Cleveland chaplain finds joy in evangelization

FATHER PATRICK SCHULTZ IS the new chaplain of Legatus’ Cleveland Chapter, succeeding the retiring Bishop Roger Gries. He grew up in Hudson, OH, as one of two siblings in a nominally Catholic home. He attended the University of Dayton as a religious studies major before entering the seminary in 2008. He was ordained a priest in 2016 and is presently in his second parish assignment as parochial vicar at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Wadsworth, OH.

Father Schultz regularly speaks on issues of Christian anthropology, the Theology of the Body, masculinity and fatherhood, and apologetics. He also works with the Damascus Catholic Mission campus in Centerburg, OH, bringing the faith to young people. He and a brother priest have a podcast titled Slaking Tirsts. He participated in Legatus meetings as an associate chaplain for more than a year.

You began to get serious about your faith after attending a Life Teen event in high school.

Yes. At that meeting, our parochial vicar exposed the Blessed Sacrament, and I had no clue what it was. All I can say is that evening, in the presence of Jesus, I encountered the Lord. I met Him, and that began a process of seeking to understand and grow in my relationship with Christ and the Church.

I was devouring books on philosophy, theology, and Church teaching. I kept journals full of questions that I needed answers to. I attended Bible studies and anything else that would help me grow in my faith. Father Damian Ference, a parochial vicar at my parish, was a huge infuence on my frst considering a priestly vocation.

How have your frst six years as a priest gone?

I couldn’t be happier serving as a priest of Jesus Christ. It is an unbelievably humbling and beautiful vocation. It is such a gift to be invited into the hearts and lives of so many people, to serve as a bridge between heaven and earth, to wake up and to have my whole life be simply about helping other people come to know the life-giving love, the transformative love, the incredible love of Jesus Christ.

As a priest, you have a courtside seat to witness some of the most amazing miracles, to watch people rediscover hope, to rediscover meaning, and to discover that they actually matter to God.

I love doing marriage preparation. I love working with families and couples. I love teaching in our grade schools, youth ministry, young adult ministry, and just the general work of evangelization.

What do you find most challenging about the priesthood?

The greatest challenge of being a priest today is the cultural context in which we find ourselves. We are living in the first post-Christian culture — namely, a culture that thinks it knows the gospel, it knows Jesus, knows the story — “Been there, done that. What else do you have to ofer?”

The hardest part is engaging the work of the New Evangelization, figuring out new ways to preach the gospel in a compelling way.

How have you enjoyed your time with Legatus, and what do you hope to do with the organization?

I really like the organization. I think the folks are incredible, wonderful couples who sincerely love their Catholic faith, who are looking for community, formation, and encouragement to bring the gospel out into the concrete circumstances of their professional worlds. I am very impressed.

One thing I’d like to introduce is to have couples share the concrete ways they have brought their Catholic faith to bear in their professional careers. Exemplarity is such a crucial component to the acquisition of virtues: I need to see virtue embodied in those around me, I need to see and hear and be inspired by real men and women who have taken and applied their faith to real-world situations within the business world.