Connor Lynch, a seminarian for the Diocese of Des Moines studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, joins Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill weeks before his ordination to the transitional diaconate at St. Peter's Basilica. He traces his vocation from altar serving at St. Thomas Aquinas in Indianola through a high school mission trip to El Paso where a string of unmistakable signs confirmed God's call, and speaks candidly about the passage from seminary idealism through cynicism into hard-won wisdom. Connor also shares the story of his brother Alex, who died in May 2026 after nearly a decade battling cancer, and the Eucharistic bond between them that shaped both their lives. Diaconate ordination set for October 1 at St. Peter's Basilica — an evening Mass at the Holy Spirit window How friendship with brother seminarians and formation faculty broke the grip of cynicism The El Paso mission trip where Connor asked God for a sign — and received ten to fifteen Hy-Vee bottle rooms, demolition crews, and jackhammers: the value of getting your hands dirty Remembering Alex Lynch, and the family reconciliation his diagnosis set in motion
Bishop William Joensen and co-host Jeanne Thill welcome Connor Lynch, seminarian for the Diocese of Des Moines and a son of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Indianola, who is studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Connor is set to be ordained a transitional deacon on October 1, and this conversation catches him on the cusp of it.
Bishop's Opening — Labor Day Weekend and the Week Ahead
Bishop Joensen opens with a Labor Day reflection on the dignity of work, giving thanks for tradesmen, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and linemen, along with teachers and students two weeks into the new school year. He notes several diocesan events on the calendar:
The Bishop closes the segment on St. Teresa of Calcutta, reading from her private correspondence on the interior darkness she carried for decades — the hidden cross that became, as he puts it, the very spring of her sanctity.
Segment Two — Cynicism, Wisdom, and the Turn
Connor talks about returning to Rome as a senior brother to fellow Des Moines seminarians, including Michael Posegate, and about showing them the city's churches, shrines, and coffee bars. He names honestly the arc many seminarians travel: initial wonder, then a season of cynicism after his first year in Rome, then a turn toward wisdom.
What made the turn possible, he says, was relationship — coming to know his formation faculty as people and building real friendships with his brother seminarians. Cynicism, in his framing, objectifies an institution; friendship restores the persons within it. Asked by the Bishop to define wisdom, Connor points to humility, a conscientious grasp of the human condition, and words that land as true because they are lived rather than abstract.
Segment Two (cont.) — The Call
Connor recounts a high school marked by soccer, his parents' hobby farm, and passing considerations of ag engineering, nursing, and the Air Force Academy. The first real jolt came when Father Chris Fontanini asked whether he had considered the priesthood — a question that, in Connor's words, rang through him like a bell. He ran from it spiritually for a couple of years.
The turning point came on a mission trip to El Paso with STAT (St. Thomas Aquinas Teens), where the theme was God's Will for Your Life. Connor asked God for a sign and received an overwhelming experience of love at Mass the next day. When he spoke it aloud in his small group, the weight lifted. Over that week, ten to fifteen people independently asked him whether he'd thought about becoming a priest. Father Reed Flood was on the trip and coached him through making the phone call home.
He also describes the value of manual labor — bagging groceries and working the bottle room at Hy-Vee, night stocking shelves, and a summer hauling concrete for a demolition crew in Ankeny alongside his cousin. Tangible work, tangible change.
Segment Two (cont.) — Ordination Details
The ordination will be an evening Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, celebrated at the Holy Spirit window, a newer custom for the North American College. Connor describes rounding the main altar afterward to find the basilica empty — an experience unlike any other. Eighteen men total will be ordained. Family, friends, and a diocesan pilgrimage group are expected to attend. Diocesan priests will be gathered for their annual workshop in Iowa City that day and will lift Connor up at Mass.
Segment Three — Remembering Alex
Connor speaks about his brother Alex Lynch, who battled cancer from age 16 and died May 8, 2026, at 23, at the family's farm home in Indianola. Alex graduated from Indianola High School, earned an Eagle Scout rank, and completed a finance degree from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas — receiving his diploma in a special ceremony less than a day before his death. His Funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Thomas Aquinas in Indianola.
Connor shares the family's conviction that God was working through Alex's illness: a cousin estranged from the family reached out to reconcile at the very hour Alex's first biopsy confirmed cancer. He describes a brotherhood that deepened through the disease — days spent beside Alex's hospital bed, shoulder massages Alex insisted on giving to relieve Connor's stress, and repeated occasions when Connor, in Rome or at seminary, felt an unaccountable weight on his heart, called home, and found Alex struggling. He calls the bond spiritual and Eucharistic.
The Bishop notes there is more to the story — Connor's return home for Alex's final days and the support of the Benedictine College community under President Stephen Minnis — and invites him back to tell it another time. Connor begins studies in moral theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Santa Croce) this fall.
Learn more about vocations in the Diocese of Des Moines: dmdiocese.org/vocations
Learn more about the Pontifical North American College: pnac.org
Listen to Making It Personal with Bishop William Joensen every week on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network and the Spirit Catholic Radio Network, or stream anytime at IowaCatholicRadio.com
#CatholicPodcast #Vocations #Seminarian #CatholicPriest #DioceseOfDesMoines #IowaCatholicRadio #MakingItPersonal #BishopJoensen #NorthAmericanCollege #CatholicRome #StPetersBasilica #DiaconateOrdination #CatholicFaith #CatholicVocations #Discernment #CatholicIowa #FaithAndSuffering #CatholicYouth #Priesthood #CatholicRadio