Fr. Steve Pullis joins Fr. Craig and Fr. David to discuss his vocation story, his assignments as a priest, and his new role as the Director of Pastoral Formation at Sacred Heart.

(1:40) Fr. David and Fr. Craig catch up and introduce this episode’s guest, Fr. Steve Pullis, Director of Pastoral Formation for the seminary. Fr. Steve shares some highlights of his month, reflecting on time he was able to spend up north with some priest friends. Fr. David also gives the monthly Costco update.

(8:47) Fr. Steve shares his vocation story. He talks about growing up in a big Catholic family with nine siblings, attending a local Catholic college, and how transformative his time in silent prayer was as a young adult.

(13:28) Fr. Steve also talks about some things people can do if they’ve never been to Adoration before, like praying the rosary and the meditative ritual it provides. He mentions, too, the importance of the other people in his life, especially during college, who were full of love of the Lord.

(20:25) Reflecting on studies in theology and philosophy, Fr. Steve considers the impact they had on his vocation journey. He shares a transformative thought he felt enter his mind right before taking the LSAT, and the peace that flooded his heart when he said yes to the seminary.

(29:41) Fr. Craig asks what Fr. Steve’s life was like when he was applying to the seminary, and Fr. Steve shares what it was like telling his friends about his discernment. He also talks about sharing the news with his family.

(35:52) Fr. Steve talks about discussions about vocations or the priesthood in his family growing up, mentioning his oldest brother who entered religious life when Fr. Steve was very young. He also talks about coming face to face with his old sins through the lens of his vocation.

(42:01) Hearkening back to Fr. Steve’s Open Door Policy days, Fr. Craig and Fr. David ask Fr. Steve some ‘rapid fire questions’ about his favorite church in Detroit, his favorite Detroit musician, his favorite Marian devotion, and more.

(51:10) Fr. Steve talks about all his assignments as a priest in parishes, in diocesan leadership, and now at the seminary.

(1:06:41) Fr. Steve offers advice to young men who may be discerning the priesthood, encouraging them to make time to hear God speaking and talking about the joy that comes from following Jesus. They close with the Memorare.

Fr. Craig:

Welcome to Men of the Hearts, a monthly podcast from the Archdiocese of Detroit Office of Priestly Vocations. Join me, your host Father Craig Giera,

Fr. David:

and Father David Pellican.

Fr. Craig:

As we explore the priesthood, hear vocation stories from priests all over the archdiocese and answer questions about discerning a priestly vocation tune in every month to wherever you get your podcasts and learn more at detroitpriestlyvocations.com. Welcome everyone to another edition of Men of the Hearts podcast. Today, we have a special guest to the show. This priest is from the same parish as me and we were in seminary together for about five years. He has had many different assignments during his years as a priest, not only as an associate pastor, but some special assignments as well. He is also well known for the many podcasts. He's been a part of articles, written all of these great things. Father Stephen Pullis. Welcome to the show. How are you today?

Fr. Steve:

Hey, Father Craig, Father David, the the one fan we have here cheering us on! I'm great. It's a, it's a great honor. I'm a listener to your podcast. So I'm really honored to be with you today.

Fr. Craig:

Well, it's awesome to have you. Father David's in the house. How are you doing father David?

Fr. David:

Oh, I'm doing great, I'm doing great. I'm going to be doing really great tomorrow too.

Fr. Craig:

Now why is that? Vacation?

Fr. David:

Taking a little trip, yup, taking a vacation. Yea, but good to be with you. Father Stephen is always--Father Craig.

Fr. Craig:

Yes, Father Pullis! Before we get into your vocation story and talk about the special assignments that you have had and are going into, what's been a blessing for you this past month?

Fr. Steve:

Ooh, well kind of the opposite. Maybe that's the wrong way to say it, but the opposite of what Father David said, I got back last week from a few days up north with a couple of priest friends and northern Michigan in summer is awesome and it rained. But it was still awesome. So I had a great time, a couple of really good priests and just a kind of relaxation hanging out, enjoying nature and you know, not doing emails or being tied to my phone. Like I'm sure you guys know really well, so it was a wonderful little respite. We laughed really hard. We prayed together, offered mass together. It was a great joy. So that's a--it's a blessing at the forefront of my mind right now.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. That's always fun to go on vacation with priests and--cause you get into a rhythm where you can like, okay, this is prayer time. This is mass time. This is when we're going to go out and have fun. So yeah, it's always really nice.

Fr. Steve:

I'm an up and early guy, even on vacation, like I don't know how to sleep in. So it was great. The two guys slept in a little bit more than I did and I could get up and have coffee and pray with, you know, like, like 6:30-ish, so not super early, but Father David, are you up-and-Adam early too?

Fr. David:

I'm usually up-and-Adam pretty early. So yeah, I like that morning time before the day starts, right? Yeah. Get your coffee, maybe your breviary, sitting quiet, you know?

Fr. Steve:

That, that was a, that was really great. And then when they were up, you know, we got to have a ton of fun.

Fr. Craig:

Cool, cool. I like to sleep in myself, till' 2:00 yeah. The afternoon is so perfect for me.

Fr. Steve:

Right. I, I wish I could do that. I just don't have it in me.

Fr. Craig:

Father David, what is new for you?

Fr. David:

Well, you know, I as I said, I'm going up actually on vacation. I'm going up north as well, going to a place that I think Father Steve might know of: Isle Royale.

Fr. Steve:

Oh sweet! Will you see some, some mooses?

Fr. Craig:

And where is that?

Fr. David:

It is in Lake Superior. It is as far north, as you can get in Michigan.

Fr. Craig:

And you would have to go by boat or plane, right?

Fr. David:

Yes, we are. We are going we're, we're taking a sea plane to the northern end of the island where there's less people apparently, and hopefully more moose.

Fr. Steve:

Moose, meese?

Fr. Craig:

Meese ahaha! Well Father Steve, when you went there, you were like--you remember telling me that you were in like a shack with like 10 other people and half of the people you didn't know or something like that?

Fr. Steve:

On the Camino we did that, but on Isle Royale, we did a little trip. Yeah. It's it's about as far away as you can get like a lot of apps of Michigan don't even have it because it's so close to that part of Ontario there, I think it's closer to Duluth than it is to the UP. But yeah, so it's way up there. And it's really--it's our only national park and it rained one of the days. So we--there was a little lean-to, and a few of the other hikers and the group we were with were all kind of like huddled in this lean-to, during the rain. And it was, it was a lot of fun. So I, I don't know what the weather report looks like for you, but I, I hope you have beautiful.

Fr. David:

It's looking beautiful, maybe rain one day. But you know, highs in the seventies, lows in the fifties looking, looking perfect.

Fr. Craig:

Awesome. Awesome. And you're taking your own tents and everything like that. Oh

Fr. David:

Yeah. Bringing everything with us--a little backpacking trip.

Fr. Craig:

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you that ever popular question of where'd you go, or what'd you get from Costco?

Fr. David:

Of course, of course, Father Steve, are you a fan of Costco?

Fr. Steve:

I have been to Costco once in my life with my internship pastor, but I enjoyed it, but I don't have a devotion. It's not a particular devotion in my life.

Fr. Craig:

You're missing out.

Fr. David:

Although I, I have to mention this, this time because I can't really take credit for my love of Costco. It was, it was really given to me by, by someone else, a former associate at Divine Child--Father Matt Hood. He reminded me of this. We were hanging out the other day and he said, you know, everybody's going to know you as like the Costco guy, but that was really me.

Fr. Craig:

Uh ohhh, I smell jealousy in the air!

