On Saturday, June 17th, three men—Bob England, John Rovnak and Fritz Schleuter—were ordained into the priesthood by Bishop David Bonnar. While their ordination is the beginning of their lives as priests, it also represents the end of another journey, the culmination of years—sometimes decades—of study, discernment and struggle. It’s the perfect time to reflect on how they came to join the priesthood and what they learned along the way.
Father Bob England’s spiritual journey can most accurately be compared to a snowball rolling down a mountain—gathering speed and getting heavier, and even when he hit a plateau, it was still going forward, eventually hurtling toward the conclusion he’d always known was waiting for him.
Looking back, Father Bob England realizes that God was calling him to serve from a young age. He recalls being drawn to his parish priest’s actions during the mass—so much so that, as a child, he memorized the parts of Mass and would imitate the priest’s blessing of the Eucharist with his own dinner. “Seems a little irreverent,” Father England. “But if you’re eight years old and you’re [doing that], maybe there’s a vocation there.”
Despite this early attraction to the church, Father England drifted away from his faith while in college, focusing more on starting a career. He still considered himself Catholic but wasn’t actively practicing, and the only times he went to Mass was when he was visiting friends.
Part of the reason Father England began to drift in the early years of his faith was his struggle to reconcile the idea of a loving God who was also authoritative.
“I’ve always believed in God,” Father England said. “Maybe it’s a generational thing, because we defied authority, basically. A lot of my friends were antiauthoritarian and so I didn’t necessarily view Catholicism in a very positive way because it was so structured.”
The moment Father England feels really cemented him as a devoted Catholic actually came from an argument with a coworker. His coworker, a Oneness Pentecostal, was trying to evangelize Bob, attacking the elements of Catholicism with which the Pentecostals disagree.
“In doing so, he was attacking my family,” Father England says. “So, I feel like I have an obligation to defend them … I started reading on Catholicism, I started reading the Bible, and slowly I started adding to my prayer life.”
This period of studying and learning about the deeper theology of Catholicism is what brought Father England back to the Church. He had never been fully confirmed, but as a result of his research and study into the faith, he was confirmed as a member of the Catholic church in 1996, at the age of 25.
It was at this time that Father England once again felt something compelling him to enter the priesthood, but this conflicted with more material goals. He wanted a good job, a house and maybe a Ferrari if he got lucky—though he always knew that was more of a pipe dream. He was torn between what he thought he was supposed to want and what he felt he was meant for.
“The things that I wanted were not necessarily the things I felt called to devote my life to,” Father England said.
Adding to the complexity of this inner conflict was the breaking of the abuse scandals at the turn of the century. Father England was devastated that such things had occurred in an institution he held so dear.
“That really impacted me negatively,” Father England said. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.’ It really kind of shook me up a little. I had a very vaunted image of priests.”
Once again, Father England wandered away. Just like the last time, he never lost his faith in God, or the teachings of the Church. But life got in the way—in addition to working in his father’s water treatment business, he was also remodeling a home. That, combined with the abuse scandals, made it easy for Father England to start rationalizing taking Sundays off.
So, what ultimately brought Father England back for good? Oddly enough, it was an aberrant blood pressure reading that did it.
Father John Rovnak had a similar inclination that he might be headed for the priesthood. Father Rovnak recalls a homework assignment he’d completed while in sixth grade at St. Matthias School, where his teacher, Ms. Dolores Sonoga, asked students to invite her to an event happening in 2050.
Father Rovnak’s invitation? His 25th anniversary as a priest. As it turns out, it was a pretty good estimate—his 25th anniversary will be in 2048.
Father Rovnak had already had his heart set on the priesthood for a few years by the time he turned in that assignment. As far as he remembers, the first time he thought about becoming a priest was when he started serving as an altar boy in second grade.
“Once I was serving, I thought: ‘maybe I could do that’ and just I was just pulled towards it,” Father Rovnak said.
Father Rovnak’s parents, Tom and Janice, recall an even earlier occasion when it seemed like a possibility. While watching him and a couple other neighborhood kids one afternoon, a friend of Father Rovnak’s came up from the basement to ask Janice for a slice of bread.
“After he went [downstairs], I went down the first three steps and I hear Johnny saying ‘the body of Christ’—so that was the first time,” Janice said with a laugh.
Despite this early predilection for a life of spiritual service, Father Rovnak was dismayed by the breaking of the sex abuse scandals in the early 2000s, when he was entering high school as a freshman.
