Having a cousin who’s a priest might seem like a natural way to gravitate toward that vocation. It was true to some degree for Deacon Josh Salonek, whose first cousin is Father Paul Shovelain, ordained in 2014 and now pastor of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton.
“It was good to see an example of a young man pursuing that, for sure, and somebody I know so well,” said Deacon Salonek, 26. “He was always on fire for the faith, always lived it out pretty radically.”
But, during childhood, Father Shovelain’s zeal for the faith intimidated Deacon Salonek, who wasn’t sure he could measure up to a man he called “a real witness of how to live out the faith.”
Enter Extreme Faith Camp, which planted a seed of joy that is blossoming into a vocation that will be made official when Deacon Salonek is ordained with six other men at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul May 29. He first attended the camp after finishing the sixth grade.
“It was there that I had an encounter with the Eucharist and Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,” said Deacon Salonek, who, like Father Shovelain, grew up attending St. Michael in St. Michael. “And, there I was filled with a great sense of peace and joy.”
Deacon Salonek went to Extreme Faith Camp every year from 2006 through 2015. He was active in youth group at his parish and even went to World Youth Day in 2011 in Madrid.
After graduating from high school in 2012, Deacon Salonek served in NET Ministries for one year, then enrolled at the University of St. Thomas and joined St. John Vianney College Seminary to live and study with other men thinking about the priesthood.
During Deacon Salonek’s first year at SJV, Father Shovelain was in his final year of formation at The St. Paul Seminary before being ordained a priest. The two talked about the priesthood, and Deacon Salonek received further support from other men, including another seminarian from his parish, Father Andrew Zipp, who was ordained in 2019.
Another influential figure in his vocation path is John DeLozier, whom he described as a spiritual mentor during middle school and high school. DeLozier, a theology teacher at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park, invited Deacon Salonek to be part of a small group in middle school, and offered regular support and advice.
“Around junior year, I started trying to think a little bit further into the future, trying to figure out what God wanted me to do or maybe what I wanted to do with my life,” Deacon Salonek said. “And, John DeLozier encouraged me to do two things before I graduated high school. One of them was to go on a Vianney visit. And so, I did that my junior year and I liked it.”
The second thing DeLozier suggested was doing an interview with NET about serving for a year as a missionary doing high school retreats, which Deacon Salonek did. Little did he know the powerful experience he would have that would catapult him toward the priesthood.
“There was this one time I went to confession that year, and at the end of it, the priest looked at me and he asked me if I ever thought of priesthood,” Deacon Salonek recalled. “There was kind of a growing trend from high school onward of that call being brought up in my heart and in my prayer. And so, I kind of rolled my eyes at that (remark by the priest), and I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’ve thought about priesthood.’ And, he looked at me and he said, ‘Well, I see it written all over you.’”
These words got Deacon Salonek’s attention. “I was very struck by that,” he said. “He spoke as no other man has.”
The priest’s comments confirmed what Deacon Salonek had been sensing, and just months later he arrived at SJV in 2013 to begin his path toward a priestly vocation. He progressed steadily through his undergraduate work, then enrolled at SPS the following fall after his graduation from UST. At the end of April, he received some instructive words from a retired priest coming up on his 70th jubilee, Father George Welzbacher, who spoke during lunch to the entire ordination class of 2021.
“He told us, really simply: Keep your prayer, stay close to Mary,” Deacon Salonek said. “Those two, I think, are key.”
In turn, Deacon Salonek has some advice for the faithful he will serve in his ministry as a priest:
“Please, please pray for me.”
The challenges of a continuing global pandemic and racial unrest “definitely makes me nervous,” he said. “There’s a lot that’s asked of priests, especially now.”
He believes that being young will help him in ministry, along with his sense of humor, which can be more important than people realize.
“I’m very risible — quick to laugh,” he said. “I think it’s really good to have a sense of humor. Sometimes, we can be so serious talking about the truths of the faith. It can bring a lot to the table when a joke is said. I think it can really put people at ease.”
