Stories filled with faith, humor, heartbreak and hope mark the life of a future priest
Seminarian Liam Hosty holds his hands in prayer during an April 27, 2024, Mass at St. Barnabas Church in Indianapolis in which he was ordained a transitional deacon. Pictured at left is his mother, Julie Hosty. Deacon Hosty will be ordained a priest at 10 a.m. on June 7 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By John Shaughnessy
As his ordination as a priest for the archdiocese nears on June 7, one of the many moments that transitional Deacon Liam Hosty is looking forward to involves a ritual that ties in with his reverence, his sentimentality, his appreciation of a good story and his love for his mother.
“There are so many beautiful actions that happen within the rite of ordination— between the laying on of hands, of being vested as a priest, of lying prostrate on the floor, of having your hands anointed with chrism oil—your hands are the hands of Christ,” Deacon Hosty says. “Another one that’s pretty neat is the custom of the maniturgium.
“While a priest is ordained, his hands are anointed with chrism oil. He then wipes his hands on this cloth. He then gives the cloth soaked in chrism oil to his mother at his first Mass. And when the mother of a priest passes away, she is buried with the cloth.
“The legend is that when she stands before the gates of St. Peter, and
St. Peter asks her, ‘What have you given the Church?’, she can hold up
the cloth and say, ‘I’ve given my son.’ ”
Deacon Hosty pauses for a moment as the twinkle in his eyes grows. His smile turns into a laugh as he adds, “I don’t think there’s going to be a dry eye when I give the cloth to my mother.”
The sentiment of that story—as well as the smile and laugh that flow easily from him as he shares the story—reveals a great deal about the person he is and the priest he will become.
So do these other defining moments from his 27 years of life as he prepares to be ordained a priest at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish in Indianapolis with transitional deacons Thomas Day and Isaac Siefker.
‘There’s no greater gift to give’
One of the most heart-wrenching and valuable experiences in Deacon Hosty’s formation as a priest came during his Clinical Pastor Education training at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis—when a child died.
“I had a patient pass away overnight,” he recalls. “I was on call that weekend. I spent about five hours with that family, and I maybe said less than 100 words. I prayed with them. I sat and visited with them. They shared stories about their loved one. At the end of that, they were so gracious and glad that I was there. Even that was enough to let them know that Christ was there with them.”
Having never been in that situation previously, those five hours with the grieving parents gave Deacon Hosty a powerful insight into the importance of being present to families during a vulnerable time of life.
“I realized that by being present to them I didn’t need to say much in those moments of great grief,” he says. “When people are suffering or in pain, they feel that God is somehow distant from them at times. When it’s a priest or someone studying to be a priest, his presence to someone who is suffering brings God into those moments. It helps them realize God is not distant from them.
“For me, there’s no greater gift to give somebody than to help them experience God’s love for them, both in their highest moments but also in their lowest moments.”
‘Oh, no, not this place again!’
In 2024, Deacon Hosty and his father, Deacon Thomas Hosty, became the first father and son to both be deacons at the same time in the 191-year history of the archdiocese. That’s a story in itself, yet when Deacon Tom and his wife Julie were asked to share some insights about Deacon Liam, they looked back to his childhood in St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, to moments of humor and a growing faith.
“When Liam was in preschool, whenever we went to Sunday Mass as a family of seven, he would always squirm in the pews and want to get away,” recalls his dad, the director of pastoral ministries in the archdiocese. “It was a constant battle for us as parents to keep him in the pew with us and quiet. So, one Sunday as we pulled into the parking lot of St. Barnabas, he yelled out from the back row of the minivan, ‘Oh no, not this place again!’
“As he got older, things changed. He loved to help his mother with children’s Liturgy of the Word. Then as he watched his older brothers and sister become altar servers, he could not wait for the day when he got to be one in the fourth grade. And when he did, he loved it. So much so that by the fifth grade, he was serving the entire Triduum. This was when he also fell in love with the use of incense at Mass.”
Deacon Tom smiles as he offers one more insight into Deacon Liam, whose growing embrace of the faith as a child was also marked by his love of playing the drums during the 5 p.m. Sunday youth Mass at St. Barnabas.
“He played the drums at this Mass through high school whenever he was not serving as an altar server,” Deacon Tom says about the fourth of their five children. “Sometimes his brothers joined and played their guitars and his sisters sang.