“That was a huge detriment because I still felt like [a priest] was something I really could be, but I don’t want to be associated with the abuse,” Father Rovnak said. “I never stopped serving, I never stopped going to church through those years, I just kind of said ‘I don’t really want to [be a priest] right now.’”
After graduating from Youngstown State with a business degree (along with a minor in nonprofit leadership), Father Rovnak worked in various business and sales positions, working up the corporate ladder. While he enjoyed his work and the people he met along the way, he gradually began to feel that he was not doing what he was meant to with his life.
“I was out in the field for about four years before I finally said, ‘I think I’m being called back again,’” Father Rovnak said, before quickly adding: “Or, I never stopped being called, I just started listening again.”
At this point, Father Rovnak was working overnight shifts on the weekend and, due to the harsh hours, was unable to attend either a Saturday vigil or a Sunday mass. Instead, Father Rovnak started attending the 12:10 p.m. weekday Mass at St. Columba Cathedral—a Mass which just so happened to be celebrated by Monsignor Peter Polando, the former pastor of St. Matthias, where Father Rovnak went to elementary school.
Monsignor Polando remembered Father Rovnak from St. Matthias and the two reconnected. Father Rovnak claims that he never explicitly told Monsignor Polando that he was feeling compelled to enter the priesthood, but clearly his former pastor picked up on it. One day, Monsignor Polando said there was someone Rovnak should meet. Leading him through the labyrinthian hallways of the diocesan offices, Monsignor Polando deposited Rovnak in an office and rushed off to find its occupant.
Before Monsignor Polando could return, the office’s owner—one Father Chris Luoni, who was at the time Director of Vocations—entered to a bewildered young man sitting before his desk.
“He says, ‘can I help you?” Father Rovnak recalls, laughing. “I have no clue who this is, and as I’m turning to say ‘hi,’ Monsignor [Polando] comes back and says ‘Chris, this is Johnny Rovnak—give him an application, he’s ready.’”
Father Luoni was quick to remind Monsignor Polando that this was not the typical protocol, but Father left with the application for seminary firmly in hand, feeling certain that this was the right choice for him.
All of the diocese’s 2023 newly-ordained priests described the significance of being asked by others to consider joining the priesthood. For all of them, it provided an affirmation that it was a real possibility. If others could see it for them, then why not? As they’d go on to learn in seminary, these moments of affirmation are common among all priests and have a theological basis. In these moments, God is speaking directly to them through the Holy Spirit.
It still took Father Rovnak two years to get the application in. He was a bit apprehensive and had some financial work to do anyways—the Church wants prospective seminarians to be debt-free before entering, something Father England would also successfully work out.
Father Rovnak says that was kind of an excuse though—in truth, he still had to do some discerning. He did have a desire for his own family. He said, “the person you want to see as a priest is the same person you want to see as an actual father.” For the next little while, Father Rovnak was treading water.
The exact moment in which Father Rovnak fully acquiesced to his calling from God came at the funeral of Monsignor Adamko, a son of Father Rovnak’s home parish.
“I don’t know why I wanted to go but I knew I needed to go,” Father Rovnak says. “Bishop Murry’s homily was all about calling laborers to the garden for harvest. And I remember turning to my mom after that homily and telling her I’m gonna go to the seminary. It was a ‘Fine, you win’ moment.”
Father Rovnak turned in his application that very night.
Father Frederick Schlueter, “Fritz” to his friends, is the youngest of this class of priests. Ironically, though, he didn’t consider it as an option until much later in his life than either Father England or Father Rovnak—not until he was about fifteen or sixteen.
Even though his calling came a bit later, Father Schlueter was very drawn to the Catholic Church as a kid. One of the most foundational experiences in his childhood—and indeed his spirituality in general—came from going to Holy Family Fest at Catholic Familyland, a campground run by the Apostolate for Family Consecration, located about twenty minutes east of Steubenville.
The Apostolate for Family Consecration (AFC) was founded in 1975 by Jerry and Gwen Coniker. The goal of the organization is to provide God-centered family events, directing Catholic families towards whole-family consecrations—a special commitment to the Holy Family—in order to strengthen their faith as a group.
Father Schlueter’s mother Lori Schleuter, who became a Catholic before marrying his father, had fond memories of church summer camps from her own childhood and wanted to give her kids the same experience. Clearly, it was pretty effective, as Father Schlueter isn’t the only one in his family to be called to a Church vocation—his sister Ellen Marie joined the Daughters of Holy Mary of the Heart of Jesus, while his older brother Joe was the first to consider the priesthood.
