FR. CHASE HILGENBRINCK Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, ordained Fr. Chase Hilgenbrinck to the priesthood on Saturday, May 24, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria along with 3 other transitional deacons. A former professional soccer player, Father Hilgenbrinck has heroes he hopes to emulate when he enters the ministry field as a Catholic priest. “I pray that I may be a witness of God’s mercy as tactfully and charismatically as Pope Francis, and be a witness of God’s protecting hand by defending the Church as courageously and boldy as Bishop Jenky,” said Deacon Hilgenbrinck, a native of Holy Trinity Parish in Bloomington. The son of Mike and Kim Hilgenbrinck and a 2000 graduate of University High School in Normal, Deacon Hilgenbrinck realized that “my parents were right about our faith being the most important aspect of our lives” when he twice left the support base of family and friends -- first to attend Clemson University in South Carolina, and four years later when he arrived in Chile to pursue his dream of playing professional soccer. In South America, alone in a new culture with a new language and customs, “I turned to the Catholic Church and specifically to my personal relationship with Christ for strength,” he told The Catholic Post. During a visit to the Blessed Sacrament on a cold Chilean afternoon, he heard God’s voice calling him to pursue a vocation to the priesthood. The soccer player was caught off guard. But the call persisted and grew stronger over the next two years until “I knew that I had nothing left to do but say ‘yes.’” As he returned to the U.S. in 2008 as a member of the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer, he confronted the question of whether to wait until his soccer career was over before entering seminary. A quote from Scott Hahn’s book “Rome Sweet Home” hit him “like a ton of bricks”: “Delayed obedience is disobedience,” wrote Hahn. “It would have been disobedient to make the Lord wait,” said Deacon Hilgenbrinck. “After 2.5 years, I couldn’t make him wait any longer.” Deacon Hilgenbrinck made headlines when he left professional soccer to begin study at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Va., with a goal of “attaining heaven by doing God’s will.” “I hope to live this vocation faithfully and to excel in attracting people to the peace that I longed for and now know -- a life on earth lived in personal communion with God,” he told The Catholic Post. Father Robert Rayson served as his vesting priest at the ordination Mass. Deacon Hilgenbrink’s first Mass was at Holy Trinity Church in Bloomington at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 25. Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, a priest of the Diocese of Peoria who serves as rector of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, was the homilist. From Fr. Chase Catholics do not like change. I’m Catholic. We get anxious about the idea of a new pope, a new Mass translation, when our priests move, or even when the plants get moved around in the sanctuary. Somehow, each of these changes affects the way we worship and experience the church. I suspect, however, that our greatest anxiety in the face of change is that we are confronted with the reality that we, ourselves, must change. My anxiety was no different nearly five years ago when I walked off the professional soccer field for the last time and entered the seminary, realizing that my days of sitting in the pews were numbered because I would soon be standing on the other side of the altar. It is an understatement to say that my response to God’s call changed the way that I prayed and experienced the Mass, but even more jarring for me was the reality that I must change. Many of my friends wondered why God would “take soccer away from me” and what I would do without it. I continue to remind them that our Lord does not renege on the gifts that he has given us, but He might ask us to use them in a different way. Instead of being a role player on a team, I now coach, manage, and captain our seminary soccer team, which plays in an annual tournament against other seminaries on the East Coast; I serve as the team chaplain for the Mount St. Mary’s Division One Men’s Soccer Team; and I am often asked to give talks to young athletes about the complementary nature of sports and faith. The way that I view the game has changed, I have changed, and our Lord knew I needed it. TRANSFORMATION IN CHRIST Others are more curious about the transition from the pew to the altar. Apart from six years of study and formation in the seminary, one does not become a good priest unless he sees it done well. I could not have had better training from the summers I spent with various priests of our diocese, witnessing the diverse demands of their particular assignments. I was blessed to spend my first summer parish assignment in LaSalle, getting a taste of the very historic and ethnic churches of St. Hyacinth’s, St Patrick’s, and Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine. I also witnessed the profound goodness of priestly fraternity while living with Father Robert Rayson and Father Adam Stimpson. I spent another summer at St. Jude’s on the north side of Peoria, experiencing a very young, vibrant, and rapidly growing parish. I was fortunate to see the beginnings of a building project, as Father Patrick Hennehan was preparing to build a new school. I also received insights into high school chaplaincy from Father Paul Carlson, who was assigned to Peoria Notre Dame. Last year, I came to know the beautiful simplicity, faithfulness, and warmth of our rural parishes when I spent the summer in Monmouth, serving at Immaculate Conception Parish, St Patrick’s in Raritan, and St. Theresas in Alexis. I was blessed to witness the realities of a newly ordained priest’s first day -- and first two months -- on the job, as well as experience the transition of a priest’s move, as I helped Father Tim Hepner and Msgr. Tom Mack unpack their bags and get acquainted with their new flock. Moreover, in my yearlong pastoral assignments at the seminary, I have helped to prepare children for confirmation, taught high school theology and taught RCIA in a prison. I currently work for an immigration lawyer at Catholic Charities in Washington, D.C. When I recall all of these experiences, I wonder, “How could I not have changed?” In fact, my anxieties about “change” subsided once I realized that small changes are only a means for transformation in Christ. Transformation reveals the purpose for what might otherwise be regarded as arbitrary changes. I must continually change so that I can become the best version of myself and be transformed into a priest of Jesus Christ. How blessed I am that I belong to a church that encourages and facilitates my transformation as a man so that I may become the best priest that I can be for the people that I will serve in the Peoria Diocese. I love being a Catholic. . . . I can’t wait to be a priest.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:05:36 +0000
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