May 26, 2026 // Diocese

Stepping Up to Support ‘Our Shepherds, Our Future’

Todays Catholic

“In the course of his life, a single priest will impact tens of thousands of souls.” With those words, Monsignor Michael Heintz set the tone for Our Shepherds, Our Future, an evening hosted by the Catholic Community Foundation of Northeast Indiana on Tuesday, May 19, at The Owl’s Nest in North Webster.

In his keynote address, Monsignor Heintz, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Granger, invited guests to consider the quiet, far-reaching influence of a priest — through homilies and sacraments, through funerals and weddings, through a kind word in a confessional that a penitent may carry for the rest of their life. Imagine a funeral, he said, where the priest’s words reach not only the grieving family but the co-workers, neighbors and friends in the pews — many of whom may have little or no connection to the Church. “The priest has an impact on all of them.”

Seeds sown in one moment, he reflected, may be reaped by another long afterward.

To help support the men who will take on such a vital role in the Church and the world, the Catholic Community Foundation invited faith-filled supporters from throughout the diocese to meet and talk with priests, deacons nearing their priestly ordination, and seminarians who shared the testimonies of their vocational journeys and their seminary experiences.

Though unable to attend in person, Bishop Rhoades expressed his gratitude in a video message, thanking the faithful for investing in “the priests our Church will need for generations to come” and asking attendees to keep the seminarians in their prayers.

The evening’s program included a witness talk by seminarian Michael Florin and questions and answers from seminarians hosted by Father Jonathan Norton, the diocese’s director of seminarians, and Father Daniel Niezer, its promoter of vocations.

Catholic Community Foundation CEO Mackenzie Ritchie closed the event by inviting attendees to consider giving to the organization’s St. John Paul II Fund for Seminarian Education, established as a permanent endowment to help offset the cost of priestly formation, which now exceeds $60,000 per seminarian each year.

“A planned gift of any size, added to the gifts of others, becomes part of something much larger than any one of us,” Ritchie said. “It becomes part of an endowment, or a forever fund, that quietly says year after year, ‘Yes Lord, we will care for your priests. We will look to the next generation.’”

To learn more or to donate to the St. John Paul II Fund for Seminarian Education, visit ccfnei.org.