Fr. David:

So I have to give the credit to Father Matt Hood, the original Costco guy.

Fr. Craig:

Father Matthew. He is a good guy. He's a great priest, but you're going to take is a crown for being the Costco priest.

Fr. Steve:

Well, I just think you've perfected it and brought it to the wider audience. Right? Maybe he started, you perfected it.

Fr. Craig:

You finished it.

Fr. David:

I can settle for that.

Fr. Craig:

So what'd you get?

Fr. David:

What did I get? Oh, well I was actually shopping for my trip, so I got a lot of trail mix type stuff and I'm going to try a turkey jerky. So it was a, it was a little cheaper than a beef jerky. And we'll see if I like it. Everything tastes a little better when you're out in the woods and a little hungry. So I'm sure I will.

Fr. Craig:

I bought so many bags of beef jerky from Costco now. It's just, just always, every time I go into the fridge, I got like a couple sausage things. I've eaten so much jerky lately.

Fr. Steve:

Beef jerky is pretty quintessential road trip and hiking food to me. So I think it'd be funny to open the fridge and like, see beef jerky, like not on a road trip. That that's my experience.

Fr. Craig:

Well, this is funny because I was on vacation too last week. I, and I think that our listeners know, yeah, it's like, you know, priests, it gets a little bit slower in the summer and we're able to take off a little bit more. So, we do that and I did stay at home, but I, I went out every single night actually and went to different places. I went to the Toledo art museum. It's a great little museum. I like it. And there's a couple of paintings in there that I really like my patron saint, Saint Anthony. There's a triptych there of him with some of the miracles that he did. He raised the dead and one of them, he was doing the consecration and no one believed in the Eucharist except the donkey who saw the Eucharist and knelt down and bowed down before the Lord, which is beautiful and then of course my favorite painting of him preaching to the fish because no one would listen to him what the fish were listening to him intently. So I thought that was really cool. I went to the DIA and of course I've been to the DIA so many times. In fact, I've been to so many museums across the world. The DIA is just a wonderful museum. If you've never been there before go, we have one of the largest collections in the world. I don't know the exact number of the specifics, but only something like 15% of what we have at--in the DIA is actually viewable. They have so many in storage and they can do so many different rotations. Wonderful, wonderful museum. So if you haven't ever been there, you should go there. And then also I went to the Ann Arbor, not Ann Arbor, University of Michigan art museum. I was going to visit a friend up there and got some little gems in there too. So I thought that was pretty cool. And then just saw a bunch of friends. So that's always good.

Fr. Steve:

Cool beans.

Fr. David:

It's a good vacation.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Yeah. So Father Pullis, really don't know too much about your vocation story. So I'm excited to hear, you know, what you got to show, you got to say, so however you want to start it off however you want. Yeah. Tell us.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So I grew up in a wonderful Catholic family. I have a bunch of siblings and the faith was really important to us, so I'm one of 10 and you're one of seven?

Fr. Craig:

One of eight, one of eight.

Fr. Steve:

You have seven sisters?

Fr. Craig:

Yea, seven sisters.

Fr. Steve:

So yeah, so really great family. Faith was really important to us. It was always part of my life. Went to Catholic school. We prayed the rosary together every night. Like we were super Catholic in lots of ways, you know, grew up being an alter boy and really loved my Catholic faith. But you know, as I got into high school, other things became more important as I got into college. Lots of other things became more important as well. And it was when I went to college, I you know, I wouldn't say I fell away from my faith. I certainly didn't, but it wasn't the central principle in my life.

Fr. Craig:

In a Catholic college?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. I, I wound up going to a local college that's closed now called St. Mary's college in Metro Detroit here. They had a Eucharistic adoration there and our campus minister was kind of walking up to people and asking them to sign up for an hour of Eucharistic adoration so that it could be open throughout the day, because if you have the Blessed Sacrament exposed, our Lord can't be left unattended. And I remember that appeal to this very like masculine, responsible part of me. Like, yeah, I can do that. I can sacrifice an hour of my week to do that so that this can be open. Right, so that was just a hugely important part of my life in college was whatever my semester classes were, I would take an hour between classes on certain days, depending on the semester schedule and just go pray before the Lord and the Blessed Sacrament. Again, I had grown up very Catholic. I'd never really taken that initiative in my own life before. And so I didn't really know what to do. So often I would fall asleep. Oftentimes I would just bring books to study, right. I'd be studying like international relations or astronomy or whatever classes I had. It'd be like, okay,

Fr. Craig:

Astrology??

Fr. Steve:

Not astrology, astronomy! And so, and I would pray the rosary sometimes or read scripture, you know, all these different things to kind of pass the hour. And, you know, as my life got really busy in college, I was working a lot. I was going to school full time. I had a very active social life, too, a lot of friends and doing stuff, I really began to love that hour each week when I didn't have anything else to do when I could just be quiet. I realized how busy and noisy my life was. And I loved that part of it. I'm an extrovert, I think both of you know that.

Fr. Craig:

Really?

Fr. Steve:

And I loved it, but I began to kind of love this time of just being quiet. And oftentimes it was a very small chapel. I mean, not much bigger than the studio we're in right now. I had like four seats in it and oftentimes I'd be the only one there. Sometimes people, other people would come and I really began to learn how to pray through Eucharistic adoration. Began to like, in the silence, just kind of open up my heart a little bit more to the Lord and kind of like, you know, trust him and ask him questions or try to hear what he was--what he wanted to say to me. So,, Eucharistic adoration was the foundation for it. And you know, I talk about it like like being out in the sun, we were talking about being up north, like being out in the sun. Oftentimes you don't feel it right away, but it has an effect on you. Right. It changes you in the pre--being in the presence of Jesus and the Blessed Sacrament is like that. So the more I would do it, the more like my complexion--I would get a spiritual tan. That's really corny.

Fr. Craig:

You stole my homily! I preached that before.

Fr. Steve:

Did you?

Fr. Craig:

Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

You must have heard it from me! No, but just like being in his presence, like it would start to shape me and like, I just got more comfortable and enjoyed it. And, and began to really love to pray. At the same time, I was meeting men and women who were real disciples of Jesus.

Fr. Craig:

Can I just stop you there for a second? Cause I think a lot of times when I'm talking to men about going to the adoration chapel and being before the Lord, you kind of mentioned you were doing a couple of things, but what became something that you did every time you were there before the Lord that could be really helpful for someone who hasn't done adoration before?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. I don't, it's hard to explain it for me because the rosary was a way into it for me too, but just being quiet and not thinking about the million other things I have to do. So sometimes for me, that would be like just breathing, like slowing down my breath and just, I'm not focusing on my breathing, but just kind of letting you know, a breathe in and breathe out and just like being very present to Jesus. So I don't know how to explain this very well, but the rosary was often a way into doing that. Kind of the routine and the ritual of the prayer.

Fr. Craig:

Meditative.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. It was a way for me to just kind of like--I'm not worried about what I have to do tonight. I'm not worried about this test coming up. I'm not worried about if I have 13 or 48 more minutes left in the chapel. Right. Like I'm just going to be quiet and I'm not going to have any expectations for everything else in my life right now. I'm just going to be before Jesus and know like, this is where I need to be. And sometimes it was like having a fly swatter to swat away the distractions that would come up. Right. Like, you'd hear something, oh, I wonder what that's going on. It'd be like, no, Jesus, I'm here with you. I'm quiet. I want to hear your voice. And some days that was really hard, some days that was beautiful, but that became my way to, to kind of pray, to say like, yep, I'm here with the Lord and that's right where I to be. Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

That's awesome.

