For Fr. Zach and Fr. Drew Mabee, the bond of brotherhood led them not only to Catholicism, but to priestly vocations in Michigan, as well.

(0:00) We meet Zach and Drew Mabee, priests of the Diocese of Lansing and Archdiocese of Detroit, respectively — and brothers. Two generally different siblings are bonded together by both brotherhood and priesthood.

(2:03) Father Zach talks about what their protestant upbringing was like in Atlanta, and we learn how this changed when the family moved to Toledo and the boys started at a Jesuit school.

(4:16) Zach attends the University of Michigan, where he joins a campus group that helps him continue fostering the spiritual care he’d nurtured in high school. This group, paired with his studies in philosophy, led him to Catholicism and, eventually, RCIA.

(6:58) While his parents were skeptical at first, they eventually became tremendously supportive, and Zach enrolled at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was ordained in 2015.

(8:31) Meanwhile, Drew was chasing thrills as a very passionate motocross rider. This, however, eventually left him feeling a certain emptiness, one that his brother was able to help him fill.

(11:34) After conversations and prayer with his brother, Drew’s big encounter comes in the form of a devastating motocross crash, and from then on he commits himself fully to getting to know the Lord.

(13:31) After a post-grad breakup, Drew begins to realize that maybe the Lord is asking for more than he’d initially expected. He became Catholic in 2012, entered the seminary in 2014, and was ordained in 2020.

(14:42) Drew and Zach both reflect on what an unparalleled gift it is to share the bonds of brotherhood and priesthood.

Reporting by Gabriella Patti; narration by Casey McCorry; production by Ron Pangborn

Zach and Drew: All right, bro. Love you, too. All right, peace.

Narrator: Zach and Drew Mabee are priests within the Archdiocese of Detroit. They’re also brothers–literally, though you wouldn’t know it were it not for their similar voices. Father Zach is a scholar. He’s rarely without his head in some philosophical text. He’s reserved, a “still waters run deep” kind of person, but when he speaks it's with deliberate and well-thought out explanations and thoughts. He can synthesize the most inscrutable philosophical and theological texts into bite-size pieces for the masses. In college he wrote an impassioned letter to the editor in the Michigan Daily about why Dwayne Johnson, or The Rock, is contemporary cinema’s finest action star and I almost started to agree!

While Drew, though also very well-read, is an effusive goofball, very conversational, energetic, extremely relational and pastoral. Imagine all of the energy and adrenaline rushes from a motocross rider–which he was– now released in impassioned homilies and the warm receptivity of a pastor looking to walk with you.

But to see them in a room together is to see the resounding bond that links them. Were it not for the other, they wouldn’t be there, collared, Catholic, together. It took a brotherhood to guide them through conversion to Catholicism, and then the decision to become priests.

This is the story of brothers–Father Drew and Father Zach Mabee.

Welcome to Detroit Stories, a podcast on a mission to boldly share the stories of the people and communities in Southeast Michigan. These are the stories that fascinate and inspire us.

Zach and Drew Mabee grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, the only children of devout Lutheran parents. Sundays were spent attending services at Sunday Lutheran Congregation, the church where they were baptized. This is Father Drew,

Drew: I would say, uh, folks are very dedicated, very like loving, gracious people, very self-sacrificial very committed to each other and to the family and certainly believe in God and, uh, kind of have just kind of a normal kind of, you know, kind of American disposition, you know, I think, uh, to kind of giving God a certain basic kind of reference and honor, uh, but we weren't like super, I wouldn't say the Gospel in what Jesus has done had any kind of real effect in our lives too deeply. I didn't — certainly didn't know the Gospel at that point. I would say, I don't remember knowing it.

Narrator: But that started to change ten years later when the family moved to Toledo, Ohio. Eager to get the boys a solid Christian education their parents enrolled them in all-boys Jesuit Catholic school. Father Zach had an appetite for living his faith that this school answered in spades. He got involved in everything he could: the campus ministry, the Christian service team that worked with the poor, retreats, and a men’s small group that met with a priest. Here’s Father Zach:

Zach: Funny enough, I recall there was a moment when I was a junior, where, and my mom remembers this too, where I suggested to my mom that I thought I wanted to be a Jesuit. But I was of course Lutheran at the time. So she kind of, you know, looked at, looked at me like I was crazy, but I think there was something about their example and witness that I did find very compelling and I think I had a kind of loose sense that I could maybe see myself doing something like what they do, you know?

Narrator: Meanwhile, the family’s former Lutheran practices moved into the background. This is Father Drew...

Drew: We kind of just fell away from regular practice as Lutherans, and not for any kind of particular reasons, but more, I think it was just a matter of, kind of, convenience. And we weren't as taken by the new pastor, at the church where we had moved to. And so we just kind of, as it happened, fell away from practicing regularly.