“Within the context of the camp, where we made good friends and there were lots of fun enjoyable activities, that sort of piety became attractive to me,” Father Schlueter said. “It became associated with all the other stuff at the camp.”
One particular moment that has always stood out in Father Schlueter’s memory of Catholic Familyland was of Sunday Mass. All the families were packed into an old barn, and Mass ran long—any child’s worst nightmare, presumably. The dusty summer heat and humidity only made the cramped conditions more noticeable. Then, after Mass was a Eucharistic procession. But far from being dismayed at the overlong proceedings, the other Catholic families—some as large as twelve—only grew more enthusiastic. Father Schlueter was stunned by the devotion of the families present, kneeling on the unforgiving concrete floor in prayer.
While this week at Catholic Familyland certainly deepened Father Schlueter’s relationship with Christ, he didn’t feel any particular calling to become a priest—not yet, anyway.
It was only when Father Schlueter returned to Catholic Familyland as a teen that the thought finally crossed his mind. His family had gone there when he was a kid, and he recalls being amazed at the intense devotion and faithfulness of the other families present. In comparison to events catering to families, Catholic Familyland’s teen-oriented programs can be a bit more emotionally intense. One of the events Father Schlueter took part in that summer was the “Cross Walk”, an experiential meditation on the five sorrowful mysteries. This had a profound impact on Father Schlueter’s conception of Jesus’ sacrifice and Jesus’ love for him.
After the meditation, Father Schlueter and the other teens went to confession, drawing a very direct line from Jesus’ sacrifice to the forgiveness of sins.
“How could I want to do anything else, other than give myself back to him? Going from that experience of that meditation and then going to that confession […] and seeing the connection between that liturgical experience and that meditative experience and that expression of God’s love—I think it was [that] experience that really opened me up to like, ‘wow, that would be awesome to be a priest,’” said Father Schlueter.
This was the first time Father Schlueter had considered entering the priesthood, but it still didn’t feel like a calling. He certainly felt even more dedicated to living out his faith, but says that he wasn’t really at a point in his life where he was pondering his future. He was content with the way things were, being faithful in his own way. But the door had been cracked open, and soon the light would come flooding through.
The next time Father Schlueter felt a pull in the direction of the priesthood was when it came time for him to apply for college. He knew just how much one’s choice of school can determine their future and solidify their options, and he wanted to choose the right one. He considered military academies and big state schools like Ohio State. But the one that stood above them all was actually the plucky little University of Dallas—not to be confused with University of Texas at Dallas—a private Catholic university to the northwest of the city.
“I ended up choosing the University of Dallas because I figured it’d be a healthy Catholic environment, and a place where I could discern, where there’d be a good community around me and good mentors as well,” he said.
Father Schlueter’s first semester at the University of Dallas was filled with all the joy and youthful exuberance you’d typically expect. He tried rugby for a while before discerning out and switching to ultimate frisbee, he made a bunch of new friends, he got involved at the university’s church, and he even thought about classes from time to time, God bless him. As Father Schlueter said, he was, “full of wonder about the possibility of higher education.”
All this excitement needed to be channeled in a specific direction, though, and Father Schlueter prayed on this, seeking the Lord’s guidance.
“Throughout that first semester I was praying: ‘God, what do you want me to do with my life, how do you want to use me for your glory?’” Father Schlueter said.
As Father Schlueter would soon find out, God was listening.
During a routine checkup, Father England‘s doctor told him that his blood pressure was a bit high. In response, Father England had what you would either call either “an overreaction” or “providence.” He started looking up ways to fix his blood pressure, and found meditation was highly recommended.
Coincidentally, the only kind of meditation Father England knew was praying the rosary.
And with that, the snowball started rolling again. Praying the rosary quickly advanced to Father England meditating on the Joyful Mysteries. Before long, he was ordering fish on Fridays, and eventually, he knew he needed to rejoin a parish.
“The one thing that really was right all the time was when I practiced my faith,” Father England said. “I just decided to go to Mass and went to confession, and from that point on I haven’t missed […] I was locked in at that point.”
Father England once again felt called to the priesthood, but he feared the opportunity had passed him by. He was in his early thirties by then—when most other priests have either entered the seminary or already been ordained. Despite his fears, Father England remained open to the possibility.
“I decided I wasn’t going to force anything anymore. One of the most important things in my life was this Catholic faith and it was the one thing I was going to hang on to, come hell or high water,” Father England said. “Whatever else happens has to happen in that context.”
