God opens the door for seminarian

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
Newly-accepted seminarian, Joseph Masching of St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll, said he began to seriously consider the seminary as early as eighth grade as a student in Kuemper Catholic Schools.
 
“Because I was preparing to go into high school soon – in my freshman year, it was on the back burner. It wasn’t that important,” the 2025 Kuemper graduate said, noting he also contemplated a career in science or animal science at that time.
 
He was involved in youth ministry, helped lead retreats and still is an altar server at his parish. Masching was also involved in numerous sports and was active in speech and theater in school.
 
The seminarian’s sophomore year in high school was a turning point. His thoughts returned to the possibility of a priestly vocation and he participated in the summer Quest retreat/trip sponsored by the diocesan Office of Vocations.
 
“Things just started falling into place,” Masching recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh, God, you’re opening this door pretty wide right now.’”
 
Since that pivotal year, he attended three more Quest trips, including the June 2025 event that introduced the young men to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (IHM) in Winona, Minnesota and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Quest also provided time for prayer, fraternity and recreation.
 
 “My spiritual life has matured significantly from before I went to Quest,” the seminarian pointed out.
 
He said it was helpful to be part of an event with other young men looking for a spiritual opportunity.
  
 Masching was not shy about inviting other young men to join him at Quest since that first year. He encouraged six of his high school classmates to travel to South Dakota with the Vocations Office last summer.
 
The new seminarian visits with Father Travis Crotty, vocations director.Over Christmas break 2024, which was during his senior year of high school, Masching completed the comprehensive application to be accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Sioux City. Two of his teachers and his pastor, Father Patrick Behm, provided letters of recommendation. 
The son of Jay and Julie Masching, the seminarian said his family has been very supportive of his discernment of a priestly vocation. Julie serves as campus minister for Kuemper.
 
“They saw it coming, but they never pushed me in any direction,” Masching said. “They would say, ‘I think God’s calling you to do that. If it’s not, God will tell you what he wants.’”
 
Although supportive and pleased that he was pursuing acceptance as a seminarian, the Masching family was quick to note that if he eventually decided to take another path, they would remain supportive of the young man.
 
In addition to his family’s influence upon his discernment, Masching pointed out that the religious education he received at Kuemper and weekly school Masses helped him on his journey.
 
“I got lucky. I had several pretty good religion teachers,” he said, noting the influence of Deacon Alan Loew and Father Behm. “I had a lot of religious people who would (be able to) answer the questions I had. That definitely helped me.”
 
Given that Father Behm has served a number of years as both pastor and parochial vicar at St. John Paul II Parish and as Kuemper chaplain, the new seminarian appreciated seeing his pastor’s involvement with the parishioners. Father Behm was present for some Seek retreats, Steubenville youth rallies and Mission Honduras trips as well as parish activities.
 
“He was a very good example of how a parish priest should behave and work. He wanted to make sure that people in the parish knew who he was,” Masching said.
 
As a seminarian Masching enjoyed participating on the team of servers for Father Jacob Rosenmeyer’s ordination earlier this month.
 
“It was neat being able to help set up for the ordination,” he said. “I thought holy cow - there are a lot of chairs up here just for priests. That’s not even counting the 30 chairs we have for deacons. It’s neat seeing all of the priests in our diocese in the same place.”
 
A longtime altar server in his parish, the seminarian had experience with typical weekday and weekend Masses and also the more complicated Easter vigil Mass. However, the ordinations exposed him to Catholic rituals he had not experienced before.
 
“I have seen what some of the bigger Masses look like and I did see some similarities but overall, a lot different,” he said.
 
Masching and the other seminarians have been serving at different parishes in June, assisting with Vacation Bible School programs. Masching recently helped with the week-long All Saints Parish Bible school in Le Mars.
 
As a first-year seminarian, Masching will join Avery Fetrow of Storm Lake and William Kahle of Algona at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in July. (Watch for Kahle’s profile in next week’s LumeNotes.)
 
“I’m excited. It’s a little like team building with all the newer people,” he said of the first few weeks at the seminary. “We will get to know each other before we’re thrown into school together.”
 
The newest IHM seminarians will join Jack Jensen, Brian Schmit, Anthony Sibbel and Zach Steffens, creating a group of seven men at the Winona seminary.
 
“It’s a huge deal there. I’m happy to be a part of that,” Masching said.