Fr. David:

That is really beautiful. And you know, it's, it's strikes me, Father Craig, how many people, when we ask them about their vocation stories, their vocation to the priesthood say that just quiet time in front of the Blessed Sacrament has been a part of it. I know it's been a part of my my vocation and I just, I think it is so important to have that time where you, you check out right. You can step back from that's part of what I'm looking forward to on vacation too. Right. It's just like to step back from all the stuff you got to do, all the busy-ness and just have a moment of quiet, alone with the Lord.

Fr. Steve:

So I graduated college in 06', and the world has changed in my mind with the advent of the smartphone. I sound like this old man, but the number of distractions now, like even when I go to pray now, like if I don't put my phone away, like I feel it vibrate or it's just so easy. So I think it takes even more attention for me now. And I would imagine for everyone else to have that, like the depth that silence provides. So you can really hear the Lord and not just hear like on the surface, but you can hear if he might be asking something more than like, you're immediately ready to give, you know, like, let, let that relationship grow to depth where Jesus can speak the word that he wants to hear. And we can, we can realize that it's coming from a place of, of love and not just kind of this surface thing that happens.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. You know what I've been doing recently, that's kind of really interesting is I've been putting noise, canceling earphones in, and it's just like, it's totally silent. And all I can hear is my breath in and out. And it's really meditative, but it just, again, that silence is something completely different than our world today because there's always something making noise. Yeah. Yeah. So we kind of stopped you on that yea.

Fr. Steve:

I mean, when I think about my vocation, I think about three things in addition to my awesome family. But I think about Eucharistic adoration and silence, I think about the men and women I met at my college who really loved Jesus. And I saw that in a way that was very attractive. I saw people my own age who loved the Lord. And I don't know how to say this, but weren't super weird about it. You know, like they were people. I mean, I kind of wanted to be like, or I wanted to be friends with them. And that was really attractive. It was, you know, I think about the way Jesus sent his disciples out two by two and the way we're not meant to walk the Christian life by ourselves. And we need people farther along the journey who can kind of inspire us. And I certainly had that with some peers who were really, really in love with the Lord,

Fr. Craig:

Explain that. But like w--how were they in love with the Lord that made you just attracted to them?

Fr. Steve:

So they would pray pretty regularly. Right. They would go to mass, there was a daily on campus. And so oftentimes I would say, yeah, that's what we're going to do now. There--they would have a pro-life witness. It would go to an abortion clinic and pray in front of the abortion clinic and then like, go hang out afterwards. Right. So it was like very normal with the public witness of their faith and having fun and just kind of goofy goofing around too, or I liked to play basketball. So there were a couple of guys who I played basketball with and they would, you know, often pray together in their apartment. They would have religious symbols up. That was just like, yeah, that's really, it's an integrated life and integrated way of following the Lord. That was attractive to me.

Fr. Craig:

Cool.

Fr. Steve:

And then I this college also had an integrated Catholic curriculum. So we studied a lot of theology and philosophy, which totally annoyed me at the beginning because I didn't want to do that. I had a career path in mind that I was going to do. And I felt like that was like, well, what was it? Yeah. So I wanted to get into politics. I wanted to go to law school. And so I studied political science and I remember very clearly my freshman year in college saying, I'm going to be the governor of Michigan. I want to be governor.

Fr. Craig:

I can see that. I can see it. So you like certain Sunday morning shows that nobody under 80 years old would watch?

Fr. Steve:

Tell this story, we used to live together!

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. For a summer. Was it a summer at a parish? I was a first year or second year priest. And you were over there. And, you know, after mass, I come into, you know, the TV room and you're watching the most boringest political-savvy show that only 80 year old people would watch it. Like, what are you watching? Well it's a local station about local politics, about--

Fr. Steve:

It's the PBS show about state politics; what's going on in our country, or in our state. And I can't remember the name of it, but Tim Scubic was the ho--is the host. And I would often have local politicians talking about issues like roads or legislation that was passing. Father David. It's fascinating!

Fr. Craig:

All fun stuff.

Fr. David:

I'll take your word for that. Yeah. Always want to know when a road is made; they're fixing the potholes.

Fr. Steve:

Anyway, Off the Record with Tim Scubic is what it was called off the record.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. I just, I, I think it's interesting because a lot of guys, you know, they're like, well, I like this, or I like that, and God can use anybody. And, you know, you have this in you and you can actually see it when you say I want it to go into politics. I could see how you'd do really well at that.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So, I was very convinced that's what I was going to do. And then the, the third part of my vocation story was we had to take these classes in theology and philosophy. And the intellectual part of the faith was a great help to me. I had asked a lot of questions and I you know, the, the beauty of our faith--Saint Augustine talks about this with scripture. I believe it's Augustine. But where he talks about it's shallow enough for a child to weight in and deep enough for an adult to swim in, right? That like who out--no matter how young you are, you can get something out of scripture, no matter how old you are or how experienced you are, you can continue to learn and grow from it. I think about that with our Catholic faith too. So it answered a lot of the questions I had about my life, how I wanted to live my life and why the church offers a way that's different than society offers and why that way is better and rooted in a deeper call to happiness that, that Jesus invites us to through his Catholic church. So wonderful people who were following the Lord for me, .intellectual understanding of our faith and then Eucharistic adoration. And towards the end of my junior year, I was getting ready to take my LSAT, my law school admissions test. I was studying my butt off for that. And I was in adoration and I had this image of me as a priest, just pop in my head when I was praying one day, I had not really thought of it before.

Fr. Craig:

Ever, even as a child?

Fr. Steve:

I don't know. I mean, I had a brother who's in seminary for a religious order when I was a kid. And so I was around it a bit, but I don't remember thinking about it actively for me. And this just kind of popped in my head.

Fr. Craig:

And how old were you at that point?

Fr. Steve:

I was a junior in college, like 20, 21.

Fr. Craig:

Okay. Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

And I remember saying what the heck was that, but I didn't say what the heck. I swore a lot more back then. So I used some different language that I won't use here. Cause I don't use that language anymore, but I remember being very thrown off by it and it's not what I wanted and I kind of was like wrong number. So I like looked around the chapel, like, who am I supposed to give this message to if there's no one there. So yeah, it was really kind of like, absolutely not. So I just pulled out a textbook. It's like, this is what we're going to talk about. Lord, like conversation over. I got some studying to do cause I was dating a girl at the time and had kind of this career path planned out. And so that nagged me all throughout the summer after my junior year. And didn't really talk about it. When I came back in the fall, there was a priest I got to know pretty well--or who started, who had, who had liked and trusted Father Xavier. And I remember approaching him about it. Do you know the Miles Christi? Father Xavier Ray was a Miles Christi priest. He's now in Mexico, but he was the chaplain at the time.

Fr. Craig:

Father David was on a discernment weekend with them.

Fr. David:

I spent a week with them actually. I was considering joining them.

Fr. Steve:

Ah, nice. Yeah. I figured you would know them based on like being on the west side and, and all that stuff. So so anyway, this is turning into a little bit longer than I thought,

Fr. Craig:

No, this is great. This is great.

Fr. Steve:

So I went to Father Xavier and I said Hey Father, Xavier. I think God's calling me to be a priest. How do I get rid of that? Because I got my life, other stuff, right? Like how do we get rid of this?

Fr. Craig:

Were you still dating this girl at this time?

Fr. Steve:

I wasn't. So we broke up like two weeks after the, the moment, but I was like, yeah, it doesn't really count. We were only dating a few months. So it wasn't really--

Fr. Craig:

Did you break up with her or?

