UW proved fertile ground for cultivating vocation

Cheri Perkins Mantz reports gives the third of five reports in our Catholic Herald on the men just ordained.

Nathan Reesman had worked as a page in Congress and in the Wisconsin Assembly.

Reesman had no intention of attending a Catholic college because, when starting college, "I had no real inklings of joining the priesthood."

If he'd studied under Daniel Maguire at Marquette, he might have been a mullah by now.

Reesman graduated from UW [University of Wisconsin-Madison] in December 2000 with a degree in political science.

Qualifying him for law school or Starbucks, so

He entered Saint Francis Seminary the next month.

But now he must leave those ivy-covered halls.

After spending the last five years with his fellow seminarians, Reesman knows it will be an adjustment when they no longer live together at the seminary.

"Priests need to make community a priority, especially today," he said. "I hope we continue to get together and hold each other up because you cannot do this alone."

When he thinks of community, he thinks of the clergy, not his parish. Nothing new there.