Introduction/Tell things about yourself, your family, your Catholic journey
My name is Matthew Evans. I was born on October 9th, 2003 to a family of five children. I have three brothers and one sister and two wonderful parents. I’ve lived in Waterloo, Iowa my whole life and have been a parishioner of Blessed Sacrament from the time I was about 3. My parents are both very faithful Catholics and my father is actually a Deacon at Blessed Sacrament and my mother is the music minister for the same church. Because of my parents, I attended basically every event that my church hosted and became a very active participant in the church's events from a very young age. I also attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through middle school and then transferred to Waterloo West for high school. I worked for 2 years at the Fareway in Waterloo in the produce section before entering the seminary in July of 2023. I have a great love for music, especially folk music and trumpet as it's the only instrument I can play.
Where/when did your sense of call develop?
My call to the seminary started at a very young age. I distinctly remember really wanting to be the first Pope Francis back when I was in early elementary school. My hopes unfortunately were dashed just a few years later in 2013 when Pope Francis was elected. I got a much stronger sense of calling when I was a Junior in high school. At this time I was relatively far from my faith. We were still in the Covid shutdown which had a very negative impact on my faith life. I remember one night I was very lost and alone in my room, and I remember praying that night asking God what He wanted me to do with my life. I wasn’t expecting an answer because I had a lot of unbelief at the time, but I heard a call that said to me, “Be My priest.” You’d think that such an obviously clear call would make me pursue the seminary immediately, but I was for some reason very reluctant to do so.
It took until July of 2022, almost a year and a half later, until I finally decided to start seriously discerning the seminary. I had just graduated from high school and decided to take a year off of schooling because I was so lost on what I was supposed to do with my life. I had also just broken up with my girlfriend at the time and found myself very lost without a place to go to in life. At this time I had a conversation with my parents who I told that I might want to look into going into the seminary. Within approximately 10 minutes I had the number of Father Mark Murphy the vocations director and a meeting set up with Father Schatz the Rector of St. Pius X Seminary. After this time I didn’t make any major strides on the application process until January of 2023 when I went to a priesthood discernment dinner at the cathedral in Dubuque. Soon after that dinner I started my paperwork and was accepted into the seminary on July 12th of 2023.
Were you invited by others to enter seminary?
I was invited directly by Father Tony Kruse who was my pastor at Blessed Sacrament. In his graduation card to me he wrote something to the extent of “Have you ever thought about being a priest?” At the time I was very much not interested in seeing this message, but it proved to be very influential in the months to come. In November of 2022 I was also serving for quite a few funerals and within the span of a week I had two people that asked me if I was thinking about joining the seminary and one person that asked my mother if I was looking into it. This became a relatively common question I got from people at my parish in the months following.
What was your main motivation in pursuing your call?
My main motivation in pursuing the seminary is to follow the path God has laid down for me. I want to find the happiness that only God can provide me and I want to find that by growing closer to Him and doing what He tells me to do.
Who were/are your biggest influences?
The biggest influence in following my vocation has definitely been my parents. They raised me in the faith and my mother in particular has been very supportive of me in the last year and we often talk about the vocation that I have and she has pushed me to pursue what I know is being asked of me. Father Tony Kruse also was a very large influence to me in the last year. Especially after we went to the priesthood discernment dinner together and had a very good car ride back to Waterloo where we got to talk more specifically about what I felt was calling me to enter the seminary.
What advice would you give other men who are discerning their call?
The best advice I can give to men discerning their call is to pray consistently, deeply. If God wants you somewhere he will get you there in due time trust me. The discernment process doesn’t end when you enter the seminary, it is ongoing throughout your life always asking God where He wants you to be. Don’t let your pride get in the way of following the path God has for you because it will be much more fulfilling than anything that you can make without God.