Fr. Steve:

Well, I don't really remember all the details.

Fr. Craig:

I think it's interesting for guys because they get this call while they're still dating a girl and they don't know what to do with that. Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

I didn't break up with her. She broke up with me and I was like, wow, that doesn't really count. Yeah. Thanks.

Fr. David:

That was, that was God, God sent that on her heart; it had nothing to do with anything.

Fr. Steve:

So yeah. So I went to Father Xavier and told him like, hey, help me get rid of this. And he said, well, if you don't go on, or if you don't like, think about this and pray about this in a real way, it's, it's going to nag you the rest of your life and whatever you do, this is going to be in the back of your mind. Yeah. And that was really good advice. That's what I needed.

Fr. Craig:

A lot of guys, a lot of guys have that in the back of their mind for years and years. Yeah. Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

And like I had all these other plans I wanted to do. And I thought if I start going down that road and this is nagging and this is nagging on me, I'm just going to be like, you know, it's going to be miserable. I got to get rid of this. And so yeah. He's like, well you should go on a retreat. So he put on a retreat for me and one other guy. Do you know John Henry? He's involved in Miles Christi.

Fr. David:

Maybe. I don't know.

Fr. Steve:

Maybe it's John Newman. I think it's John Newman.

Fr. David:

I know John Newman yeah.

Fr. Steve:

So he talked this other guy into coming, so it wouldn't be so awkward with one person on retreat. So John Newman came.

Fr. David:

He did not end up becoming a priest.

Fr. Steve:

He didn't no. And I think he was working for them and I think Father Xavier was like, Hey, can you come? So and during that time, so yeah, during that time, I, I fought a lot with the Lord. I didn't sleep that well on that retreat and just had a lot of back and forth like bargaining, like, okay, Jesus, like, don't ask this of me. I'll do something else, but not this right. I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do this. Just don't ask this. And I just felt miserable. And so towards the end of the second day, I I was just exhausted and tired of fighting. And I remember saying fine, you win. You want me to be a priest? I'll be a priest. Fine. I'll be a priest. It'll be miserable. But you win. I'm tired, fighting with you.

Fr. Craig:

That's what everybody wants to hear, right?

Fr. Steve:

But Father Craig, as soon as I said that, like all of the anxiety and the fear went away and there was this kind of peace that I had never in my life experienced--that like, you know, this incredible act of generosity of "fine, I'm done fighting." And Jesus just flooded my heart with a kind of peace. I'd never known before. And I remember thinking maybe this won't be miserable. And it was like this total sea change in my life that what Jesus is asking of me is for my good it's for my flourishing and fulfillment. He's not like, Hey, we need a soldier to fill the line. You're the guy go up there and do it. He's like, no, I've created you for a purpose. And it only, if you do that, will you understand like the deepest joy I want you to have. And it just blew my mind. I was like, oh, this won't be miserable, this is going to be great. And it took a while for like my heart to kind of trust that and get around to it. But at that point I was in.

Fr. Craig:

Was it hard then with being with the religious order, sort of there and having a brother that was in a religious order at some point? Did you think, okay, now am I going to be a religious order priest or a diocesan priest? How did that happen for you?

Fr. Steve:

So Father Xavier was great. So I remember sharing this with him in spiritual direction that day afterwards and telling him like, yeah, I think this is what God wants. And his immediate response was good, but don't think you're doing God any favors being a priest like God is giving you this gift. Don't think you're doing God a favor. Wow. And that's exactly what I needed to hear. Like that was perfect for me to say like, okay, don't like it into this big self-congratulatory mode. Like this is a gift God has giving you. And and you need to remember that it's a calling to holiness. It's not just a calling to, to just happen to be a priest, but to be a priest with a spirit of generosity, you know, in returning like your life back to the Lord who has given you all this. So I thought that was very helpful to kind of get out of the mindset of like, oh, I'm going to be a priest now, you know? Cause you hear a lot of people like, wow, that's so great. That's wonderful congratulate you. But to turn that off and to focus on like, no, I need to, like, I need to prepare my life to be given over to the Lord. And that's exactly what I needed to hear. But your question about religious life. So I did talk with him about their order, I went on a discernment weekend with a different religious order, the Jesuits, and I did a weekend with them and then I came to Sacred Heart Seminary and it was very clear that Sacred Heart was the place that God was calling me to be. And the place where I could grow in holiness and become the priest, I think God wanted me to be.

Fr. Craig:

So what were you doing during the time of applying to the seminary? I mean, what was that like for you? What was your life--what was the normal kind of day for you?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, I don't know. So I was finishing up school. So that happened, this all happened in December of--it was between the semesters of my senior year. I went on this retreat. I had another semester of school. And I remember like a number of friends were surprised when I told them this. I had not been like publicly discerning. So I was going to school. I was still working. I had a little bit of debt.

Fr. Craig:

You told them before you even started to apply?

Fr. Steve:

My friend-friends.

Fr. Craig:

Cause I didn't tell anybody until I actually applied. Except my parents.

Fr. Steve:

I told them before I applied, but I think I told them around the time I was going on discernment weekend. That retreat, like everyone discerns differently, that retreat was like, nope, this is what God is asking me to do. And that may change. Right? Like that may have changed. I didn't think like I'm going to seminary, therefore I have this right to be ordained and I have to be ordained, but it was very much like, like this is the direction of my life. So I wasn't like preaching it to everyone, but I did mention it to a few people and then word gets around. Yeah, sure. Definitely. Yeah. Oh, so I was in school. I had some debt, so I picked up some extra time at work. Some extra shifts at work and yeah, just school and work and praying. I remember reading a lot of Cardinal Ratzinger at the time; he had become Pope already. So this was like January of 06'--February of 06'. He became Pope in like, yeah, that was my first of 05'.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. I was the lackey of one of the priests here who was in charge of decoration. And I remember going to Joann Fabric's to get a whole bunch of black bunting when the Pope died; black bunting over the door. Yeah. So I remember sitting there in line and the lady's like, why is everybody buying black? You know? And I told her and I go, you might want to start buying some yellow, because once the new Pope is named, then you put the yellow bunting. She's like, "what color yellow??" I'm like, "look at the papal flag!" She was like, "thank you so much." So yes, it was that time.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So I, I read a lot of Cardinal Ratzinger. I think he's the most brilliant theologian of the post-Vatican two era,

Fr. Craig:

Any particular book that was really helpful for you?

Fr. Steve:

We did a number of these interviews with Peter Seewald. So like God in the World is one, and In Converse; I don't know. He did like four or five interview books and I just found it fascinating and wonderful. And then I read his spirit of the liturgy, which was fantastic as well.

Fr. Craig:

Anybody that helped you kind of walk with you through this journey as you were applying to the seminary? Like another priest friend, or?

Fr. Steve:

Am I supposed to say you?

Fr. Craig:

No. No, not at all.

Fr. David:

You're supposed to say the vocations director!

Fr. Steve:

Well, I did meet with the vocations director, and again, like everyone's different. I met with him and then went on the discernment weekend and then I didn't call him back for a couple of months cause I was kind of chewing on it on my own.

Fr. David:

That happens.

Fr. Steve:

And then when I called him, he was like, "oh, I thought you had dropped off the radar!" You know, so,

Fr. Craig:

That happens!

Fr. Steve:

So I call the vocation director back the, in conversation with the vocation director. But Father Xavier was very, very helpful for me, he was kind of the one, the one most.

