Tired of delays in developing Old St. Vincent's Seminary, Monsignor Joseph E. Gosche developed another plan for it.

He wants the acreage and sizable buildings turned into the International Center for the Study of American Democracy.

Months ago, Gosche told Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation, potential seminary buyers, about his plan. Foundation board members didn't respond positively or negatively to the idea and haven't contacted him since. Undeterred, Gosche discussed his idea with others.

Formerly the pastor at St. Mary's Cathedral, the monsignor now serves at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Fredericktown.

He is well acquainted with finding new purposes for old buildings. In 1978, Gosche helped oversee the drive to save St. Vincent's Church in downtown Cape Girardeau. The church was accepted into the state's historic register, and government funds were used to restore it.

Restoration was completed in 1987. There are religious services at St. Vincent's every Sunday and several cultural events there each year.

Gosche sees the nearby seminary not as another cultural center, but as a place for great minds to come together. They would research the true meaning of being a citizen in the United States, study the origins of American law and define patriotism.

"This proposal deserves attention," Gosche said Monday. "A group of people would get together and restore to people the knowledge and appreciation that, in American democracy, government belongs to and serves the people."

The idea came to him several years ago and has solidified with the passage of time. The International Center for the Study of American Democracy would be run by people called Patriots, divided into groups called Cadres. Each Cadre would oversee various functions of the center, including fund raising, discussion list development and publicity.

Gosche said concerned groups from across the nation would share in financing the center. He believes the city of Cape Girardeau, the Downtown Merchants Association and the West End Merchants Association should share in buying the seminary, then turn it over to a board of directors for the not-for-profit center.

His idea isn't without precedent, according to Dr. Peter Bergerson, political science professor at Southeast Missouri State University. Political analysts at the Brookings Institute and the Heritage Foundation, both in Washington, D.C., and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University study public policy.

At those places, experts who have served in government and academics take turns serving for various lengths of times. However, the institutes don't operate exactly how Gosche's proposed center would.

"The center sounds fine," Bergerson said. "But I'm not so sure that the true meaning of American Democracy can be found. That is something that has been debated for 200 years, and I have a feeling it will be debated for 200 more years."

Board members of the Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation aren't sure they will get involved if they end up buying the property. They are in the process of getting a $650,000 loan to buy the seminary, a process that has taken more than a year.

Board member Bill Green said the foundation isn't in a position to make final decisions on the use until the deal is complete. The foundation's by-laws dictate that the seminary be used for a museum and cultural center.

"That doesn't mean we can't have some offshoots," Green said. "It's a big building."