God has been generous with the archdiocese’s four newest priests and he now desires that they use those gifts in new ways to serve his people, said Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis before ordaining the men to the priesthood during a May 27 liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
“Today, Jesus is taking you and making you his instruments, his priestly ministers to grow his Church,” he told transitional Deacons Kyle Etzel, Ryan Glaser, William Kratt and John Rumpza, in the presence of their families, supporters, clergy and religious during the homily at their ordination Mass.
“Through you, Christ himself will speak,” the archbishop said. “Through you, he will absolve sins and reconcile the faithful to the Father. That’s why all these people are here. We’re so excited about what God is going to do through you.”
About 2,900 people attended the Mass, which Archbishop Hebda concelebrated with Auxiliary Bishops Joseph Williams and Michael Izen; Sioux Falls Bishop Donald DeGrood and Maronite Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun of St. Maron in Minneapolis.
Also concelebrating were more than 140 priests. About 20 deacons participated in the liturgy, which was also attended by women religious from several communities.
Several days after the ordination, Father John Rumpza, 34, said he feels a new strength and a deeper zeal “to protect and fight for my people” and give them God’s gifts. Father Rumpza said he looks forward to getting to know his new flock at his first priestly assignment, St. Odilia in Shoreview.
Processing into the Cathedral at the start of the ordination was powerful, Father Rumpza said, because he knew he was holding nothing back from God.
Even more significant was leaving the altar as a newly ordained priest, he said, “knowing (God) had responded to my offering by giving me the greatest gift of my life since baptism. I am his priest, and not just in this life, but for all eternity, too.”
John and Mary Kavanagh said they’ve already seen how Father Rumpza has loved parishioners at his teaching parish, St. Henry in Monticello. “He’s just going to continue to do beautiful things as a priest,” said Mary, 60, who with her husband belongs to St. Henry. “We’re just very emotional, very blessed to know (Father Rumpza) and we wish we could keep him at St. Henry’s.”
Father Ryan Glaser’s teaching parish, Holy Name of Jesus in Medina, is also where he’ll begin serving in his first priestly assignment this summer. One of his hopes is to help parishioners realize God’s love for them.
As Father Glaser, 26, greeted and blessed family and friends after the ordination, he said, “I’m where God wants me. … It’s many years in the making, but it’s overwhelming. All of a sudden, it happened and I’m at the beginning of another journey, as one ends.”
Father Glaser said he was especially moved when he was prayed over by all the concelebrating priests during the ordination rite. “The moment where the priest sits in the middle of that prayer, ‘renew deep within them the Spirit of holiness’ and I, though unworthy to have someone pray that over me, to enrich me,” he said. “I need to pray that every day.”
Calling Father Glaser “a really great guy,” Holy Name of Jesus parishioner Joe Floeder, 69, said he believes he will be a good priest. Floeder, who attended the ordination to support the new priest, said he got to know him as he and other Holy Name parishioners took the then-seminarian out for breakfast after daily Mass.
Supporting another of the new priests, Father Kyle Etzel, 31, was a large “cheering section” consisting of extended family and godparents, said his sister Sarah Etzel, 25.
As the eldest of three growing up at St. Hubert in Chanhassen, Father Etzel has been a guiding light in his family, said his brother Nick Etzel, 28, who added that he hopes his brother will “extend that into his new parish family and see where he can grow and thrive with his next adventure.”
When Father Etzel begins that adventure at his first parish assignment this summer, St. Joseph in West St. Paul, he said he’ll be open to whatever the Lord asks of him.
But the idea of priestly ordination was still “surreal” to him, right up until the archbishop said the prayer of ordination, Father Etzel said.
Just before that prayer, during the Litany of Supplication, when the candidates prostrated themselves in front of the altar while the congregation sang the Litany of the Saints, Father Etzel said he experienced profound peace and grace that made him forget his earlier nervousness.
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“It was happy, it was joyful and peaceful and (I’m) just very grateful for the Holy Spirit’s work, especially in the sacrament,” Father Etzel said.
One of the saints the ordinands included in the Litany was the 12th century anchorite hermit, St. Drogo of Sebourg. Injecting a bit of humor into his homily, Archbishop Hebda related how his curiosity at the inclusion of the relatively unknown saint led him to discover that, as the patron of coffee and baristas, St. Drogo is especially popular with millennials and Gen Z.
The archbishop said he questioned why the ordinands overlooked St. Augustine of Canterbury, whose feast day was the May 27 ordination day and who evangelized thousands in England in the sixth century.
Encouraging the candidates to emulate St. Augustine of Canterbury a little more than St. Drogo in the context of implementing the Archdiocesan Synod, the archbishop said: “We need you to be willing to go wherever you are sent to plant and to grow our Church.”
But with a nod toward St. Drogo, he added, “Your beachheads might not be the white cliffs of Dover, but the counters and tables of (coffee shops) Caribou, Spyhouse and Nina’s.”
In both the critical and “more ordinary” moments of their lives, said Father William Kratt, 27, before his ordination, he looks forward to getting to know parishioners when he starts his first assignment at St. Hubert in Chanhassen.
While excited and in awe of becoming a priest, he said it seemed like something beyond him and he didn’t feel worthy. But, Father Kratt added that God “knows all my weaknesses, all my flaws, and he still calls me, and he still wants me to be his priest. That’s pretty amazing.”
Father Kratt’s mother, Barbara Kratt, was thrilled to see her son become a priest. “It was a beautiful experience to stand behind my son on that and just love on him,” said Barbara, a parishioner of St. Mark in St. Paul, who along with the other mothers of the new priests brought up the gifts during the liturgy. “I just stood behind him, loving him and praying for him. It was beautiful.”
Hannah Hilgendorf, 32, a mother of five young children, including her unborn child, said she traveled from Omaha, Nebraska, with her husband, Father Stephen Hilgendorf, to support Father Etzel and the other new priests. A former Anglican priest, Father Hilgendorf is now a priest in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. According to the Ordinariate’s website, it is equivalent to a diocese, created by the Vatican in 2012 for those nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to become Catholic.
The family was “very, very excited” that the four men, whom they have gotten to know, were being ordained, Hannah said. “We are so grateful that God has blessed the Catholic Church by giving her more faithful priests and we are eager to see an increase in vocations and a continued improvement in formation.”