Fr. Craig:

And how was your family? Because we had Father Bryan Kassa on last month and he said his family was totally against it and his mom wouldn't even talk to him if he was going to enter the seminary. S just interesting to hear that aspect of it. Cause I don't know if I could have entered the seminary with my family support. What was it like for you?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. so I went on this retreat in December right after the semester ended. So it was like December 15th-ish, whatever. And it was just very clear after that, that this was what I was calling called to do. So I told my parents that I was going to do this. So I had applied, I had all these law school applications. I'd taken my LSAT, my law school admissions test, had all my applications, references, all of that, like stacked neatly on my desk, in my room. They were ready to be mailed out and I never mailed them out. And so I told my mom and dad that this is what, like, I think I'm going to do this. Right. and this was like a couple of days before Christmas and our whole family got together on Christmas. So you know, again, big family, most of my siblings are older and so I have a bunch of nieces and nephews at the time. So it's like 25 people together for Christmas, just our immediate family. And I remember saying like, okay, like, I don't want to have to tell 25 times I'm just going to make an announcement at Christmas. So like, and was asking like, oh, how's he getting ready for law school? How'd your, you know, your applications go in, have you heard anyone else kind of like having it on? And then after dinner, I remember like we were all in the living room and I remember everybody--

Fr. Craig:

You clink on your glass, ahem, everybody, I have something to say--

Fr. Steve:

Our stairs go up like the hallway from our living rooms. I went up on the stairs, right. No, I just wanted a place where I could do it. And I was like, Hey, can I have everyone's attention? And we just never do that. So like everyone got quiet, like what's going on. And so I told them on Christmas day, and my family couldn't have been, couldn't have been happier about it. You know,

Fr. Craig:

Hip, hip, hooray hip.

Fr. Steve:

And we sang Auld Lang Syne, no they were very happy, you know, very happy for me. They were great. It's a blessing.

Fr. David:

Yeah, I, I've got a question too. Just growing up in a very Catholic family: was there was there much talk about the possibility of like a religious vocation and the priesthood, you know, growing up? Was that, was that presented as an option?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, it certainly was. My oldest brother entered religious life with a community and so, he left when I was a young cause, you know, I'm ninth, he's first. I was in kindergarten when he went away and then got an uncle. Yeah. And then he was gone for a number of years. So that was always part of our life growing up. It was never heavy-handed. And I think my parents wanted to make sure there wasn't a kind of expectation. Yes. sometimes in very strong religious families that can feel like an obligation or someone has to do this, or like we would really love for this and it can just feel like, you know a little too much pressure. And I think my parents were very good at making sure that we knew about it, that priests were respected, but that it wasn't something that, you know, they were saying like, okay, which one of you is going to do it? So it was very much a part of our life, but it was--it was never a like heavy handed about it.

Fr. David:

No pressure. Right. Yeah. I think pressure either way is right; to get that freedom is good.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. I mean, I think it was great. I mean, my--I would have rebelled. I'm pretty sure if my parents told me, we think you should do this, I think I would have been like, nope, nope. You know what? I'm going to do it. I'm not going to do it out of spite. So as a little kid, I would have been like that.

Fr. Craig:

And then if you were in the seminary and felt like you were called out of it, you, you knew you would be supported even in that decision?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, exactly. And I, I know that's--that was really important to me that it was, you know, my decision people were supporting me, but there, wasn't a kind of like, you're going to be shunned if, if this doesn't work out in seminary.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Now I want to talk about something that I didn't really expect to talk about, but I just, I don't think people know this or, you know, it's in some books, but like when I decided to apply to the seminary, it was the moment that I started filling out the application that I felt like attacked. Like all of a sudden, all of my sins from my past life just became so vivid. And it was as if like the evil one was saying, see, you can't do this, you can't do this. And I was so afraid. Like I literally was almost catatonic. I couldn't speak. I remember the people at work were like, what's wrong with you? And I was just, I'm fine. I'm fine. But I was so afraid. And you know, and, and I think the evil one can come in so many different ways. All of a sudden, the past girlfriend shows up or, you know, the family is against it. Did you have anything that you had to kind of deal with in that time?

Fr. Steve:

You know, I didn't in the time you're talking about like filling out the application. I think a couple of times for me was when I when I thought God was asking me and I was fighting against that. And then like in preparation for ordination, I felt that. I felt like there was a lot of, I don't know, just like drama. Yeah. This isn't the best analogy, but there's a scene in a movie I remember seeing where a guy's getting ready to get married and the bride is walking down the aisle and his best man is chirping in the ear. Like it's not too late to leave. I just felt like there was a little bit of that. Like, that is not, if God like that is just like this awful person chirping in my ear.

Fr. Craig:

Father David's looking like a bobblehead over here. What went on with you?

Fr. David:

No yeah, I certainly felt a little bit of that in the application process as well of just like starting to realize as it got more and more real, just like--it, it was almost a sense of who am I to do this, you know? And, and I think there's a healthy sort of--there's a healthy way to feel that and say that of, like, this is an awesome gift, as you said earlier, this is something that I'm not worthy of. Right. But then I guess the second part that sometime was, was getting lost for me was like, but the Lord calls me anyways, you know? And so yeah, there, there was definitely some anxiety filling out the application. And, and I would say there were a couple of times throughout seminary where it just kind of hit me, like, like the awesomeness, but also my unworthiness. Right. And yeah. And, and, and just, just, I, I guess I had a really good spiritual director, Father Bob Spezia, in undergrad, and he, he just kind of gently walked me through that saying, okay, yes, you're not worthy. But is the Lord calling you? You know? And, and and, and yeah, so that was helpful for me.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Great, great. Well, Father Steve, before we get into the second half,

Fr. Steve:

Oh, we're still on the first half!

Fr. Craig:

We're still in the first half. This is great. This is all great stuff. That's why, that's why we had you on the podcast, because we know you were going to bring something special to--

Fr. Steve:

We knew you were going to talk a lot.

Fr. Craig:

So before we talk about the special assignments, because I do want to get into that because we're not necessarily always going to be doing the same thing when we're called to the priesthood. I just want to go back to your old podcast a little bit, you know, Open Door Policy. Everybody remembers that where.

Fr. Steve:

ba bum bum da dadum.

Fr. Craig:

Ba da dum! Which is still going, by the way, they have two new hosts.

Fr. Steve:

They have great hosts! Father Patrick Gonyeau and Emily Mentock. And it's a, it's a great podcast. So if you're looking to hear about people who are following Jesus in all different ways in the Archdiocese of Detroit, Open-Door Policy's a great way to learn about that.

Fr. Craig:

Go listen to it. All right. And how many did you do? When it was you and Danielle Center?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. Danielle and I did about 60 episodes. So Ron, our producer here, had to endure at the very beginning. We were like, I think we are the first podcast for the archdiocese. So we did a lot of learning together, Danielle Center, Ron and myself, and it was a great joy. But yeah, we did it for about four years, three or four years, maybe and had a great time with it.

Fr. Craig:

Amazing. Yeah. So there was something that I really liked about that podcast when you were doing it. I don't believe they do it anymore, but I want to bring that to this podcast for you, which is the rapid fire questions.

Fr. Steve:

Ah, las preguntas de fuego rapido!

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. That's awesome. So we're going to go through these, I'm going to do the first 10, and David's going to do the second ten.

Fr. Steve:

So we have twenty of them? That's a lot of rapid fire questions!

Fr. Craig:

They're not all very hard, but you know--

Fr. Steve:

And you have them in front of you and I'm trying very hard not to look down and cheat. So thank you for picking up your paper and shielding it. Like a middle-school kid cheating on a test, like keep your eyes on your own paper.

