Neillsville Native to be Ordained as Deacon on Saturday, Part 1
Thursday, April 4th, 2013 -- 10:38 AM
-This Saturday Neillsville native Nate Kuhn will be ordained as a deacon in the Catholic Church in a ceremony at the Cathedral in LaCrosse.Next year then Nate will become the first young man ever to be ordained as a priest from St. Mary Parish in Neillsville which is pretty special.
"It is! And its been going great," said Nate. "Its gone very quickly. When I first started it seemed like 'oh, that's a long way away. We'll see if I make it.' But at this point it's very much a reality. It's pretty special, this parish has been a great support to me. They've really supported me over the years. Its been a very great time in this seminary, being in this parish."
Nate talks about how much education he has had to receive to get to this point so far.
"I've been in seminary for 7 years. So after High School, after I graduated from High School, I went to Winona and then I went to St. Mary's University where I did four years of college seminary where I studied philosophy. And at this point, after graduation from St. Mary's, I went to Mundelein, Illinois, which is a suburb in Northern Illinois just north of Chicago and I've been studying theology. This is my third year there. And this Saturday I am being prepared to be ordained as a deacon."
As far as getting ready for the priesthood next year, there?s really no internship, so to speak.
"Not really. Last year, actually, as part of the 4 year program in theology, our second year I did a 10 week program where I was assigned to go to a parish. I was assigned to a parish in La Crosse, where I spent those 10 weeks there. I actually spent the summer there. I spent a little over 5 months in the parish. Obviously, I wasn't deacon yet, so I couldn't do the cool deacon things. But I was there experiencing what life was like in a parish. I followed a priest around like his shadow, almost like an intern, in which I did almost like a residency thing. Otherwise, there really isn't time to do that."
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