I grew up in the furtherst northeastern edge of the Cleveland Diocese in Madison, Ohio. I attended public school from kindergarten through my senior year of high school, as about half of the seminarians do these days. From very early on, I would help out in the family business. My family ran a Party Center, DeRubertis Party center out in Madison. So I grew up working alongside cousins and aunts and uncles, and of course my mom, dad, and sister, very hard workers, all of them.
I attended PSR at my home parish, Immaculate Conception in Madison, and was an altar boy from fourth grade to eighth grade. My parents were not very active Catholics. It was my grandparents who would bring me to Mass. I can’t imagine how I’d be a priest today, had my grandparents not gone out of their way to pick me up and bring me to mass every week, promising me breakfast after church didn’t hurt in getting me there. So never underestimate the role that grandparents have in sewing seeds of faith in their grandchildren.
In high school, I enjoyed hanging out with friends, I was in the computer club, tennis team, chess team, math team, show choir, jazz choir and was very involved in the drama club, performing in plays and musicals. I also acted at several local theaters. Having very little support from my parents, my faith drifted quite substantially during high school. I quit PSR before receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation and quit attending mass and really stopped praying. I described myself as an atheist, debated and even mocked people who were Christians. So I certainly strayed from God in those years, but God was working behind the scenes to bring me home.
Out of the several colleges to which I applied, it was John Carroll University which awarded me with the most significant academic scholarship. So, I enrolled at John Carroll where I planned on majoring in Mathematics.
During that first semester, my cousin asked me to be the godfather for her new baby. Now there were several problems there. Firstly, I had never received the Sacrament of Confirmation, so I didn’t even qualify to be a godparent in the Catholic Church. Secondly, after four years of extremely secular public education, I didn’t even know if I believed in Catholicism at that point. So, I was honest with my cousin. I made her a deal. I said, I would attend Confirmation classes with an open mind and start going to church again, but if I could not embrace Catholicism, then she would have to find another godparent for her child.
Well, it only took one or two sessions of the faith being presented in a clear articulate way by Fr. Luigi Miola, pastor out in Madison at the time, that I fell in love with the faith again, so much so that I began to seriously consider what God was calling me to do with my life and how I could best serve Him. Fr. Miola encouraged me to visit the seminary, and I attended a vocation program at Borromeo seminary on Pentecost weekend. I then raced home to Madison that very same weekend to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. And the week after that, I proudly stoodd up at the baptismal font as godfather for my cousin’s baby, who is now 21 years old.
At that vocation weekend on Pentecost Sunday, things became pretty clear. I remember kneeling down in the seminary chapel—Resurrection chapel and praying, “Lord, I think I am here for a reason. If you want me to be a priest I will be a priest, if you want me to be a monk or a hermit, I will be a monk or a hermit. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
Well, God spoke in a number of ways that weekend. He spoke particularly in the example of the seminarians I met that weekend. Here were young men: smart, funny, devout, and personable who loved the Church and loved God enough to give their lives in celibate priestly service. If they were willing, why couldn’t I? I wouldn’t be alone. I’d have brothers who shared my values and ideals—the highest ideal I could think of: to give one’s life for the glory of God and salvation of souls. Is there anything more important?
And God also spoke as in the examples of the priests I’d known: Priests who celebrated beautiful masses. Priests who delivered stirring, inspirational and thought-provoking and challenging sermons. Priests who offered the consoling words of mercy in the confessional. Priests who were shepherds for their parishes and equipping the members of their flocks to fight off the wolves of this dark and fallen world. I had encountered some wolves, and fallen prey to their teeth, after all. But the good shepherd had come to my rescue through these good faithful men.
So, I entered Borromeo Seminary that Fall in 2001 as a college sophomore. Some young men struggle in their discernment of the priestly calling even after entering seminary, but my discernment was fairly “easy”. Some guys really struggle with the idea of celibacy. Now, I had girlfriends in high school and college freshmen year. I had an inkling that getting married and starting a family could lead to a happy fulfilling life, and we need holy families to carry out the mission of the Church. But, again it didn’t take but a few months to be fairly certain, that God was inviting me to holy celibacy, and he would give me the graces to live out of that call.
During my seminary years I was able to serve at Cuyahoga Country Jail with Fr. Neil Walters, Mary Mount Hospital with Fr. Joe O’Donnell, and Holy Redeemer Parish in Collinwood with Fr. Marty Polito. I interned at Holy Trinity Parish in Avon with Fr. John Misenko, worked with adolescents struggling with chemical dependency at New Directions Treatment Facility in Pepper Pike, and served as a transitional deacon at Holy Cross Parish (now Our Lady of the Lakes Parish) in Euclid with Father John McNulty and Fr. Jack Jenkins God rest his soul. What do these priests have in common? Not much, except they are holy priests and desire to serve the Church with their lives.
I enjoyed my years in seminary, (and what a blessing to have our own seminary in the diocese!), and formed some of the most important friendships of my life with the men I now call my brother priests. I was ordained by Bishop Richard Lennon on May 16, 2009 along with Fr. Anthony Suso, now pastor of St. Columbkille in Parma, Fr. Matthew Pfeiffer, now pastor of St. Paul’s in Akron, Fr. Sean Ralph, rector of the Cathedral, and Fr. Christopher Trenta, who Bishop Lennon sent to study liturgy in Rome, who is now back home in Cleveland, and teaching at the seminary.
My life could have turned out very differently, had it not been for faithful Catholics living their faith, Catholics like YOU: My grandparents who brought me to mass every week, my Aunt who would pick me up from John Carroll and bring me back home to Madison so could attend Confirmation classes; my pastor, Fr. Miola for his clear and faithful teaching...I don't think I would have been convinced by watered-down theology, even back then; the priests and seminarians who witnessed to their love of the priesthood; and, yes, it’s hard for me to say, even the Jesuits at John Carroll. As I was rediscovering my faith, it was a Jesuit Priest, Father Joseph Schell, may he rest in peace, who helped me develop a personal prayer life with the exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and encouraged me attend silent retreats.
I had very very secular anti-Catholic friends who thought I was crazy for going back to the Church, who began to look at me almost as an enemy after committing to the truth of the Catholic faith. But, once you realize that the Catholic faith is true, you are forever changed by that realization.
So, again, never underestimate the power of sharing your faith with non-practicing and fallen away Catholics...I know...I was one! or those who do not seem as committed to the faith as you are. The Good Shepherd sought out lost sheep, he went to the places where sinners ate, meeting them where they are with the truth of the Gospel, and we must do the same.
So, that’s part one of the vocation story: from altar boy to atheist to seminarian and priest. Part two: the first fourteen years of priestly service, will have to come at another time.
Please pray for vocations, that young men will hear the Lord’s call to discern a priestly vocation. We will need priests until the end of time, so pray that the Good Shepherd will inspire young men to follow in his footsteps. And consider how the Good Shepherd might be calling you to reach out to those nephews, nieces, and grandchildren who have drifted away. My grandparents promised me breakfast after church: the promise of hashbrowns, toast and jelly, bacon and sausage links is all that it took. Bribe them with food. Get them to Church. It’ll change their lives. For the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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