Narrator: Father Zach graduated high school and went to University of Michigan where he was eager to hold on to the newfound Christian involvement he nurtured in high school.

Zach: I had a kind of itch to, you know, stay involved or connected somehow with my faith, though I wasn't altogether sure how I wanted to do that. You know, I had sort of been away from being Lutheran for long enough, but I wasn't really sure that I wanted to do that. So anyway, I started studying philosophy and I think that got me interested in kind of thinking through some of these issues more deeply, but also you know, really making a kind of informed decision for myself.

Narrator: For him that meant going back to the most basic questions. He decided to major in Philosophy and Linguistics. It was around this time that Father Zach learned about a group called University Christian Outreach. UCO was an ecumenical student group that had grown out of the charismatic renewal in Ann Arbor. They meet together for weekly praise, prayer and worship. There are multiple retreats throughout the year and bible studies. Here’s Father Zach.

Zach: You know, I think getting involved with them helped me in some important ways, just to kind of, you know, learn how to pray more deeply and make you know, a kind of life of discipleship a little bit more of a priority.

Narrator: For Father Zach, being discipled meant making a commitment meant finding his Church. He pored through theological writings of different churches, and prayed devotedly, but he kept coming back to the church fathers, the richness of the Catholic tradition, he felt God was leading him one place.

Zach: And then it was kind of in the midst of my studies and involvement with them and a number of friends that I had, and just a host of considerations like that, that I kind of decided eventually that I wanted to become Catholic.

Narrator: Father Zach entered RCIA in his senior year of college.

Zach: For me it was really kind of during and through the process of becoming Catholic and going through RCIA that the question of priesthood kind of came onto my radar more squarely.

Narrator: The Church encourages converts to wait a couple years before entering religious life, so Father Zach took a job teaching at a Dominican-run school in Ann Arbor, discerning this desire quietly, telling very few people. Father Zach was most nervous to tell his parents.

Zach: You know, when I first mentioned it, they effectively advised me to try a few more things, first, date a few more people, that sort of thing, but it really just struck me that, you know, the time was right. And if you will, the grace was there to go and to try it. And so I kind of told them respectfully, you know, I appreciate that, but I think the time is right now for me to give this a go. And, so yeah, it kind of made it clear that I was going to do that. And, you know, to be honest, ever since I let that be made known to them, ever since I, you know, told them that I was in fact going to go to the seminary, they've been tremendously supportive.

[engine revving]

Narrator: Father Drew’s path looked a little different. A little….muddier. While Father Zach was steeped in Christian ministry life at U. of M., Father Drew was a high school student with some other things in mind.

Drew: When I was in high school towards the end of high school, I was very much dimensioned, very passionate about motocross racing and riding for — quite probably Fr. Zach could probably echo this, but probably a good chunk of my childhood well into college. And so it was just something that I always loved from a very young age. And so I got really into it as I got older and I had a driver's license of course, and the more I grew up, the more I got into it. So, when I was in high school, I was pretty much most weekends going off to the track with my buddies and going riding or racing.

[Motocross sounds]

Narrator: Drew was really good but all the benchmarks he reached and goals he achieved were eclipsed by a pervading feeling of emptiness.

Drew: I think deep down that if I could just kind of accomplish motocross goals, if you will, or dreams, then I would be really happy. And, you know, I just figured out that, like, I love dirt bikes so much that I thought like, this is really, in a certain sense, my God, where I looked for all my joy and I'll my light and also just for like, who I was. And then, uh, it really started to kind of in a certain sense, I wouldn't say crumble, but just kind of started to kind of be aerated. And I also like, had dated two gals and that didn't — neither of which were very, like too great of, you know, you could say Christian relationships, and I was just kind of searching in my life. And I thought motocross had really, would really kind of bring you the joy that I was always longing for. And I, the more I started to kind of accomplish, like, anything drastic for the more certain race and kind of do better and, you know, progress, I still wasn't really that satisfied. In fact, I find myself just more and more kind of searching and then, you know, I thought, well, maybe, you know, my girlfriend will make me happy and all these things, and that didn't quite work out either at the time. Both of those realities kind of left me more, just searching too. And so by the end of my senior year of high school, I just didn't really know what I was supposed to do with my life.

Narrator: He thought maybe he would move to California, ride dirt bikes and work in the motocross industry. This was something his parents did not consider an option. So he pivoted. He started attending a community college, still battling this essential question and restlessness. Father Zach saw his brother plagued by the same melancholy and questions that had affected him years earlier.

