Great Bend Rotarians had an opportunity to hear about the life of a Catholic seminarian as Deacon John Stang, Great Bend native and son of Rotarian Dr. Patrick Stang and his wife Cathy, spoke to the club Monday afternoon at the Great Bend Public Library.

John, who was ordained as a deacon in the Diocese of Dodge City on June 19, is studying to become a Catholic priest. He visited the Rotary Club Monday to present what his life is like as a seminarian studying for the priesthood, and how he decided to follow his calling to the Catholic priesthood.

Stang, who graduated from Great Bend High School in 2009, said he began to feel called to the priesthood his senior year at GBHS, even as he went on to pursue an undergraduate degree in history at Roanoke College in Virginia.

“That call just stuck with me and never left,” he said. “I could still feel the Lord was calling me to something deeper.”

After working as a reporter for a year and a half at a small weekly newspaper in Virginia, he said he really started to pay heed to the calling.

“That’s when I began to understand that a vocation is more than just a job that you do; it’s a way of life,” he said.

He entered seminary through the Dodge City dioceses in 2015, attending a regional seminary in Denver with another young seminarian from the diocese. He described the process from being a seminarian to becoming a priest as a journey.

Because he already had an undergraduate college degree, the seminary process was to take seven years – a year of what he called a spirituality year of discernment and prayer, two years of pre-theology studies, then four years of graduate theology studies, which includes a variety of studies on aspects of the church ranging from the seven sacraments to church history, and other practical classes. 

However, he said the process of a seminarian is not simply one of academic formation, but one of spiritual, human and pastoral formation, as well. His own ministry work as a seminarian has included hospital ministry, work at a homeless shelter, teaching religious education at different parishes, and more.

At the end of the sixth year, the seminarian is ordained as a deacon, a process which he just completed. An ordained deacon, he noted, performs several roles within the Catholic church as an assistant to the priest. Those roles can include the reading of the Gospel and preaching at daily Masses, distributing Holy Communion, and performing baptisms, weddings, funerals, and other special Masses.

Some deacons will continue on to the priesthood, which he will be ordained to next June, while other deacons, called permanent deacons, do not pursue the priesthood, but must reach the age of 35. While permanent deacons can be married, they cannot do so once being ordained as a deacon.

Currently, as a transitional deacon, Stang is assigned to St. Mary’s Parish in Garden City, the second largest parish in the diocese. This is a unique experience, he said, because the work in this parish involves work with a variety of different nationalities. In addition to working with parishioners from Mexico and Central America, he said there are also significant Vietnamese, Burmese and Somali populations, among others. Though he does not deal extensively with many of the other nationalities, he said he has said Mass in both English and Spanish regularly.

In the 48-parish Dodge City diocese, he said, there are currently only about 29 priests, and often priests are brought in from other areas across the world, as is currently the case with the Prince of Peace Parish in Great Bend.

Once he is ordained to the priesthood next summer, Stang said he will most likely be assigned as an assistant priest somewhere within the diocese for a couple of years before being assigned a head pastoral role within a parish. Though many parishes have finance councils, he said a pastoral role can include administrative duties within a parish as needed.

Though seminarians receive leadership training in their final year of formation, Stang said much of that training in leadership comes through hands-on experience and mentorship.