Father England got involved with everything he could at church; volunteering, going to adoration, etc. What he was really waiting for, however, was for someone to ask him about becoming a priest.
“My rule was that someone had to ask me,” Father England said. “It couldn’t just be a family member. In my case, being so much older, I figured they wouldn’t understand, so I wanted somebody who would know these things to ask me.”
In Father England’s case, it was his pastor, Father Bob Bonnot. He asked him to go on a vocational retreat with others who were considering the priesthood. Father England nearly started dancing in Father Bonnot’s office.
The retreat—intended to give prospective seminarians a sense of the spiritual life of a priest—finally brought Father England’s lifelong calling into alignment with his desires.
“I was very excited, I was like ‘yeah, I’m all for it, let’s go,’” Father England said.
Despite his gung-ho attitude, there were still a few things standing in his way.
For one thing, he had to sort out his financial situation. Being that he was further along in life when he was entering the priesthood, Father England had a mortgage to take care of.
In the meantime, Father England started taking night classes at YSU. He was nervous, having been out of school for such a long time. As it turned out, he had no reason to worry—he did very well. So well, in fact, that he ran out of night classes he could take.
If he was going to continue, he’d have to commit fulltime.
But Father England was still concerned with his debts. He took his concerns to Father Edward Brienz, who allayed his fears and helped him come up with a few solutions. Father England ended up renting out his house in order to cover his mortgage, with the help of his father, who managed the property.
The snowball had reached its critical point. Finally, Father England was ready to answer God’s calling and entered the seminary.
Father Rovnak recalls feeling a little overwhelmed on his first day at the seminary, unfamiliar as he was with many of the prayers and philosophies that were flying around. The feeling faded fast, though—that very same night, in fact.
“I felt like a fish out of water,” Father Rovnak says. “It was at the prayer service at the end of the night that I finally got this extreme sense of peace, of – ‘about time you’re here’.”
Still, every journey has its ups and downs.
Father Rovnak’s lowest point at the seminary came when his mother, Janice, was diagnosed with leukemia. John was devastated. The diagnosis had come shortly after his aunt and one of his childhood friends had both passed away, and he wanted desperately to go home and take care of his mother. He prayed a holy hour, seeking guidance from God.
“[I] was just asking why,” Father Rovnak said. “Just sharing my fears. And I received some peace from it. It was gonna be hard, but it was going to be okay. He told me to trust Him and I had to surrender myself to do it. And it was one of the best things I did.”
It was also a matter of practicality. In treating leukemia, doctors must kill all of a patient’s blood cells, leaving them with virtually no immune system. As he’d been living in a large community, if Father Rovnak were to visit his mother, he’d risk exposing her to myriad illnesses—any of which could have been deadly.
Father Rovnak accepted the wisdom of God’s guidance and remained at the seminary.
Still, he recalls feeling intense frustration and anger during this difficult time. “That was a lot of sessions of spiritual direction and a lot of holy hours to work through that [anger],” Father Rovnak said. The listening ears of his brother seminarians and his spiritual director were pivotal in leading him through this time, and he’s immensely grateful.
Thankfully, Father Rovnak’s mother received a bone marrow transplant in December 2018, and hasn’t had any other health issues since. After her transplant, Janice had to stay within a twenty-minute radius of the hospital, as her immune system was still very weak. As their family home was over an hour away, she got an apartment in Cleveland while in recovery.
Suddenly, the fullness of God’s plan was made clear to Father Rovnak. The trust Father Rovnak had placed in Him was answered.
The hospital was about fifteen minutes from the seminary, and Father Rovnak was able to spend one night a week with his mother for the next several months. In an unmistakable act of providence, Father Rovnak realized that by remaining in place, he’d actually be able to spend more time with his mother than if he’d gone home.
It’s yet another reminder that God works in mysterious ways, and never fails to honor the trust we place in Him.
Unsurprisingly, proud parents Tom and Janice still gush over their son, and are certain he’ll make a good priest.
“He’s sincere, he’s deeply devoted, he’s a people-person,” Tom said. “He’s teaching me now how to be a better person. He’s an example to me now.”
Also present at John’s ordination was Ms. Sonoga, Father Rovnak’s sixth grade teacher, who had always held on to his assignment, calling it one of her “treasures” from years of teaching. She’d given it back to Father Rovnak when she found out he was entering the seminary.
“I could cry right now,” Dolores said. “It’s just so beautiful that he’s going to do this … The way he’s outgoing with everyone, the way he talks with everyone and he cares for everyone—it’s just really something.”
