"I Will Come to you"
YOU HAVE MADE US FOR YOURSELF, O GOD, AND OUR HEARTS ARE RESTLESS
UNTIL THEY REST IN YOU

[St Augustine, THE CONFESSIONS]

June 14, 2026, Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

On June 6th Bishop Malloy ordained three men to be priests in the Diocese of Rockford in the presence of a standing-room-only crowd in St Peter Cathedral in Rockford. Some of you have probably read the article in the Observer, the diocesan newspaper, which tells the story of their various journeys on the way to become our newest diocesan priest.

Fr Patrick Glanville grew up in St John Neumann parish in St Charles and attended Marmion High School in Aurora. He has been assigned to St Mary parish in Woodstock, and will also have responsibilities at St Patrick parish in Hartland (incidentally, that’s the country parish where my mother and her family were parishioners) and Marian Central Catholic High School.

Fr Bailey Peterson grew up as a member of Holy Family parish in Rockford. He attended Boylan Central Catholic High School in Rockford. His first assignment will be at Holy Cross parish in Batavia, and will also minister at Aurora Central Catholic High School.

Fr Michael Wojnarowski was raised in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn. Before entering the seminary he received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Lewis University in Romeoville and worked in the business world for several years. He is assigned to St Thomas the Apostle parish in Crystal Lake.

We welcome these newly ordained priests and thank God for calling them to serve the Church in our diocese. I think you will find the accounts of their journey to the priesthood to be very inspirational.

We who have been ordained for many years have the opportunity to reflect on our own years in the priesthood and to ask the Lord to increase our own faith and commitment to serve him faithfully.

God willing, in December I will have had the privilege of serving the Lord for 63 years. I can assure any of our young men whom God is calling to the priesthood that it is never boring, and it will probably be different in its details than you might imagine. There are difficulties and trials at times, as there are in all walks of life, but one thing is always true: God is never outdone in generosity, and we receive from Him much more than we could ever give Him.

At the moment we have no seminarians who will be ready for ordination for the next three years. Pray that God will give us more good priests.

Msgr. Dzielak