May 30, 2025

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Deacon Siefker’s desire ‘to be a priest when I grew up’ will be fulfilled on June 7

Transitional Deacon Isaac Siefker proclaims the Gospel during the annual archdiocesan chrism Mass on April 15 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Natalie Hoefer

For some men, their call to the priesthood might come as a slow, gradual awareness.

For others it might come as a powerful, St.-Paul-knocked-off-his-horse realization.

For transitional Deacon Isaac Siefker, it was just something he always knew.

“As long as I can remember, I always said that I wanted to be a priest when I grew up,” he says. “For a while, that just meant I would either be a diocesan priest or I would join the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Later, when my sister became a Carmelite [nun], that really inspired me, and I considered the Carmelites.

“But I was like, ‘I’ll just figure it out when I’m older.’ ”

In time, God made the path clear. On June 7, Deacon Siefker will be ordained a priest of the archdiocese at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis with two other men. (See story about Deacon Hosty | See story about Deacon Day)

As the day approaches, he admits he’s “a little bit nervous but very excited. I’m glad I can say this: It just feels right. It feels like I’m ready. But I know it’s going to be a life’s work to continue formation.”

‘If God calls, he gives the grace’

Deacon Siefker’s formation began in his family’s home.

“I grew up in a very, very Catholic household,” he says. “My five siblings and I were homeschooled, and our school day was, in some ways, centered around prayer.”

The day began with morning prayer and often included the Angelus at noon and the Divine Mercy chaplet at 3 o’clock. And every evening included the family rosary.

“But my favorite devotion is the brown scapular,” says Deacon Siefker. “I began wearing it even before I made my first Communion.

“Most devotions aren’t things you can necessarily practice 24-7. But I always wear the scapular. It’s both a sign of my love for Mary and Mary’s love for me. And that’s something that exists 24-7.”

Daily morning Mass at 6:30 a.m. with the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate at Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center chapel in Bloomington was also a staple. And so was Deacon Siefker serving as an altar server at the daily Mass.

“I started serving at the Mass probably when I was 7 years old until I was 20” and entered Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis, he says.

The desire to become a priest remained with Deacon Siefker until “somewhere in high school when I realized I was attracted to girls,” he recalls. “That opened a whole other kind of world and possibilities. For a while, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

“The bottom line was when my older brother entered seminary [at Bishop Bruté] for three semesters. I was graduating from high school and thinking about what I was going to do next. I realized that I was just kind of scared of the idea of being a priest.

“With my brother entering seminary, I realized I don’t have to make the decision before I go to seminary—you go to seminary to discern.”

Still, Deacon Siefker waited two years after graduating from high school before entering Bishop Bruté, which includes classes at Marian University in Indianapolis.

While his parents were supportive, his mom had concerns.

“He always had this purity of heart and this beautiful innocence, just this childlike simplicity,” Monica Siefker recalls. “I thought, ‘Oh, I bet God’s got some plans for him.’

“I thought it might be to the religious life, maybe something like a brother. But ironically, not to the priesthood.”

As his teacher, she knew her son had some learning disabilities and struggled with homework. She was concerned the rigors of higher education would be a stumbling block.

“But if God calls, he gives the grace,” says Siefker. “My husband Dale and I saw this change in Isaac that was just tremendous. Isaac seemed to just flourish there” at the college seminary and university.

‘An enormous gap in my soul’

Deacon Siefker continued to flourish at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad.

As in his childhood, prayer was central to his ongoing discernment—his prayers, and those of others.

“Several years ago, we asked family members to take one hour each day in adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament to pray for Isaac and his vocation, so that he would clearly see where God was calling him and to pray for whatever graces that he needed,” says his mother.

Those who prayed include Deacon Siefker’s parents, godparents and siblings. His mother says they “hope to continue after he’s ordained, God willing.”

Love for the Eucharist, particularly in the setting of the Mass, is central to Deacon Siefker’s faith.

He credits Father Daniel Mahan, his pastor at St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington from 2013-19, with instilling in him “a love of the liturgy. I continued to love serving at Mass even as I got older and other boys my age were dropping out of it. But with Father Mahan, I just kept loving the Mass and serving and learning more about the Mass from him.”

That love for the Eucharist and the Mass caused him much suffering in March of 2020 when the COVID pandemic struck.