“Liam especially loved to play the drums on the recessional song when the music director would cut him loose and let him really go to town on the drums, such as on songs like ‘Lead Me Lord’ and ‘Go Make a Difference.’ He usually was the one who ended the song with a final flourish on the drums. After these recessional songs, people were ready to charge out of the church and go make a difference in the world.”
The challenge and the gift
At the age of 4, Deacon Hosty was diagnosed with speech and learning disabilities, making his education through grade school and high school a challenge. Still, he believes that experience will help him connect closer to people.
“You don’t wish hardships in life or various crosses on anyone else,” he says. “At the same time, in my own life, the crosses the Lord has given me have led to two things. One, it’s been beautiful to offer that to our Lord out of pure love for him. And two, it helps you empathize with people who are carrying a variety of different crosses.
“Loneliness is probably one of the most painful things for people. I want to be able to recognize and see the cross that other people carry and to be able to encourage them and help strengthen them to carry their cross with joy and offer that to our Lord. And for them to know Christ is right next to us, carrying the same cross with us. We’re never alone. None of us are ever truly alone if we recognize Christ is next to us in everything.”
‘That was a beautiful moment’
Deacon Hosty felt another kind of support during a special moment with his classmates at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis. At the baccalaureate Mass on the weekend of his graduation in 2016, he received a standing ovation from his class and their families and friends when it was announced that he would be entering the seminary to become a priest.
“That was a beautiful moment,” he says. “I got very close to many of my classmates and still keep in touch with many of them. I was very open about discerning the priesthood in
high school. And my classmates were very encouraging. The people of God want good priests, and they deserve good priests.
“There’s something beautiful about a priest coming from the people of God, someone who has been selected to minister to us.”
That sense of connection and community has grown from his own family’s roots.
“I come from a strong Irish-Catholic family. With both of my parents being one of nine kids and having countless cousins and relatives, family has been very important to me. It’s bizarre for me when people don’t gather as frequently as we do for the sacraments—baptisms, weddings and funerals and other moments. We always love big celebrations. And there’s a particular devotion to the rosary. Just a sense of rootedness. This is your heritage, this is your family, and we’re proud of it.”
That rootedness is at the core of his desire to lead people to a deeper relationship with Christ.
“The world has meaning because we have a loving Creator who made it as such,” he says. “And not only that, he became one of us. He took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and he desires to live in relationship with us. Religion is not this abstract set of rules. It’s an encounter with a person who loves us very much, and that person is Jesus Christ. He gives meaning and purpose to our lives, even beyond our wildest imaginations.”
‘A man of faith’
During the past year, Deacon Liam has spent considerable time at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Indianapolis, ministering with and learning from its pastor, Father Patrick Beidelman.
“I think it will take the people in the parishes where he will serve about 0.5 seconds to accept, love and respect him,” says Father Beidelman. “He is joyful, quick to smile and laugh, and is a good listener. He is a naturally good preacher.
“His love of the Church, the priesthood, God’s people and the Church’s worship of God is always palpable in his ministry. He is a man of faith who understands the importance of health and holy relationships with
his family, his circle of friends, his
soon-to-be brother priests as well as within the wider community.”
Deacon Hosty will begin his priestly ministry for the archdiocese as the parochial vicar—associate pastor—of St. Ann Parish in Indianapolis and
St. Thomas More Parish in Mooresville.
He especially looks forward to celebrating Mass with people.
“All the sacrifices that people are bringing to the Mass—all their prayers, joys, works and suffering—I want to be able to unite that to the Eucharist and offer the perfect sacrifice of Jesus to the Father,” he says. “I can’t think of any greater thing to give my life for than for the glorification of God and the sanctification of his people—to praise God and help his people become saints.”
As he shares the Eucharist and other sacraments with people, Deacon Hosty also plans to be present to them in their non-sacramental moments—in the struggles, joys and heartbreaking times of their lives.
He’s had that feeling from God in his own life.
“My life has been marked by a strong sense of divine providence,” he says. “God has been there every step of the way in my journey.”
(For more information about a vocation to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, visit HearGodsCall.com.) †
About Transitional Deacon Liam Hosty
Age: 27
Parents: Deacon Tom and Julie Hosty
Home Parish: St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis
Education: St. Barnabas School, Roncalli High School, Marian University and Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary, all in Indianapolis; Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad; Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati
Favorite Scripture passage: John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Favorite saint: St. Joseph
Favorite prayer or devotion: St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Prayer before Communion”
Favorite book: Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Favorite movie: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Hobbies: Reading, running and hiking
