Gus Hanson has dreamed of being a Catholic priest for most of his life. But for the next several years, he is embracing the title of seminarian.
Gus, one of four young men who entered the seminary for the Diocese of Salina this fall, said he was about 5 years old when he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. And he said he never changed his mind.
“I never wanted to be anything else. My mom has files of my old schoolwork, and every time someone asked what I wanted to be, I’d say a priest,” said Gus, whose family confirms that resolve.
“I don’t ever remember him saying he wanted anything different than this,” Brian Hanson said of his second-born son.
So after 13 years of listening to Gus’ commitment, the Hansons packed him up for the four-and-a-half hour drive to Wichita.
Just three months following his high school graduation from Rawlins County-Atwood, Gus began studies at the St. Joseph House of Formation in August.
It wasn’t exactly the typical dropping off your 18-year-old at college.
Gus was so intent on staying focused on his mission that he deleted his social media and turned off his cell phone.
He turns on his phone for about an hour on Sundays to visit with his family back home.
“Sundays are interesting when he calls, because everyone wants to talk to him,” his dad said. “It’s hard not to hear from him, but when we do, it feels so great just to hear how well he is doing.”
During the week, the Hansons have turned to the old fashioned way of communicating. His parents and seven siblings write him letters and send them in the mail.
“I love getting those letters,” Gus said, “and I write a lot of letters, too.”
In between time, Gus is able to concentrate on his discernment and his classes at Newman University, where he is majoring in philosophy for theology studies.
The Hansons are members of St. John Nepomucene parish in rural Beardsley. Gus laughs when asked to pronounce the name of his parish.
That’s a name that Gus has known his entire life, and it’s one that will become quite familiar to the rest of the diocese the next several years. So here it is: “Nuh-POE-muh-seen.”
Joining Gus at St. Joseph House of Formation is another first-year seminarian, Ethan Weiner, a member of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Hoxie.
Gus and Ethan are two of three new seminarians from northwest Kansas. Weiner’s high school friend, Gabe Friess, joined older brother Luke at St. John Vianney School of Theology in Denver this fall after graduating from Benedictine College in May. Luke Friess is in his seventh year of seminary and is on schedule to be ordained a transitional deacon in 2025. The Friess brothers are members of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Hoxie.
Also attending St. John Vianney is Marshall Fike, who rounds out the list of the new class of seminarians.
Marshall’s parish is St. Isidore’s in Manhattan by Kansas State University, where he graduated college and discerned the call to join seminary.
The same holds true for Holden Giefer, a K-State graduate whose home parish is St. Francis de Sales in Lansing. He now attends Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in the St. Louis area as a Salina Diocese seminarian.
The Friess siblings are one of two sets of brothers in the current seminarian cohort, as Kade and Max Megaffin from St. Joseph in Hays both attend St. John Vianney.
Kade Megaffin was ordained a transitional deacon this past spring along with Adam Urban, St. Nicholas of Myra-Hays, and Jesse Ochs, Sacred Heart-Park.
Ordination into the priesthood for those three deacons is set for May 31, 2025.
Yet another family tie with the current seminarian group is that of Collin Thielen from Quinter, whose home parish is Sacred Heart in Park.
Collin’s older brother, Luke Thielen, was ordained in 2016 and is now pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Oakley and St. Paul Parish in Angelus. Collin is in his third year at Conception (Mo.) Seminary.
Completing the list of 14 current seminations are Kyle Pfeifer, Seven Dolors parish, Manhattan; Joseph Schones, Sacred Heart, Arkansas City; and Matthew Ralls, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Wichita.
Kyle is serving a pastoral year at St. Mary Queen of the Universe in Salina. Joseph and Matthew, who grew up in the Wichita Diocese, are now part of the Salina Diocese cohort. Joseph attends Sacred Heart Seminary in Wisconsin, and Ralls attends St. John Vianney.
Fr. Andy Hammeke, who was ordained in 2018, is now co-vocations director for the diocese and asks that we all remember the current and future seminarians in prayer, especially in the upcoming National Vocation Awareness Week, Nov. 5-11.
“We love all our seminarians and are thankful for their ‘yes,’ ” Fr. Andy said. “Numbers do matter because we need to replace the priests who are retiring. But in the end, the number of seminarians we want is the number of seminarians God is calling. Please pray that more might be open to the call and say ‘yes’ if God moves them toward priesthood.”
