Paul Haverstock, a seminarian of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in formation at the North American College in Rome, was ordained to the diaconate Oct. 1 at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican with 39 other transitional deacons. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York presided.

“What a joy to be ordained,” he said. “I could not be happier to have given my life to God and his Church.”

Haverstock was raised Lutheran, but went joined the Catholic Church in 2006 at the Easter Vigil Mass at the University of Kansas Newman Center in Lawrence, Kansas, where he studied Latin and Greek. He earned a law degree at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis before entering seminary in 2010.

Haverstock expects to be ordained a priest at the Cathedral of St. Paul in May 2016 with the transitional deacons studying at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. His home parish is Holy Family in St. Louis Park.