“When the lockdown happened, I went home to my parents’ house and was taking classes online,” he recalls. “For about a week, for the first time in my life, not only was I not serving Mass, but I wasn’t going to Mass at all, which was kind of a spiritually heavy blow.”

He connected with Father Thomas Kovatch, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington, who was livestreaming Mass daily from his faith community’s church.

“He allowed me to come and serve for him every day,” says Deacon Siefker. “Still, even just that one week without the Eucharist felt like an enormous gap in my soul.”

‘A heart dedicated to the Lord’

That “unwavering commitment to the Eucharist,” says Ana Perez, is one of many traits she admires in Deacon Siefker. The director of the Office of Hispanic and Latino Ministry at Saint Meinrad got to know him during his work study in her office as a seminarian.

“He’s a gentle soul with a quiet strength, grounded in sincerity and guided by empathy,” says Perez. “His presence brings peace, his words offer comfort, and his actions reflect a heart deeply attuned to the well-being of others.”

She uses words like humble, compassionate and steadfast in faith to describe Deacon Siefker.

“His devotion to Christ, his reverence for the sacraments and the quiet strength he draws from his relationship with God are true inspirations,” says Perez. “His wisdom in teaching and preaching will help others grow in understanding and love of the faith.”

Father Mahan agrees. He sees Deacon Siefker “bringing a very keen mind that will help to explain better our Catholic faith and will help people to understand the riches of our Catholic faith.”

He thinks back to the years Deacon Siefker was an altar server at St. John the Apostle.

“He was very sincere, very devout and very clearly in love with his Catholic faith,” says the priest, who now serves in Washington as director of the U.S. Conference Bishops’ Institute on the Catechism.

He also recalls a conversation about the priesthood he had with Deacon Siefker, who was in high school at the time.

“I remember him asking how long it will take to become a priest,” says Father Mahan. “I explained that he had four years of college seminary before him, and four years of work with theology afterward.

“I’ll never forget the look on that young man’s face. Eight years! That was like a life sentence!”

The priest kept in touch with Deacon Siefker throughout those seminary years, and he is honored to assist Deacon Siefker in donning his first priestly vestments at the ordination Mass on June 7.

“I see a heart dedicated to the Lord and the service of the Church,” Father Mahan says of Deacon Siefker’s future priestly ministry.

“I see someone who will work hard in the vineyard of the Lord, somebody who will be very dedicated, somebody who will give it his all.”

‘He’s got just a great love for people’

Deacon Siefker has already started that work. Upon graduating from Saint Meinrad last December, he began serving as a deacon at Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Beech Grove.

“Being in a parish [before ordination as a priest] is a great idea,” he says. “You get to put theory into practice.”

That “practice” will become a lifetime mission for Deacon Siefker after his ordination. He will start his first priestly assignment in July serving as parochial vicar (associate pastor) at Holy Name and at Good Shepherd Parish in Indianapolis.

Deacon Siefker looks forward to taking part in “everything a priest does—marriage prep, baptism prep, teaching OCIA [Order of Christian Initiation of Adults],” he says.

But he is particularly excited “to preach the word, to break open Scripture,” he says, his voice unable to mask his enthusiasm. “Certainly in homilies, yes. But to make reflections and talks I give rooted in Scripture.

“In seminary, what I was most enthusiastic about was my Scripture studies. And then when I pray, the most fruitful prayer that I have is prayer that’s rooted in Scripture.”

But Deacon Siefker also draws inspiration from St. Anthony Mary Claret.

“He just had an incredible amount of zeal for converting souls,” he says. “His zeal and how much effort and enthusiasm he put into his mission—that’s something I want to imitate.”

It’s a vision that rings true with the woman whose little boy “always said that [he] wanted to be a priest when [he] grew up.”

“He’s just genuinely caring about the person in front of him, every single person that he meets,” says Monica Siefker of her soon-to-be ordained son.

“He’s got just a great love for people and wants to see them grow closer to our Lord and to his Church and to the sacraments.”

(For more information about a vocation to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, visit HearGodsCall.com.) †

About Transitional Deacon Isaac Siefker

Age: 28

Parents: Dale and Monica Siefker

Home Parish: St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington

Education: Homeschooled through high school; Marian University and Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary, both in Indianapolis; Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad

Favorite Scripture passage: Gen 3:15—“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel.”

The Criterion