April 30, 2025 // Uncategorized

Four New Priests Join the Ranks of Congregation of Holy Cross

Kasia Balsbaugh

Four deacons from the Congregation of Holy Cross were ordained to the priesthood on Saturday, April 26, at the University of Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Bishop Rhoades conferred the sacrament, with priests of Holy Cross assisting at the Mass. The new Holy Cross priests are Father Richard Bevington, Father Noah Junge, Father Aaron Morris, and Father David Murray.

The priests’ written testimonies speak of their passion for education and care for the poor – two main works of the Congregation of Holy Cross. Those who knew the men from ministry placements gave their own testimonies of the deacons’ readiness for ordination before the rite.

“I noticed that, in each presentation, they spoke of the love of each of these men, their love for the Lord and for the people they have served as deacons,” Bishop Rhoades said. “I can’t think of a better testimony to readiness for priestly ordination, since the priesthood is about giving oneself in love to the Church, manifesting the love of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.”

Bishop Rhoades told the four deacons that Pope Francis, whose funeral was celebrated the day of their ordination, was a “beautiful example” to them of someone who “lived his priesthood to the end.” Bishop Rhoades pointed them to the late pope’s last encyclical, Dilexit Nos (“He Loved Us”). Bishop Rhoades exhorted the men to “stay rooted in Christ’s love.”

Of the four, Bishop Rhoades told those gathered that “their hearts have been touched by the love of Jesus’ Heart. Why else would they have made the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, evangelical virtues that seem so strange in today’s world? Why else would they kneel before the bishop today and promise obedience? Why else would they give their lives to the Church, with all its challenges and imperfections? Because they love the Lord and believe that the Church is His Mystical Body!”

‘The Capacity to Love’

Father Richard “Ricky” Bevington wrote that his younger self would have thought himself more likely to become president or a Supreme Court justice than a priest.

“I was raised Lutheran, and while I was engaged in my faith and in ministry, I had other life goals,” Father Bevington wrote. “Even after I went through RCIA in grad school, I didn’t really consider priesthood. It wasn’t until I was working full-time at Stonehill College [a Catholic college founded by Holy Cross] that I started seriously thinking that God might be calling me to be a religious priest. I’ve always viewed my mission in life as helping folks see both how loved they are – by God and others – and that they have the capacity to love in return. That mission has always been clear; I just then had to ask myself how I was going to live it out.”

While praying with St. John Henry Newman, one of his longtime patron saints, Father Bevington followed the call to the priesthood in the community of Holy Cross.

“He strives to ensure that everyone knows … they are deeply loved by their Father,” King’s College student Caitlin Gius said of Father Bevington. She added, “He demonstrates how fulfilling living a Catholic life can be.”

‘A Servant’s Heart’

Father Noah Junge was moved by the Holy Cross community while studying civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

“As an undergrad at Notre Dame, this coming to understand my vocation was aided by a number of Holy Cross religious who, by their joyful witness and accompaniment, beckoned me to follow and join a band of men who were to be a family,” Father Junge wrote.

One of Father Junge’s service assignments was working with the homeless at South Bend’s Our Lady of the Road, where one of his tasks was to give haircuts. “As Dorothy Day states so plainly, ‘The mystery of the poor is that they are Christ,’” Father Junge wrote. “And so, I not only feel incredibly blessed that some people would trust me enough to cut their hair and touch their head, but that Christ Himself would fall asleep and find rest in my hands.”

Parishioners from Holy Cross Parish in South Bend described Father Junge as “a gentle soul with a servant’s heart.”

“When asked why he wants to be a priest, Deacon Noah responds concisely with sincerity, simply saying, ‘I just want to love people,’” parishioner Dr. Lori Wykoff wrote. “What more could God’s Church want?”

‘God Bursting Forth’

One of Father Aaron Morris’ earliest memories is of the joy he felt during the Easter Vigil as a child. Father Morris felt called to the priesthood since childhood, but for most of his youth, he didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. Even after college, working as a mechanical engineer, he hid Holy Cross’ Ave Crux magazine from his roommates and read it in secret.

“It wasn’t until about six years after college – after working and staying active in my parish – that I was finally able to talk about it freely,” Father Morris wrote. “God gave me the courage and the joy to say ‘yes.’ I sold my sailboat, car, and other toys, and left the beloved Rainbow State, Hawaii, for Crossroads Indiana. And if you will believe it, I left with joy.”

“What do I hope to experience as a priest?” Father Morris continued. “God. God bursting forth, being seen in new and radiant ways. Days on the Stonehill farm come to mind. Conversations working in Notre Dame campus ministry. Journeying to the sacraments of initiation with folks as a catechist. Yeah, the bursting-forth moments are the best – but I’m learning that the slow and barely perceptible movements of God can be just as fulfilling.”

Student Katherine Kish said the Stonehill College community was “unanimous” in recommending Father Morris to the priesthood, citing, among other things, “his deeply beautiful way of finding and sharing Our Lord in everything.”

“We are the better for knowing him, and he is undeniably meant for this role,” Kish said.

‘Filled with Christ’s Spirit’

Father David Murray received his bachelor degree of science in pre-professional studies from the University of Notre Dame before joining the Alliance for Catholic Education and teaching for five years at a Catholic high school in Tennessee. It was in the midst of his work in education that he began seriously considering the priesthood. As he put it, “Education was what brought me to Holy Cross.”

“After exploring this call for a couple of years, I visited the Holy Cross community at Moreau Seminary and immediately felt great peace – a feeling of being home within another community of people,” Father Murray wrote.

Father Murray also credited his parents’ significant role in his life. “Their fidelity to their faith and their vocation of marriage has encouraged me in my vocational journey,” he wrote.

Father Murray is beloved by the young men of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough Residence Hall, to whom he ministered as a rector.

“What stands out most about Deacon David is how he allows the Holy Spirit to animate his life,” graduate student Logan Edwards said on behalf of Keough Hall’s leadership team. “He loves ministry, and he loves all of God’s children and shepherds, and he does so with a joy that only a man filled with Christ’s spirit can. Christ is definitely alive in Deacon David.”