When Father Stephen Hilgendorf, an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, felt called to the Catholic priesthood, he needed to submit an application to the North American, Houston-based Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which in turn passed along the application to the Vatican. He also needed to write by hand a letter requesting ordination.
So did his wife, Hannah.
Father Hilgendorf needed permission from the Vatican because he had served as a priest in the Anglican tradition. The Vatican created the ordinariate in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic.
Father Hilgendorf, who also worked in St. Paul at the Cathedral of St. Paul during his preparation for the Catholic priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary, recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to discuss his faith journey.
Growing up, with his mother’s family Catholic, Father Hilgendorf had been to Mass a few times, usually at Christmas or for a funeral. But he became an Anglican while attending Hillsdale College in Michigan. While there, he began engaging with Catholics he knew on campus — and said it was the first time he met Catholics who devoutly believed in and practiced their faith.
“They shared that with me,” he said. “I prayed the rosary for the first time while I was in college, but I just really wasn’t ready at that point to go deep with the Church.”
Yet while an Anglican, Father Hilgendorf said he and his wife decided there was something the Lord was calling them to do.
Asked what led to his desire to become a Catholic priest, Father Hilgendorf said it began as he and his wife, “had actually kind of come to grips with the fact that God was calling us to become Catholic,” he said. “We knew that would entail letting go of ordained ministry because the Catholic Church teaches that the Anglican ministry is not in fact, is not the sacrament of Holy Orders as the Catholic Church possesses it. So I knew that when I would become Catholic, I would not be a priest.”
Instead, Father Hilgendorf said he would be “received” and could serve as a layman. “So it took a while to come to grips with that and accept that … if we believe that the pope is who the Church says he is and he’s made this judgment, this is the truth, so we’ll accept it,” he said.
The couple knew there was a possibility, “an open door for us to petition to be considered for formation for the priesthood and get a dispensation from the pope — from the norm of celibacy in my particular case,” he said.
After converting to Catholicism, “multiple people, both Anglican and Catholic,” told him he should consider becoming a Catholic priest, Father Hilgendorf said.
He was hired full-time as director of faith formation at the Cathedral of St. Paul in 2018, accepted into priestly formation at the Ordinariate in 2019, and studied at The St. Paul Seminary while continuing to work at the Cathedral.
Father Hilgendorf was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter June 29 in Houston. Now, he serves part-time as parochial administrator of the ordinariate’s St. Barnabas parish in Omaha and part-time as associate pastor in the Archdiocese of Omaha’s Christ the King parish. He and his wife welcomed baby Isaac July 25, joining their three other children, ages 2, 4 and 6.
To learn more about Father Hilgendorf’s journey to the Catholic priesthood, and to hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. Aug. 13, 1 p.m. Aug. 14 and 2 p.m. Aug. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Kelly Wahlquist and Father John Paul Erickson, who discuss developments at the Archbishop Flynn Catechetical Institute, and Cathy Carson and Karen Sester, who describe how the Cana Institute can help moms navigate the ins, outs, ups and downs of motherhood.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
