Office of Vocations

Roy Witucki

Roy Witucki, Theology IV at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary (Boston, MA) Autobiographical Profile:

I was born in a farmhouse on May 8, 1945, the youngest of four children of Andrew and Julia Witucki.  We were members of Holy Family Parish in Poniatowski, WI until my parents retired and moved to nearby Athens and became members of St Anthony of Padua Parish.  After college in Stevens Point and Whitewater, I was an officer in the Navy for three years, and then got a Master’s degree in Finance at the University of Colorado. After a career as a low level bureaucrat in the federal government, living in many different cities, I took early retirement at age 52, and returned to Athens and St Anthony’s Parish in 1998.

After being away from the Church, my spiritual journey brought me in the late 1990’s to earnestly seek God and ask His will for my life.  I had never married.  In the spring of 1999, I felt a clear call to the priesthood, although surprised and shocked because of my age and modest Church experience.  I responded by beginning a Masters Program in Theology at Minneapolis, followed by the Diocese of LaCrosse sponsoring me in the Fall of 2001 at Blessed John XX III Seminary (a seminary for older priesthood candidates) in Boston, MA.

As I begin my final year of Seminary, I look forward to priesthood ordination with increasing joy.  God is faithful, and His Son Lord Jesus Christ is the God-man Savior of the World.  Jesus, and His sacraments and Church, are the bridge for humans to know the truth and come into eternal life.  Lord Jesus took on flesh for us, born of the Virgin Mary, so that our dignity as human beings in the image and likeness of God could be restored.  His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection have opened the gates of heaven to us. These mysteries are too great for anyone to comprehend, but the Church’s 2000 years of tradition and Saints, guided by the Holy Spirit, have given us the path to the eternal God through, in, and with Lord Jesus Christ. 

My three summer Parish assignments (St James in Eau Claire, St Mary’s Neillsville, St Patrick’s in Mauston) have given me confidence that Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit live in the Parish and its individual members.  Thus, the priesthood is not a burden because the Parish Priest is Himself strengthened and guided by the Holy Spirit in and through the parish people.  Thus, I look forward to priesthood ordination in June 2005, and then doing the Father’s Will as a Parish Priest, within a loving Parish community in the Diocese of LaCrosse.