Father Nick Smith, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Perry and the newly appointed Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Des Moines, joins Bishop William Joensen and Jeanne Thill for a wide-ranging conversation on priestly discernment, family faith, and the dignity of human life. Fr. Smith reflects on his grandmother's death from Alzheimer's, his mother's recent Des Moines Register op-ed defending the worth of a life in decline, and how caring for the sick reshaped his own understanding of what a priest actually offers. He also shares practical guidance for young men considering the priesthood and details an upcoming Andrew Dinner in Des Moines. New Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Des Moines, effective July 2026 Caring for a grandmother with dementia and the case against assisted suicide His brother Noah's parallel call — to the Jesuits, not the diocesan priesthood Andrew Dinner: Tuesday, October 6 at the Basilica of St. John, Des Moines Bishop Joensen previews a Poland pilgrimage and the cathedral water main break
Segment 1 — Diocesan news and a Poland pilgrimage
Bishop Joensen opens with an update on the water main break that flooded the Bishop's Celebration of Education just as keynote speaker Father Ross Caniglia was being introduced. Water poured into the downtown facility at depths of six to twelve inches. No one was injured, but the damage is considerable and repairs are expected to take six months or more. Father Caniglia has been invited to return next year.
The Bishop then previews his departure for Warsaw, where he and Catholic speaker and broadcaster Jon Leonetti will lead a pilgrimage of about 55 people through Poland. The group's first stop is St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in the Żoliborz district, home to the tomb of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko — the Solidarity chaplain martyred in 1984 at age 37 for defending workers' rights under the Communist regime, and beatified in 2010. Bishop Joensen recounts Popiełuszko's defense of himself as "a simple witness of Jesus Christ," and notes the pilgrims will pray at his grave, where the surrounding stones are laid out in the form of a rosary.
There's also a nod to the Cy-Hawk game at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City that evening — Iowa favored by roughly 13.5 over Iowa State in Jimmy Rogers' first season as Cyclones head coach. Kickoff lands at 2:30 a.m. Warsaw time, so the Bishop is skipping it.
Segment 2 — Fr. Nick Smith: family, dementia, and the dignity of life
Fr. Nick Smith is pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Perry, where he's beginning his second year, and took on the role of Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Des Moines this July. Ordained four years ago, he has served at Our Lady's Immaculate Heart in Ankeny and Christ the King in Des Moines, and is bilingual in Spanish and English. St. Patrick also operates a parish school.
The heart of the segment is his grandmother Virginia, who lived near the family through her decline from Alzheimer's and died three years ago on August 28, the feast of St. Augustine. Two days after that anniversary, his mother Sue's op-ed appeared in the Des Moines Sunday Register — a response to an earlier guest essay by a Des Moines man who chose to end his life abroad rather than live with Alzheimer's. Fr. Smith describes the caregiving years without romanticizing them: not glamorous, not mystical, often difficult. What he took from it was that a person's worth is not tied to what they can produce. "We are valued as human beings before we're valued for anything we can produce." He credits his grandmother's prayers, and her devotion to the Mass and the rosary, with his own vocation.
Asked whether that experience shaped his ministry to the homebound and to care facilities, Fr. Smith names a fear many priests and pastoral ministers carry — that they have nothing to offer. His spiritual director's answer stayed with him: you bring them Christ. He frames the task not as removing another person's cross but as refusing to let them carry it in isolation. Bishop Joensen, drawing on his own years as a care-facility chaplain, calls that accompaniment precious.
Segment 3 — Two brothers, two vocations
Fr. Smith is the oldest of seven children, raised in a strong Catholic family with Catholic education throughout. He began seriously considering the priesthood in high school, drawn by the Eucharist, daily Mass, confession, and Eucharistic adoration — and by the realization that a priest stands in a unique relationship to that sacrament.
His younger brother Noah went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, encountered the Jesuit community there, and was drawn to its communal life. Noah Smith, S.J., is now in his fourth year of Jesuit formation, professed, and studying philosophy at Fordham University in New York. Bishop Joensen notes his own graduate school classmate, Fr. Christopher Cullen, S.J., teaches philosophy at Fordham. Fr. Smith's observation: the path by which a man first comes to know the Lord deeply often shapes the form of priesthood he's drawn toward.
Segment 4 — How discernment actually works, and how to start
Fr. Smith leans on the wisdom of the rest of the vocations team — Father Ross Parker, Director of Seminarians and pastor of St. Augustin in Des Moines; Father Reed Flood; and Father Max Carson. He credits Cathy Jordan, the diocese's vocation specialist, as integral to the team. The Serra Clubs of Council Bluffs and Des Moines are thanked for their material and spiritual support of seminarians.
The men with the deepest roots, he says, typically come from families where the Catholic faith is genuinely practiced, and arrive with an existing appreciation for the sacraments, the teaching of the Church, adoration, and the rosary. Typical first contact is a one-on-one meeting to hear a man's story and get a sense of where he is.
How to reach the Vocations Office
Andrew Dinner — Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Fr. Smith encourages even ambivalent men to come. If the thought of the priesthood occurs to a young man at all in this culture, he takes that as a sign of God's action — and the greater tragedy, he says, is spending a life wondering whether the Lord was opening a door. Asked about age, he names roughly 18 to 35 as typical, while noting the Lord can call a second vocation at any stage. Three men have newly entered formation for the diocese this year, ranging from age 19 to a 33-year-old trial attorney working in the Des Moines metro.
Fr. Smith also hosts The Daily Gospel Reflection on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network.
Learn more at https://www.dmdiocese.org/vocations and https://www.IowaCatholicRadio.com/