Drew: Father Zach had started to have a conversion at U of M. So he was reaching out to me and would regularly just kind of take an interest in catching up and chatting. And we started talking about certain things I was struggling with in life, and he would always kind of encourage me to pray. And I'm just like, ah, no, thanks. You know, or he'd had some kind of good, you know, holy advice. And I started to kind of somewhat take it seriously. I remember praying my very freshman year, and I remember just kind of coming to this conclusion that like, I don't know why I'm really here, you know? And I know, God, that you're real, but I don't think I've ever really encountered you.

Narrator: Drew’s encounter with God came in the most unlikely of ways. Just weeks after that prayer, Father Drew had one of the worst crashes of his dirt-biking career.

Drew: I remember being on the ground at this guy’s, my friend's track and just kind of saying to God, something like, you know, like, I don't know if this is my, it was a broken femur, and I thought to myself, you know, like, gosh, if this was the end of my life, God, I don't even know if I know who you are or why I'm here, if the whole point of life is supposed to be about why, you know, why do I exist? And if you get me through this, I said something just like, you know, I want to come to know you.

Narrator: Drew underwent surgery and his brother, Father Zach came to visit and pray for him. When Drew left the hospital he was true to his promise. He started attending a non-denominational campus church, a men’s Bible study, and University Christian Outreach. He started wrestling with some of faith’s big questions.

Drew: Conversations with my brother, where I was always struck by — he just felt like, you know, I would try to argue various theological things with him, kind of this Protestant perspective. And he always had a lot of peace and clarity about what the Church taught and why she taught it. And it wasn't like he was kind of rattled by anything and that kind of affected me. And so and then I had a friend who was Catholic, who loved the Lord more than anybody I knew, and he had a huge impact on me. We used to go out and have a beer and talk and kind of debate back and forth. And he started sneaking, taking me to Adoration, Eucharistic Adoration. And then that started, I remember encountering the love of God there. Like I'd never really encountered it. And so I thought, my gosh, Lord, this is you.

Narrator: When Drew graduated he worked for a year with UCO. He went on retreats and joined a group called the Christian Missionary Brotherhood. He lived in a men’s Christian household. He started dating a Catholic woman who he was really excited about. But just as he was coming to the conclusion that marriage was most definitely for him, she told him that she was planning to spend a year in Belgium discerning religious life, and she ended their relationship.

Drew: And I just remember coming to the conclusion that I think the Lord might be calling me to give him my whole life. And I'm really kind of almost, I think he might be calling me to do it, but I really kind of want to do it. Like I find joy in just having God, at least wanting to want to have God as my all. And that just motivated me, and having experienced his mercy so deeply in my life. I felt like in his transforming love in so many areas of my life, where he’d freed me from sin. And so, so many real ways. I thought, my gosh, I just want to give him everything back. I just remember, like, sensing in my heart, like, gosh, I just, I feel like I just want to make known the Father to people.

Archbishop Vigneron: Andrew, dear son, do you resolve with the help of the Holy Spirit to discharge without fail the office of priesthood in the presbyteral rank?

Drew: I do.

Narrator: Proudly in attendance were his parents and the priest that helped him get there: Father Zach. This is Drew...

Drew: Father Zach has been huge. And I think oftentimes in ways that he doesn't even see or even sense. We're very different personalities in a lot of ways, and it's such a great to have his perspective from things. I think also a grace for me has been like, he just, I mean, we grew up together and so we just know each other really well. So he's been able to, kind of, on the way of discernment, you know, just help point out things and, you know, encourage me in certain ways that, you know, only he could, because he's seen me since I was a little guy, you know.

Narrator: This is Zach,

Zach: I think it's just very, I think it's very edifying and consoling, you know, to have your, your brother up to the same thing as you are. You know, for each of us to be able to, you know, call each other and bounce ideas off the other and, you know, share joys and frustrations.

Narrator: Today Father Zach is currently in residence at Sacred Heart where he will be teaching and working as a member of the faculty after finishing his doctoral thesis in philosophy. Father Drew is at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, MI. Father Zach and Drew regularly get together to grab a beer, catch up, talk sports, debate, relate...it’s the brotherhood they always had, but now collared and bearing the weight of their mother Church, it’s more important than ever. Here’s Drew:

Drew: It's such a gift to — there's a special bond I've already seen in the priesthood where, like, you know, you're really in this with guys and you really do have brothers with your brother priests that in a certain way, you weren't brothers with anybody else on the face of the earth. But it's even, that's even taken deeper when it's your, one of your own biological brothers who's also your brother priest, because I just feel like, when you share a certain kind of certainly we're priests together, but we're even, we’re also biological brothers we’re also brothers in the Lord.

Narrator: Detroit Stories is a production of Detroit Catholic and the communications department of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts.