Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill welcome Connor Lynch, seminarian for the Diocese of Des Moines and a son of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianola, who is studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Connor is set to be ordained a transitional deacon on October 1, and this conversation catches him on the cusp of it. Bishop's Opening — Labor Day Weekend and the Week Ahead Bishop Joensen opens with a Labor Day reflection on the dignity of work, giving thanks for tradesmen, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and linemen, along with teachers and students two weeks into the new school year. He notes several diocesan events on the calendar: Confirmation at Christ the King Parish on the south side of Des MoinesLabor Day: a Mass marking 70 years of religious life for Sister Marilyn Jean Hagedorn, CHM (Congregation of the Humility of Mary) at St. Pius X Parish in Urbandale, honoring her witness to peace and justice and her call to poverty of spiritTuesday, September 8 (the Nativity of Mary): the arrival of two missionary priests from Nigeria who will take up ministry in Shelby County and five other parishes, following an extended visa processAn upcoming pilgrimage to Poland with 55 diocesan pilgrims The Bishop closes the segment on St. Teresa of Calcutta, reading from her private correspondence on the interior darkness she carried for decades — the hidden cross that became, as he puts it, the very spring of her sanctity. Segment Two — Cynicism, Wisdom, and the Turn Connor talks about returning to Rome as a senior brother to fellow Des Moines seminarians, including Michael Posegate, and about showing them the city's churches, shrines, and coffee bars. He names honestly the arc many seminarians travel: initial wonder, then a season of cynicism after his first year in Rome, then a turn toward wisdom. What made the turn possible, he says, was relationship — coming to know his formation faculty as people and building real friendships with his brother seminarians. Cynicism, in his framing, objectifies an institution; friendship restores the persons within it. Asked by the Bishop to define wisdom, Connor points to humility, a conscientious grasp of the human condition, and words that land as true because they are lived rather than abstract. Segment Two (cont.) — The Call Connor recounts a high school marked by soccer, his parents' hobby farm, and passing considerations of ag engineering, nursing, and the Air Force Academy. The first real jolt came when Father Chris Fontanini asked whether he had considered the priesthood — a question that, in Connor's words, rang through him like a bell. He ran from it spiritually for a couple of years. The turning point came on a mission trip to El Paso with STAT (St. Thomas Aquinas Teens), where the theme was God's Will for Your Life. Connor asked God for a sign and received an overwhelming experience of love at Mass the next day. When he spoke it aloud in his small group, the weight lifted. Over that week, ten to fifteen people independently asked him whether he'd thought about becoming a priest. Father Reed Flood was on the trip and coached him through making the phone call home. He also describes the value of manual labor — bagging groceries and working the bottle room at Hy-Vee, night stocking shelves, and a summer hauling concrete for a demolition crew in Ankeny alongside his cousin. Tangible work, tangible change. Segment Two (cont.) — Ordination Details The ordination will be an evening Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, celebrated at the Holy Spirit window, a newer custom for the North American College. Connor describes rounding the main altar afterward to find the basilica empty — an experience unlike any other. Eighteen men total will be ordained. Family, friends, and a diocesan pilgrimage group are expected to attend. Diocesan priests will be gathered for their annual workshop in Iowa City that day and will lift Connor up at Mass. Segment Three — Remembering Alex Connor speaks about his brother Alex Lynch, who battled cancer from age 16 and died May 8, 2026, at 23, at the family's farm home in Indianola. Alex graduated from Indianola High School, earned an Eagle Scout rank, and completed a finance degree from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas — receiving his diploma in a special ceremony less than a day before his death. His Funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Thomas Aquinas in Indianola. Connor shares the family's conviction that God was working through Alex's illness: a cousin estranged from the family reached out to reconcile at the very hour Alex's first biopsy confirmed cancer. He describes a brotherhood that deepened through the disease — days spent beside Alex's hospital bed, shoulder massages Alex insisted on giving to relieve Connor's stress, and repeated occasions when Connor, in Rome or at seminary, felt an unaccountable weight on his heart, called home, and found Alex struggling. He calls the bond ...
続きを読む
一部表示
26 分