Fr. Craig:

And if our producer wants to put in some old timey music from from Open Door Policy, right, insert here. Sorry. That was great. Yeah. All right. All right. Let the questions begin. What is your favorite church in the archdiocese?

Fr. Steve:

My favorite church in the archdiocese is Sweetest Heart of Mary right now.

Fr. Craig:

Favorite musician from Detroit living or dead.

Fr. Steve:

Ooh..favorite musician from Detroit living or dead. I like Bob Seger.

Fr. Craig:

Old time. Rock and roll!

Fr. Steve:

Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

If totally paid for, would you rather have a truck lifted with monster truck wheels or a sports car that has a nitrous tank?

Fr. Steve:

I would rather have a truck I'm too big a guy for a tiny little sports car.

Fr. Craig:

Who would win in a preach-off--St. Anthony the Golden Tongue or St. Dominic the Founder of the Order of Preachers?

Fr. Steve:

I think St. Anthony.

Fr. Craig:

All right. All right.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

Hoodie or a sweatshirt?

Fr. Steve:

Hoodie.

Fr. Craig:

Hoodie, all the way. Most underrated saint that people should know about.

Fr. Steve:

Ooh, so St. Anthony, when I was a kid, was always St. Anthony of Padua, like in all the little saint books, but when I came to the seminary and learned about St. Anthony of Egypt, like the proto--proto-monk, like the first one to invent a monasticism, I really liked him a lot. So I would say because we're on the St. Anthony kick, St. Anthony of Egypt, or St. Anthony of--

Fr. Craig:

Which have some great paintings about him, because there's the temptation of him in the desert, which is awesome as well. Favorite name out of all of the popes?

Fr. Steve:

Oh you know I'm, I'm going to have to say Benedict. I like Benedict the 15th. I like Benedict the 16th Benedict the fourth.

Fr. Craig:

Not the favorite pope, the favorite name--the favorite sound.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, but I'm going with Benedict. You want me to say Sixtus.

Fr. Craig:

I want to say--is Crispin a pope?

Fr. Steve:

I don't know if there was a pope Crispin. There was a pope Stephen, but, I'm going to go with Pope Benedict.

Fr. Craig:

Would you rather be infused with the knowledge to speak all languages or only have to sleep a half hour each night to be totally refreshed?

Fr. Steve:

Oh, give me the languages. I love languages. As you know, by my muy bueno Spanish here, they don't come easy to me, but I love languages.

Fr. Craig:

Favorite book, other than the Bible?

Fr. Steve:

The Confessions by Saint Augustine.

Fr. Craig:

What is your favorite church in the world? Not the archdiocese.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. Favorite church in the world. I think St Anne de Beaupre in Quebec.

Fr. Craig:

Nice, interesting!

Fr. David:

All right. If you could only read from one of these saints, no others for the rest of your life, St. Thomas or Saint Augustine?

Fr. Steve:

St. Augustine.

Fr. David:

Oh, all right. You didn't choose the Dominican option of the preaching either!

Fr. Steve:

Yea, no. Thomas is overrated.

Fr. David:

Wow.

Fr. Steve:

No wait, I don't really think that!

Fr. David:

Wait a minute!

Fr. Steve:

I love Augustine though.

Fr. David:

Yeah, sure, sure. Favorite Marian devotion or apparition?

Fr. Steve:

Our Lady of Guadalupe. Isn't just my favorite. It's objectively the best.

Fr. David:

Oh, wow. If given the choice today in a vision, would you rather see heaven, hell or purgatory in order to teach others?

Fr. Steve:

I think there's a challenge with understanding hell, so I think I would say, hell.

Fr. David:

Wow, hardcore.

Fr. Craig:

Wasn't it Sister Lucia that saw hell?

Fr. Steve:

Yea, the children at Fatima.

Fr. Craig:

And then St. Therese of Lisieux? Did she see it or no?

Fr. Steve:

St. Catherine of Sienna. Yeah.

Fr. David:

Favorite apostle?

Fr. Steve:

I did the Camino of St. James, so St. James has a special place in my heart.

Fr. David:

Now, which St. James would that be?

Fr. Steve:

Saint James, the Brother of the Lord, the first martyr who died in Jerusalem,

Fr. Craig:

The greater or the lesser?

Fr. Steve:

I think he's greater, but yeah.

Fr. David:

Would you rather have the ability to read souls in confession or have the gift of healing?

Fr. Steve:

Oh, well yeah, I don't know. I think--you know, confession obviously heals our soul, which is eternal with God and healing the body is always a temporary step towards the resurrection.

Fr. David:

Good answer, good answer. Yeah. Okay. Favorite church document?

Fr. Craig:

That's a lot to choose from. And I know if you read some, that's why I put that question.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So,

Fr. Craig:

We all have to read a bunch in seminary, so

Fr. Steve:

I'm going to pick two. I'm going to be awful at answering the question.

Fr. Craig:

Oh, that's okay. We'll allow it.

Fr. Steve:

Fr. David:

Okay, good, good solid picks. Would you rather get a hole in one once every year or play under par always in golf?

Fr. Steve:

Oh under par; I'd love to not be awful at golf.

Fr. David:

A favorite story from the Old Testament?

Fr. Craig:

Actually I liked today's.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, I think, you know, in my own discernment and prayer, Abraham and Isaac were really important in Abraham's faith when he's asked to take his son, his only son, the son that he loves up to the mountain. So Abraham and Isaac.

Fr. Craig:

Yes. That's a good one.

Fr. David:

We just, yeah, we just had that in the readings.

Fr. Steve:

We did. Yeah. We've been going through Genesis, so now we're into Exodus, but yeah, it was a couple of weeks.

Fr. Craig:

And God supplies, his own son, perfect son for us to sacrifice. And it's amazing. It's awesome, man. Yeah. Yeah.

Fr. David:

Okay. Would you rather have the ability to smell like a dog--and I don't mean smell like a dog, I mean, smell, like a dog.

Fr. Steve:

I'm glad my odor is not canine.

Fr. David:

So smell as a dog would, or see like an eagle?

Fr. Steve:

I think smelling would be really obnoxious if you could smell that well, there's a lot of strong odors, especially here in Detroit. I mean, there's a lot of odors that come by that might be a little little too potent, especially since they legalized marijuana in Detroit, so I don't want to smell like a dog. I want to see like an eagle.

Fr. David:

Good answer. And favorite mystery of the rosary?

Fr. Steve:

Oh, without a question, the crowning with thorns.

Fr. Craig:

All right. Play that music again. Well thanks for the rapid fire questions. Those were very interesting and very telling.

Fr. Steve:

So favorite mystery of the rosary Father Craig, Father David, favorite mystery? I know it's not my podcast to ask questions, but I'm going to, so.

Fr. Craig:

Well right now, you know, I like the pro--

Fr. Steve:

You're a luminous guy!

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Proclamation of the Kingdom, you know, that's all about preaching and I love it. So yeah.

Fr. Steve:

It's very illuminating.

Fr. Craig:

It is.

Fr. David:

I have, I have the same favorite mystery. So the crowning of thorns.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Which is very fitting for priests. You know, if you think about it, the head of Christ being, you know, under the authority and that's good.

Fr. David:

Yeah. Yeah. Also when when we prayed it, as we always also prayed the family, as we prayed the rosary as a family and I don't know where my parents got it, but they'd always talk about the fruit of the mystery, but for crowning, with thorns, it's moral courage. I always liked that. Especially as a young boy, like, yeah, we're going to pray for moral courage.

Fr. Steve:

I don't know what that is, but I like it.

Fr. David:

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of what it was.

