I am a sophomore at Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, IN, and I just returned from studying a semester in Rome. I went on and on about the wonderful young seminarians, deacons, and priests that we were able to learn from, so my dad looked up one of them and found this article. This article brought tears to my eyes. Fr. Joe is one of the best people I have met. He taught me, along with 40 other young women, so much about the love God has for us and so much more. I am so blessed to have been able to have Mass with him in St. Peter’s. I’m not sure if anyone will read this since this article is from 2005, but if you do, know that you have to meet Fr. Joe. He is a living witness to the fruits of God’s love and how fulfilling a religious vocation can be. We need to learn from priests and sisters like him since our society seems to look down on vocations for young people. Thank you Fr. Joe!!!
I am writing to infrom you guys that Fr. Joe is my new Parochial Vicar at my Parish. He is such a wonderful person and I am so blessed to meet such a fun, nice, and loving man of God. We have a wonderful friendship, and I consider him the brother I never had, haha. I look forward to meeting him every week and I learned a lot so far from him. He taught me about God’s dear love, and he is a great servant of our God. When he leaves, I am seriously going to be upset. But, if he ever does, I hope he shows the people he’ll be meeting the love and compassion he showed me. I hope someone comes across this some day. I hope someday you can meet Father Joe too, and see that he is a true man of God and his Word.