Father Rovnak dedicated his first Mass to the memory of his childhood friend.
While many seminarians discern out in order to pursue a family, Father England, having come later in his life, had already done a lot of introspection on the idea. He still had things he needed to resolve, though.
For example, one of Father England’s biggest internal struggles throughout his discernment came from a feeling of unworthiness compared to Christ.
“I can be cynical, I get angry over petty things sometimes,” Father England says. “My language reflected that for so long. I felt like this doesn’t seem to click—who I am in a lot of ways versus who I am supposed to represent and to be ordained in the person of Christ. Because of Jesus’ purity—He didn’t sin, and I did. I had to reconcile that and grow in my understanding of that.”
But as our faith tells us, no one is truly worthy of God’s grace—that is why it was freely given as a gift. Part of every ordination ceremony is a prostration; the priests lie facedown on the floor, demonstrating their unworthiness for the role they are taking on, and consequently, their dependence on the prayers of the Christian community and God’s forgiveness and direction. Father England realized that God calls for some to serve from among the faithful, and no one ever said they were perfect.
Father England is excited to begin working as a priest, spreading the word and teaching the faith, and feels immense joy that he’s finally doing exactly what he’s meant to. And, alongside that, he feels he needs to give back to the church.
“I do feel an obligation to serve the church,” Father England said. “Because when I was around screwing up, all those people in the pews kept the lights on for me.”
Father Schlueter says everything started to come together the Sunday before his second semester at University of Dallas began. All the readings at Mass that day were about discernment: the first reading was the story of Samuel running to the temple, and the Gospel reading came from the first book of John, where two disciples ask Jesus where he abides, and Jesus tells them, “Come and see.”
Father Schlueter took inspiration from these readings, and prayed at Mass that day that before the second semester was up, he would know God’s expectations for his life. Was he to stay at school and start a career and a family, or was he to enter the seminary?
As it turns out, the answer lay with groundhogs.
The University of Dallas has the second-largest Groundhog Day celebration in the world. It’s such a big deal, in fact, that the university has made Groundhog Day its official holiday—an entire week of festivities are organized for students to enjoy, including a groundhog-themed beer tasting, a rugby game and a 5k run.
The week culminates in the highly anticipated Party in the Park, where the university sets up a stage for live music as well as some food and beverage booths. The students show up in their Groundhog Day sweatshirts and proceed to go berserk. And where else should the Lord choose to command his servant?
During the groundhog week celebrations, Father Schlueter would encounter three “suggestions” that he was supposed to become a priest.
The first hint came on Friday. Father Schlueter walked into his chemistry class, where one of his friends promptly informed him that she’d had a dream of him entering the seminary. “I was sad to see you go, but I was excited for you,” Father Schlueter’s friend told him.
He didn’t think too much of it at the time, dismissing it as a relatively normal subconscious association playing out in a dream.
The next hint came at the Party in the Park. Another of Father Schlueter’s friends came up to him and said: “Fritz I think you’re a really great friend. It’s so wonderful to know you, and I want to let you know I’m okay with you going to seminary.”
Now Father Schlueter was shocked. What are the odds of two people both randomly suggesting the seminary to him a day apart?
But these hints over the weekend were followed up by a knockout punch at Mass on Sunday that put everything into context. The first reading was of Moses telling the Israelites that “God will raise up a prophet for his people,” and the responsorial Psalm said “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
God is often subtle, but that’s not a rule or anything. He can be overt when He wants to be.
“Those events, taken together back-to-back, I took as God answering my prayer and calling me to go to seminary and studying to be a priest,” Father Schlueter said.
Father Schlueter finished his second semester at University of Dallas, but never started a third. By the time August rolled around again, Father Schlueter was in the seminary.
The many differences between the stories of Father England, Father Rovnak and Father Schlueter only serve to frame the similarities more clearly.
They all felt their call at different ages, having had very different experiences and at very different points in lives. And yet they all felt called. They all felt a duty to be of service to the Lord. They all mentioned times when they feel God was speaking to them directly, through the words of their friends and family.
They all had moments of doubt, and fear, and unworthiness. And in those moments of doubt, they all found ways to lean on their faith to help them get through it. None of them succumbed to their fears.
Perhaps that is the most important lesson we can take from the experiences of these three new priests of the Diocese of Youngstown. Serve in whatever way you can—even if you can’t see the whole picture and even if you are afraid. Because even if you stumble, God will be there to pick you up.
Read the story about the ordination Mass on June 17, 2023, which was published in the August 2023 issue of The Catholic Echo magazine.