Fr. Craig:

Well, 90% or 98% of diocesan priests are usually parish priests. Right. They're either the associate priest or our resident smart person. What's the name for it?

Fr. David:

I believe we would call it a parochial vicar Father.

Fr. Steve:

PV!

Fr. Craig:

Or a pastor, of course, gets sometimes asked to take on a special assignment. Not that it's special, but it's just different from--

Fr. Steve:

The assignment is special, the man is not aha!

Fr. Craig:

So you've been a part of a lot of these assignments, so it would be great to tell our listeners what those are and what it is that you would actually do in those assignments.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So I have been a priest 10 years now and my first two years were at the wonderful parish in Lake Orien, St. Joseph the Worker, which I loved. And the last eight years, I've had three different special assignments, which are, you know, the work that the church needs priest to do that's beyond or not particularly tied to a parish. So it's just when I think of being in a parish, you get to go deep with a small number of people, right? The people at that parish. When I think about these other assignments, often you go--it's a wider number of people, but it's a shallower way you interact with them because it's, it's, it's wider. So it's kind of, it's broader, but not as deep, whereas in a parish you're able to go much deeper with a narrower group of people.

Fr. Craig:

Sort of like a politician.

Fr. Steve:

I don't know, maybe!

Fr. Craig:

I was trying to be creative. I was trying.

Fr. Steve:

Yes. So after two years I was asked to be the secretary to the archbishop, and I know you've had Father Fox on here before Father Fox had that position.

Fr. Craig:

We didn't talk about that with him.

Fr. David:

We talked about wrestling with him.

Fr. Steve:

And seminary stuff, right? So he had that position. So for four years, I was the secretary to the archbishop.

Fr. Craig:

What did you do in that? Like what would a secretary to the bishop do?

Fr. Steve:

I would say a couple of things. Number one, he gets a lot of correspondence coming and going and because some of that can be more sensitive, he often has a priest who, who does that, who assists him with that. So when people send in complaints or concerns or compliments or questions, it's helpful to have a priest who can navigate that with them. So he often has a priest who can do that and help with the there's other people in the office who do this work too, but to have a priest who can take some of the burden off of him in correspondence. Because he often corresponds with priests, with pastors, it's helpful to have a priest to do that as well. So when someone wants him to come to to the parish to, you know, bless a new altar, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, to confirm people, anything like that, it's good to have a priest in his office who can help kind of arrange that and make sure that when the archbishop comes, he know like the parish knows how to do that well. I often part of the job was to be as master of ceremonies, father David, you were like the head MC master of ceremonies for liturgies at the seminary. Right?

Fr. David:

I was, I was, I was an MC at seminary for six of the eight years I was there. So, yeah.

Fr. Steve:

So, so you know, that role of like being the coordinator for all this stuff going on, and especially the more complicated liturgies, like ordinations or the critical mass things like that. It's good to have a priest who can kind of quarterback what's going on so the archbishop can actually pray and do his action without having to coordinate all the other parts. So, so I did that for four years and that was a great blessing,

Fr. Craig:

But I mean like, did you have to open his mail up and stuff like that? I mean, when I think of secretary, I think like secretarial type-stuff. Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

So it's a pre-secretary, so it was handling a lot of correspondence responding on his behalf for certain things. So yeah, part of it was mail, a big part of it was his calendar as well, driving him around. I got to drive him around ride with him and drive him to different events. And I'll say, I think we are incredibly blessed in the Archdiocese of Detroit to have a holy bishop, a bishop who loves the Lord, a bishop who's a true gentleman, so I never felt like it's kind of second-class citizen around him. And I learned so much from him about how to be a priest. I would've never wanted that job. If you asked me in seminary or in a parish, I would have said, that's the worst job a priest could have. And that's what he asked me to do. And I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to do it. Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

Were you surprised by anything by just being so close to the archbishop all the time?

Fr. Steve:

I was surprised he asked me to do it, so that's for sure.

Fr. Craig:

Anything good that you were like, I got to see that or I got to be a part of that? So I

Fr. Steve:

Got to be a part of a number of things. Ordinations of bishops, the Synod happened during my time, we had consecration of virgins, which is unusual, Cardinal Shocka died during my time, so we got to do a funeral for a cardinal. So there are a lot of different things that I feel really blessed to be a part of, I guess, I didn't know the archbishop personally. He had ordained me, but he was only here a couple of years. And so I didn't know him super well when he asked me to do it. So I got to--I was surprised like how funny he is and what a gentleman he is in every situation.

Fr. Craig:

So, and did you live with him?

Fr. Steve:

So, yeah, he and I, and then another priest kind of the COO chief of staff of the diocese, what we call the vicar general. And that was Monsignor Bob McClory; the three of us lived together.

Fr. Craig:

Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. Did you have a cook and everything?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. We had someone who cooked meals. We had someone who kind of helped, you know, make sure that we live next to the cathedral, so like the maintenance was taken care of and all that, so, yeah. Yeah. We're really blessed, man.

Fr. Craig:

And what was your other special assignment that you had after that?

Fr. Steve:

After four years, I took on a role being a director of a department in the Chancery, which is a very administrative job. It was evangelization catechesis in schools. It was right after Unleash the Gospel came out. So the job was very much how do we help implement the call to make us a missionary archdiocese throughout, you know, through our department? So it had a number of parts to it. It was very administrative. And again, you know, not something I would have asked for, but had a wonderful time doing it, got to meet some great people and learn how so many things happen in the church. You know, had a number of people--we hired a new superintendent during my time. So learned a ton about the workings of Catholic schools. We revamped our catechetical program during the time. So how do we help people kind of systematically know what they need to know so that they can be catechists in the archdiocese. There were a number of pieces. We did around families to, to help families. So that was a blast. I enjoyed that a lot. And it was a lot of, as I mentioned, administration, you know, working in a Chancery and kind of like dealing with HR issues and working around budgets, making sure we had the money to do the projects we wanted to do as well as, you know, working with the priest to say, okay, this can be a great program, but if it doesn't actually work in parishes or priest don't know about it, or they don't have the bandwidth the time to do it, how effective is it going to be? So yeah, that, that was a blast.

Fr. Craig:

And like, how did you, I guess just be a priest? I mean, did you have a parish assignment? And during this time you said mass every day, of course. But where did you do that? Did you have an office? Did you like have a briefcase that you lugged to work every single day? Cause most priests just kind of walked down the stairs and they're in their parish office. Right.

Fr. Steve:

So when I was with the archbishop you know lived with him and there's a, a bit of an office at his residence, but there's also an office at the Chancery, which is the headquarters kind of central services, quote on quote, for the Archdiocese of Detroit. And yeah, I would go down there most, every day. So it was very much kind of the, I don't know it's the wrong way to say it, but like the business part of the church you know, we, we were downtown next to a number of other offices. And so I would--we'd go down there, you'd park a couple of blocks away and walk over with your briefcase and your bag lunch and go to work for the day. There was oftentimes I'd be out at parishes too. So there were times when it was much more kind of interactive with people. But part of being in administration is that stuff needs to get done. There needs to be people who review programs and who meet to talk about what's the strategy going to be so that when it goes out, it's ready to go out so that when people use it, it's ready, you know, to be used. But I always had a Sunday assignment, so I'd go out to a parish on Sunday, St. John Vianney in Shelby township for the last four years and spend, go out there and have mass. And while I had been doing that, the pastor got pretty sick at that parish and eventually passed away. So more and more I would go out there and help with other masses. And that was a beautiful part of the ministry that I got to know this group of people in this parish at St. John Vianney. So I did--I never felt like I wasn't being a priest. I never felt like, you know, some kind of business person who wears a collar. I always felt like everything I'm doing is for the Lord. I've consecrated my life to him through ordination and everything I do is for him, whether it's sacramental and pastoral or whether it's more administrative in planning. Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

And then now you got a new assignment now, too.

