On Friday, April 1 Bishop Thomas John Paprocki ordained four seminarians to the transitional diaconate during 6 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. During the last weeks of Lent, Michael Friedel, Ronnie Lorilla, Rafal Pyrchla and Wayne Stock took time to share their thoughts on their upcoming ordinations.
Deacon Michael Friedel
Rosewood Heights native Deacon Michael Friedel grew up as a member of St. Kevin Parish in East Alton, which was eventually merged with St. Bernard Parish in Wood River to create Holy Angels Parish in Wood River. The second of two sons born to Edward “Joe” and Patricia Friedel of Rosewood Heights, he has one sibling, Daniel Friedel, who is just one year older. He attended grade school at St. Kevin, followed by Marquette Catholic High School in Alton.
It was while he was at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign that Deacon Friedel says he first felt called to the priesthood. “Although my brother had attended seminary for a time, I was convinced that I wanted a family,” he remembers. “Only after three years of studying chemical engineering (majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering) did I bother to ask myself what God wanted for me.
“I felt drawn to the Catholic faith through the Newman Center at U of I, and I really felt as though God was calling me to spend my life spreading the joy of the Gospel to his people,” he says. “From the moment I began discerning, there was such incredible peace associated with the idea of being a priest, and with the help of Msgr. Gregory Ketcham, my spiritual director at U of I, I discerned to enter seminary after I finished my degree the following spring.”
After college, Deacon Friedel, 27, went directly into Mundelein Seminary, where he spent two years studying philosophy. Lately, he has been studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he has been finishing his first degree — the baccalaureate in Sacred Theology — at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Then he will pursue a licentiate in Biblical Theology at the Gregorian.
Because Msgr. Ketcham was instrumental in helping him to discern entering the seminary, Deacon Friedel asked that priest to vest him at his ordination.
This summer Deacon Friedel will be working with Father Joe Molloy at Holy Family Parish in Decatur. “I haven’t spent much time in that part of the diocese, so I look forward to meeting the good people of Decatur,” he says.
Deacon Ronnie Lorilla
Deacon Ronnie Lorilla was born and raised in a small farming community of Bagong Sirang, which is just over 200 miles south of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. He grew up in St. John the Baptist Parish but since then another area parish was created in the diocese, which is St. Therese of the Child Jesus Parish.
Born into a family of 13, he was the second to the last child born to the now-deceased parents, Rita Maldo and Benjamin Lorilla Sr. “I believe that my family, being a devout Catholic (family), was the real seedbed of my vocation,” Deacon Lorilla says. “My mother became my first catechist and she taught me my first prayers. The desire in my heart that was planted by the Lord has been nurtured and nourished by my family. This has been reinforced by my experience of Pope St. John Paul II’’s visit to the Philippines in 1995.”
Deacon Lorilla says that Pope St. John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta are two of his greatest inspirations in his vocation. Aside from these two great saints, the time he spent working and living with the Lay Mission group in the Philippines made a large impact on his life.
“I studied economics at the Universidad de Sta. Isabel in Naga City and graduated in 2000. I worked as a market researcher for four or five years before joining the Lay Mission group,” he says. “I lived with the people mostly in the peripheries and in the margins of society.” He describes the church of the Philippines as “a church that is poor” and says they are “people who live in crushing poverty, yet (are) richly gifted with undying faith in the Lord.”
Deacon Lorilla, 36, originally entered the religious order of the Society of our Mother of Peace in Missouri. While in the community he began his theology studies at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. During his third year of theology, he discerned that God was calling him to diocesan priesthood, so he talked to Director of Vocations Father Brian Alford about the possibility of studying for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. For the past year, Deacon Lorilla has been stationed at St. Cecilia Parish in Glen Carbon with Father Al Allen — and he asked Father Allen to vest him at his ordination.
“Father Allen has been a great blessing to me,” says Deacon Lorilla. “He is not just simply my pastoral supervisor but also my friend and mentor. I have learned from him not just the nitty-gritty part of managing business affairs of the parish, not just the proper and solemn sacramental celebrations, but above all, I have personally witnessed from him his pastoral charity, his love for his people, whom he was charged with for the care of their souls. He is a real pastor to his flock; a true shepherd to his sheep.”
Next school year, Deacon Lorilla will return to the seminary in St. Louis, while continuing to serve in a parish on the weekends.
Deacon Rafal Pyrchla
Deacon Rafal Pyrchla, who will turn 30 later this month, was born in Pilzno, Poland. “I grew up in a small town, located about 60 miles from Krakow,” he says. “My father died when I was 8 years old and my mother’s name is Zofia. I have three brothers, Damian, Bartholomew and Charles.
“I was raised in a traditional Catholic family. I was always very close to my local church, where I liked to spend a lot of time and at an early age I served Mass as an altar boy, and later as a lector,” he says. “After finishing high school, I made the decision to enter the seminary. During my time in the seminary in Poland I decided to come to the United States, because I wanted to work as a priest for the American church.”
Deacon Pyrchla entered Ss. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Krakow, where he studied English and spent a year preparing for his journey to America. “I came to the United States on Aug. 19, 2013,” he says. “My first year in Ss. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake (Mich.) was spent continuing my study of English and looking for a diocese in which I would work in the future.
“During my first year (in America) many vocation directors visited the seminary,” he says. One of them was Father Alford. After listening to Father Alford speak, Deacon Pyrchla visited the Springfield diocese over spring break.
“When I returned to the seminary, after conversations with my mentor and spiritual director I made the decision to choose my future diocese,” he says.
Father Alford says, “God-willing, (Deacon Pyrchla) will serve as a priest of our diocese for the duration of his priesthood. He has been studying English as well as the various courses in theology necessary for the master’s degree which is required for ordination to the priesthood. He will be completing his theological studies in May and will spend the next year doing pastoral work as a deacon as he looks forward to ordination to the priesthood in the spring of 2017.”
Deacon Pyrchla was vested by Very Canon Walter Ptak.
Deacon Wayne Stock
Deacon Wayne Stock was ordained to the transitional diaconate the day before his 25th birthday. He hails from Vandalia and calls Mother of Dolors his home parish. He is the son of Daniel and Ann Stock and has two married sisters (Andrea Daut and Kimberly Lichtenfels) and a niece Amelia Daut and a nephew, Benjamin Daut, who were born in February 2015.
“I began discovering my vocation around the year 2008 (while still in high school) when I went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and met another guy who was actively discerning the priesthood,” says Deacon Stock.
He was also influenced by a number of priests who served at his home parish and “those whom I met throughout the diocese while attending events such as Catholic Leadership Institute, Diocesan Youth Days and Timothy Retreats.”
He attended public schools in Vandalia and following his high school graduation in 2009, he attended Kaskaskia Community College in Centralia for one year before applying to the seminary. “… I began studying at Marian University and began formation at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in January 2010.” He is now studying at Mundelein Seminary, where he is completing his third year of theology.
Deacon Stock asked Father Barry Harmon, parochial administrator of Mother of Dolors and St. Joseph Parish, Ramsey, to vest him at his ordination. “He is the pastor of my home parish and has been a role model for me and I hope to emulate his priestly fatherhood, that is apparent in his generosity and compassion,” he says.
This summer, Deacon Stock will be serving at Our Saviour Parish in Jacksonville.
Additional coverage of the April 1 ordination Mass will run in the April 17 issue of Catholic Times.