By Jeff Kurowski | On Mission
ROME, Italy — Next week, Nicholas Stellpflug will take the next step on his vocation journey, and he said he’s grateful to share it with family, friends, classmates and people from the Diocese of Green Bay who will be joining him at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
Stellpflug, a seminarian for the diocese, is in his fourth year at Pontifical North American College. His home parish is St. Paul, Combined Locks.
He will be ordained a deacon, along with 14 classmates, on Thursday, Oct. 3, by Archbishop Alexander Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.
Stellpflug is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Green Bay next summer.
“It’s a real blessing,” he said about those making the trip from the diocese. “Obviously, it’s not like going to St. Francis Xavier Cathedral (in Green Bay). I’ve been so edified by how many people have, first, expressed interest in coming.”
Among those attending will be his mother, Stephanie Murray; stepfather, Mike Murray; a cousin, Jacob Bruns, who is a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee; and friends, priests, classmates and pilgrimage groups from the diocese.
Deacon Jeff Prickette, pastoral leader of Prince of Peace Parish, Green Bay (Bellevue), and Fr. Matthew Colle, parochial vicar at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Manitowoc, are leading pilgrimage groups, said Stellpflug.
“I asked Deacon Jeff to come before I knew he was going to bring a pilgrimage group,” he said in a telephone interview with On Mission. “He was at St. Paul (in Combined Locks) for a number of years. He was one of the first people that I told that I was considering going to seminary. I remember calling him on the phone to tell him. He’s been a great support to me.”
Deacon Prickette will vest Stellpflug at the ordination Mass.
“I’m glad they are going to see Rome,” said Stellpflug about the pilgrimage groups. “That they are coming for this occasion, too, is very humbling for me.”
The following day, Friday, Oct. 4, Stellpflug will be the deacon at a Mass of Thanksgiving in Rome.
“I will preach at Mass,” he said. “Fr. Ben Pribbenow will be one of the main celebrants. He is a friend of mine from (Pontifical North American College) and we also went to high school and grade school together, so there’s a great connection.”
Fr. Pribbenow serves as parochial vicar at St. Raphael the Archangel Parish, Oshkosh, and as priest celebrant at St. Mary Parish, Omro, and St. Mary Parish, Winneconne.
While continuing his studies following ordination, Stellpflug will serve as a deacon at the Spanish National Church in Rome. He said that he will teach catechesis for confirmation and assist at Mass. There will also be opportunities to serve as a deacon at Masses in the seminary.
“I look forward to preaching,” he said. “We are blessed to have a good preparation program here. That has been not only helpful to prepare practically to preach, but I’m really encouraged and inspired by how all the guys reflect on the Scriptures.”
Stellpflug is known as “Nico” to many, a nickname given to him at a young age. He said that his mother, Stephanie, told him, “She would never call me Nick, and she never has.”
He attended Holy Spirit School, Kimberly/Darboy, before moving on to Kimberly High School. Stellpflug earned a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2019.
Stellpflug said he first heard the call to the priesthood in college.
“It wasn’t something on my mind. My pastor growing up, Fr. Andy Kysely, said to me multiple times, ‘Nicholas, you’d make a great priest.’ I always dismissed him,” said Stellpflug. “I really didn’t have that in mind. That wasn’t how I imagined my life going. I had a plan that I thought was going to make me fulfilled, successful. It was really towards the end of my second year of college that I found the community at the Newman Center on campus. That community was such a fruitful place for me.”
Friends he made at the Newman Center are still friends today, he said.
“They were genuinely interested in me for who I am and really allowed me to speak about and explore the faith for the first time in an intentional way,” Stellpflug said. “Going to small groups, eventually co-leading a small group, gave me the desire to be a good Christian man. That’s what first captivated me inside, hearing a lot about God, hearing a lot about what Jesus is doing in the hearts of the people in his time. The Scripture stories really attracted me.”
Stellpflug received a job offer before graduation, but felt “there was something more” being offered to him.
“I really didn’t know what that was,” he said. “As the year kept going on, I thought maybe it’s the priesthood, which happened gradually.”
Stellpflug applied for seminary in the spring of 2019. In the fall, he entered St. Francis de Sales Seminary in St. Francis, Wis., near Milwaukee. Two years later, he began studies at Pontifical North American College.
Opportunities outside the seminary classroom helped his formation, said Stellpflug. He spent his first summer overseas in Madrid, Spain, living and ministering with the Missionaries of Charity.
“I served in a community where they take care of elderly poor men and also men with HIV/AIDS. I was living with them,” he said.
The Missionaries of Charity were established by St. Teresa of Kolkata in 1950. While serving in Spain, Stellpflug said he felt a connection to a local ministry he previously served with the summer before he entered seminary — Love Begins Here, which connects middle and high school youth to local mission experiences.
“(St. Teresa’s) spirit is really a part of the mission of Love Begins Here,” he said. “I started to read more about her and was really captured by her love for her neighbor, her love for the poor, her love for Jesus in the poor and in the Eucharist.”
Prior to his first year in Rome, Stellpflug made a summer mission trip with members of St. Mary and St. John the Baptist parishes of Menasha, serving at a parish in Kentucky.
He also spent a summer serving at St. Therese Parish in Appleton with Fr. Ryan Starks and this past summer served with Fr. Daniel Schuster at Holy Trinity Parish, Casco/Slovan, and Immaculate Conception Parish, Luxemburg.
“It was affirming to be back in the diocese,” he said. “This is the place (Pontifical North American College) where I’m being formed, so to be able to be back home to be with the people of the Diocese of Green Bay was a wonderful opportunity.”
Stellpflug said he has attended the deacon ordinations at St. Peter’s Basilica the last three years.
“It really is a special place,” he said. “There is something really impactful having been there for the last three ordinations. I remember last year one of my classmates turned to me afterwards and said, ‘We’re next.’”
