The Saint Paul Seminary.
After some months of discernment, I decided to join the Companions of Christ. And after a year of formation in the community where I also worked for St. Paul’s Outreach, I started at The St. Paul Seminary in the fall of 1992. I’m very grateful for much that I learned at The Saint Paul Seminary in those years and also for the strong friendships I formed with my classmates and other brothers. Seminary is such a unique time in everyone’s life. It’s a privileged time to be able to dedicate yourself to formation and study. I realized that I was given a great gift to have that time for study.
It was in my time in Seminary that I really began to love theology, which led to my later getting a doctorate degree in theology. One of the highlights of my time in Seminary was the opportunity to spend a semester in the Holy Land living and studying in Jerusalem. That experience had a transformative impact on me, especially in my growth and love for the Lord and the Holy Scriptures. I was delighted when years later, after five years in two parishes, I was asked by Archbishop Flynn to go and pursue a doctorate degree so I could teach at The Saint Paul Seminary.
Having finished my doctoral studies, I started teaching full-time in 2006. I was able to teach for eight and a half years before being named an auxiliary bishop. Those were some of the best years of my priesthood. I really loved the work of seminary formation and I loved the experience of spiritual fatherhood that I had with the seminarians. Work in a seminary is different than work in a parish, but I began to realize as I was investing in these young men that indirectly I would have a profound impact on the Church by helping form the next generation of priests. During this time, I really began to see how important seminary formation is. It was also during this time that I worked to help found an organization to strengthen seminary formation throughout the country called the Seminary Formation Council. Together we developed a formation program that would help to bring seminary formation into the 21st century with the vision of the new founding documents from Rome.
I can honestly say that in our country, seminary formation has never been stronger than it is today. There’s no other organization, there’s no other career for which a man gets as much individual attention and formation as a man preparing today for the Catholic priesthood. Each seminarian meets with a spiritual director and a formation director every two to three weeks for several years. That kind of individual attention helps him develop into the man of God the world needs today.
Nell: You also served as interim rector at the Seminary for six months, which is a special role to have at your alma mater. Would you share a little about how that experience was for you?
Bishop Cozzens: In 2018, I was delighted to have the opportunity to be an interim rector at the Seminary. I joked with the seminarians that I never wanted to be a bishop, but I did want to be a rector. And since I only had six months, I had years of thoughts about seminary formation to give them during this time. I really enjoyed the opportunity to serve in this way at The Saint Paul Seminary. I led the search for the new rector that same year and was so pleased when the search committee, after considering many excellent candidates, settled on Father Taphorn as the next rector for The Saint Paul Seminary. Father Taphorn and I had been friends since we were in college. We both discerned our vocations together and grew in our faith so much during our university years.
Nell: What was it like to pass off the rector office to Father Taphorn, whom you know so well, and how do you see the Seminary having flourished in the last eight years under his leadership?
Bishop Cozzens: It’s been wonderful to see Father Taphorn step in to the rector position and really come into his own and bring The Saint Paul Seminary to the next level. Under Father Taphorn’s leadership, we’re offering excellent formation in all of the various dimensions, human, pastoral, spiritual and theological. In my opinion, The Saint Paul Seminary has never been stronger than it is today, and that bodes well for the future of the church in this area. When I became the bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, I had to make the decision every bishop has to make, and it’s a very important decision about which seminary to send his seminarians to. For me though, it was actually an easy decision because I had helped to form and build the program at The Saint Paul Seminary and I knew how strong it was. I knew that I wanted my seminarians to experience the gift of this program.
And so early on, I decided to move my seminarians to The Saint Paul Seminary so they could take advantage of the great gift that it is.
Nell: Your tenure as bishop began in 2013 with the appointment as an auxiliary for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. You then were appointed in 2021 for the Diocese of Crookston. In the last five years, you’ve issued a pastoral letter, led the National Eucharistic Congress, and shepherded your flock including a number of men in seminary formation. You’ve been busy! Are there particular moments or highlights you’d like to share with us about what God’s doing through you?
Bishop Cozzens: Since I’ve been in the diocese of Crookston, we’ve worked really hard on vocations. I’m grateful that this year we added four new men to our seminarians going from five seminarians to nine. Vocations are in a very real way, one of the most important works for a bishop because the Church depends on priests and religious to help carry the mission forward in powerful ways. It’s exciting and whenever the Faith flourishes in a given area, vocations also flourish. It’s exciting to see the growth in the diocese of Crookston in the area of vocations. As many know, I’ve also had the privilege in working in some national capacities as the chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress.
Being the leader of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in 2024 will always be one of the great highlights of my life. The Eucharistic Revival and the Eucharistic Congress turned out to be a great work of the Holy Spirit that I believe God is still using. And I know that one of the fruits of that Eucharistic Congress has been vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. Even in my own diocese, one of our new seminarians said that he experienced the call in adoration at the National Eucharistic Congress. I think we live in a time when it’s profoundly exciting to be a Catholic for many reasons. One of the reasons is I think we’re going to begin to see vocations to priesthood and religious life flourish in our time. I’m so glad that The Saint Paul Seminary is prepared well to help the young men who come with all of the various struggles and weaknesses of young men in our time to become strong holy priests of the third millennium.
The Saint Paul Seminary is forming priests uniquely fitted for the new evangelization in our day, and I’m grateful to be a part of that work.
We’re grateful for you, Bishop Cozzens!