Fr. Steve:

In July, I started a new assignment as the director of pastoral formation at Sacred Heart Seminary.

Fr. Craig:

So what does that mean?

Fr. Steve:

I don't know!

Fr. Craig:

Just going to figure it out as you go huh?

Fr. Steve:

I'm still pretty new, but it involves a lot of the work that the seminarians do away from the seminary. So when they go to hospitals to learn how to do hospital ministry, when they learn how to do evangelization outside of the seminary, and then when they do internships and at parishes I'll coordinate a lot of that work.

Fr. David:

Yeah. I'm still getting used to talking about seminarians as they and not me.

Fr. Steve:

Oh, you're just over a year?

Fr. David:

A little over a year now.

Fr. Steve:

And you're not the youngest priest anymore?

Fr. David:

I still am the youngest. I'm not the most recently ordained, but I'm still the youngest just in age. Yeah. Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

We've got a young one here.

Fr. Steve:

He probably got another year or two another couple of years.

Fr. David:

Yeah. I think, I think when if there's maybe maybe two years--there's somebody coming through who, who will beat me. Take the title.

Fr. Craig:

Now, Father Steve, I know a little bit about your life and I know I've, oftentimes I've heard you on interviews. I've seen quotes in the newspaper from you. I know you go off and do speaking engagements, something that other priests that are pastors can't do because they're at their parish and they've got all these different responsibilities. You get to do some different things like starting a podcast that was never done before. And I'm sure you got to do a lot of other stuff. What was it? Some of those things that are pretty cool and speaking engagements and things like that.

Fr. Steve:

I, you know, God uses the gifts. We have grace builds on nature, St Augustine said it, or no? But that's an Axiom of the church that grace builds on nature. Like that's why human formation is part of seminary, right? It's not just like, Hey, are you a holy guy, but are you configuring your life, including all of your natural gifts and abilities to the Lord? So I think, you know, the Lord used my desire to--I wanted to kind of go into law or things like that. So I've gotten to do a lot of public speaking, which I enjoy a lot. I know for some priests, it's the thing they don't look forward to. Right. Some priests, some men I know, thinking about seminary, it's like, wow, I don't know if I could get up there and preach every week. Like, I wouldn't know what to say, or I would feel like sheepish or self-conscious. You know, I've always enjoyed public speaking. And so I've been asked to do a number of different things, some around podcasts and teaching, and oftentimes for interviews with media or around things we're doing to kind of be the spokesman for certain aspects. And I I've liked doing that. I, I find that to be fun. I know we were on vacation a number of months ago kind of traveling together for a couple of days and I did one, and you're kind of laughing at me doing this in the background. Yeah. So anyway, that was fun. Yeah.

Fr. Craig:

I mean, it's really interesting. I mean, it's somewhat nerve wracking. I've been interviewed a couple of times and you get kind of nervous at first, if you haven't done it before, you know, like this is going to be in the newspaper or this is going to be on the news. So it takes the right person to feel comfortable to be able to do something like that. I think you do it well.

Fr. Steve:

Thanks dude.

Fr. Craig:

So you do have another podcast out, do you not? And what is that podcast and what is it about?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah, there's quite the panoply of podcasts. I don't know if that's the right word. I'm going to go with panoply.

Fr. Craig:

That's a $5 word.

Fr. Steve:

Quite the panoply of podcasts in the archdiocese repertoire, including this wonderful, what I would call the best of the podcast here. But we also do you know, the Open Door Policy is still going on and the archbishop does a podcast, Eyes on Jesus, I know Detroit Catholic does a podcast as well. Detroit stories or Catholic stories, which is really good. And then we do one for people who are kind of working in the church, want to work in the church who have made a living or dedicated a substantial part of their time, life, energy skills to building up the church. And that presents its own series of challenges and opportunities and you know, care that's needed. So Encounter Grow Witness is a podcast that I do with this wonderful lay ecclesial minister, the director of evangelization at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak. So Beth Spizarny and I do a monthly podcast just about what it means to work in the church, especially for lay people, and how we can not just become professionals competent at doing the work, but how we can grow as disciples of the Lord in the midst of it.

Fr. Craig:

Yeah. Awesome. Now I know there's an other many different special assignments, but we don't really have much time to talk about them any more, but you know, vocation director is one, it is a special assignment hospital chaplains, college chaplains what else am I missing here?

Fr. David:

Oh, well there's some more administrative ones working in the tribunal, that kind of thing. Yeah.

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. So down in, in the Chancery and in the office where I worked, the building, I worked there were about six or seven priests who work there. There's a vicar for clergy, the vicar general, the moderator or the who's the Canon lodge, judicial vicar. Thank you. So, yeah, there's a number of different assignments like that chaplains to colleges or hospitals, vocations directors, as you say. And then I work with a number of priests at Sacred Heart Seminary who are all in special assignments with me here.

Fr. Craig:

So Father Pullis, if you have anything to say to a young man thinking about the priesthood right now, what would you say to that person?

Fr. Steve:

Well, from my own experience, I would say you need to carve out time to actually hear God's voice. And I think, you know, for, for most young people, that means time of silence without distraction. It means putting your phone away and praying, and not just once, like building a relationship with the Lord which takes work and can be challenging. So we need to put away the things that can easily distract us from that. So regular prayer and finding, you know, if you can't do that or you don't know how to do that, find someone, the parish priest at your parish who can help you do that. And then any relationship with Jesus has to begin with a realization that he is Lord and for Jesus to be Lord means he has ultimate dominion over your life. And so to approach that, to say, Jesus, whatever you want, I give you. That's the only way we're going to find real true lasting happiness. If we put everything at Jesus's feet and give him whatever he asks for. And if you do that, you will be happy in a way that nothing in this world can offer. Whether he's calling you to be a priest, a married man, a single man, a religious, that is how you're going to find true happiness. Jesus, you have my whole life. What do you want me to do?

Fr. David:

Awesome. Amen.

Fr. Craig:

Thanks for coming to this podcast. We really appreciate this conversation and having you on.

Fr. Steve:

Thanks Father Craig, thanks Father David. This has been a hoot. It's good to be with you.

Fr. Craig:

You want to lead us out in a prayer?

Fr. Steve:

Yeah. In the name of the Father, and of the Son of Holy Spirit. Amen. Remember almost gracious Virgin Mary, that never wasn't known that anyone who fled to thy protection implored thy help or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, we fly unto thee, oh Virgin of virgins our mother. To thee do we come, before thee we stand sinful and sorrowful. O mother of the word incarnate, despise not our petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer us. Amen.

Fr. Craig:

Amen.

Fr. Steve:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Fr. Craig:

Thank you again, Father Pullis. You've been listening to Men of the Hearts, a monthly podcast from the Archdiocese of Detroit office of priestly vocations. Join me every month, Father Craig Giera, and your host Father David Pellican. As we explore the priesthood, hear vocation stories from priests all over the archdiocese and answer questions about discerning to priestly vocation. Tune in every week to wherever you get your podcasts and learn more detroitpriestlyvocations.com. God bless.

Fr. Steve:

Aaaaaamen. Aaaaaamen. Aaaaaaaamen, amen amen. Sing it over.

Fr. Craig:

I don't, I don't know that one.

Fr. Steve:

Well, these are the field man.