May 23, 2026 // Diocese

Meet the Ordinandi: Deacon Patrick Ernst

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

 

There is a line in the rite of ordination that Deacon Patrick Ernst has been sitting with in prayer as June 6 approaches.

During the Prayer of Ordination, Bishop Rhoades will ask God to “renew deep within them the Spirit of holiness” — words the rite itself designates as essential to the validity of the act. For Deacon Ernst, they carry the full weight of what he is about to receive.

“That’s been at the forefront of my thought as I approach ordination,” he told Today’s Catholic from Rome earlier this year. “I pray that the Lord will make me a holy priest and to renew that deep within me as I embark on priestly ministry.”

On Saturday, June 6, Deacon Ernst will be ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne, alongside four fellow transitional deacons — Johnathon Hickey, Noah Isch, Samuel Martinez and Greenan Sullivan. Deacon Ernst has spent the past several years studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, but his heart has never strayed far from northern Indiana.

While he has loved his time in Rome, he acknowledged that “being in a parish with people from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend sounds like heaven to me.”

Nurturing the Seeds of a Vocation

Deacon Ernst is the youngest of four children of Michael and Cathy Ernst, members of St. Pius X Parish in Granger. He was, by his family’s affectionate account, a boy of considerable energy — one who broke his arm four times before high school and threw himself into everything Marian High School in Mishawaka had to offer: football captain, state-qualifying wrestler, rugby player, choir singer.

He went on to play football at Ohio Northern University before transferring to Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, where he became an All-American rugby player.

His vocation took root quietly amid all of that. A pivotal moment came after a Good Friday service in high school, when a family friend, Bobby Kloska, watched him serve at the altar and sent him a message afterward.

“He said: ‘Patrick, the thought occurred to me that you would make an outstanding priest,’” Deacon Ernst recalled in an earlier interview with Today’s Catholic, quoting the message from memory. “’Besides possessing all the necessary characteristic traits and a heart of service for others, you just seem to fit so naturally into that role on the altar.’”

It was, Deacon Ernst said, the first time he had considered the priesthood as a possible vocation. Other voices reinforced it over the years — Monsignor Michael Heintz, his former pastor at St. Matthew Cathedral; Father Chris Lapp, then a parochial vicar at St. Matthew; and Stephen Jagla, who taught theology at Marian High School.

“All these people whom God has put in my life said, more or less, that you should consider the priesthood,” Deacon Ernst reflected. “It never came off in a way of forcing me to do this but pointing out my vocation. And it was marvelous, because at that time others believed in me, and that really gave me the confidence that I needed to turn to the Lord on my own time and dime, if you will — my own volition — and figure out that, yeah, He really was inviting me to this vocation.”

Formed in the Shadow of the Vatican

Deacon Ernst’s years at the Pontifical North American College have placed him at the center of the Church’s life in ways that few American seminarians experience. He has been present for the deaths of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, witnessed the subsequent conclave, stood in St. Peter’s Square when Pope Leo was elected, and chanted the Gospel during Mass celebrated by the American pope on the solemnity of Epiphany earlier this year. He was ordained a deacon in St. Peter’s Basilica last October.

Those experiences, Deacon Ernst said, lead him “to having a much more firmly rooted love of the Holy Father and respect for what he does,” he said.

That closeness to the successor of Peter has shaped how Deacon Ernst thinks about his own approaching ordination — and his own sense of unworthiness before it. He said he finds comfort in the faults and faith of St. Peter.

“I think of Peter’s great many times when he says, ‘Depart from me, Lord, I’m a sinful man,’” Deacon Ernst said. “Maybe he was experiencing a sense of unworthiness, too, and I can certainly resonate with that approaching ordination — and yet the Lord still chose him.”

‘I Could Not Be More Grateful’

When Deacon Ernst returns to the diocese, he said he hopes to do as much listening as leading. He recalled advice from Monsignor Bill Schooler, who told him that “the people of a parish” will teach a priest “how to be a good pastor.”

“I certainly don’t claim to know it all,” Deacon Ernst said. “But I pray that the people who have been in the parish for a long time will teach me what it means to be a pastor. So I hope to actually learn and to lean on them in doing so — because they have been experiencing parish life for a long time, more so than I have, and just knowing the sensibilities of the people in our diocese, I’m sure that they could help us learn a lot more about what it means to be a good pastor.”

His vision for ministry is straightforward: proclaim the Gospel faithfully, celebrate the sacraments with reverence, hear confessions, accompany families and encourage vocations.

Deacon Ernst said he is indebted to those in the diocese for supporting him with their prayers and encouraging words throughout his discernment and formation.

“While the vocation, in a loose sense, is mine, it really only makes sense when it is given for others, particularly the people of our diocese,” Deacon Ernst said. “Simple comments, such as, ‘You would make a great priest,’ or ‘Have you ever considered a vocation to the priesthood?’ have been profoundly influential in directing me to the vocation that God has been drawing me into. For that, I am most grateful, because the people of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend saw something in me that I could not see for myself. They believed in me and continue to support me in many ways as ordination day approaches. I could not be more grateful for our diocese, especially for the people whom I will soon serve.”

He has one request as ordination day draws near.

“Just a simple thank you to all of you who have helped me on the way to priesthood,” he said, “and I just simply ask for your prayers as I continue on the way to ordination and pray that I would be a good priest for you all.”

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About Deacon Patrick Ernst

Home parish: St. Pius X, Granger

Ordained a deacon: October 2, 2025, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome

Favorite hobbies: Rugby, skeet shooting, singing

Favorite saints: St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, St. Augustine, St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Favorite Scripture: Psalm 32:7

What made you want to be a priest? I would say three things primarily. Meeting both happy and holy priests around the diocese, having people tell me time and again that I should seriously consider going to seminary, and finally, in the quiet of my heart, hearing the Father lovingly invite me to go to seminary.

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First Mass of Thanksgiving

Following his ordination, Father Patrick Ernst will celebrate his First Mass of Thanksgiving at noon on Sunday, July 7, at St. Pius X Parish in Granger. An open house reception will follow in the Monsignor Schooler Life Center.