Meet Joseph Connelly, Our New Summer Seminarian

Nativity will an be welcoming a seminarian from The St. Paul Seminary this summer to learn the ropes in a parish setting and help with different responsibilities and initiatives.  We asked our new summer seminarian, Joe Connelly (pictured at right), to introduce himself:
 
My name is Joseph Connelly.  I was born and raised in Savage, MN to Frank and Mary Connelly as the fifth of ten children, with seven brothers and two sisters.  My father was an aircraft cleaner for Northwest Airlines and my mother was a stay-at-home mom until all the kids were grown up, when she then worked at the Welcoming Center at the Cathedral for close to ten years until she retired in 2015.
 
I thought about becoming a priest when I was a small kid but did not pursue the idea until I was much older.  When I graduated from Burnsville High School in 2003, I entered the workforce, and my first job out of high school was working for the airlines, as a cleaner and baggage handler, first for Sun Country and then for Northwest.  During the NWA strike of 2005, I saw many workers and their families go through financial difficulties and saw the burden of future uncertainties.  It was during the strike that I decided to go back to school and pursue some kind of education.
 
With a strong desire for community service, I decided to pursue a career in law enforcement.  Working my way through college as a valet driver at Mystic Lake Casino and as a cash-counter and bookmaker at Canterbury Park, I received my associate’s degree in Criminal Justice, and then went to Jordan, MN for the Law Enforcement Skills program.  It was during this time that the calling of the priesthood came back in a strong way, a calling which I decided to pursue with no idea of how to pursue it.
 
I contacted a priest I knew and asked him how someone becomes a priest and he had me contact the Vocations Director of the Archdiocese, and after a screening and application process, I entered seminary in 2011.  Seminary has been a great experience with many challenges and many blessings.  Only having an associate’s degree meant that I had to enter into St. John Vianney College Seminary to get a degree in philosophy.  Being an older guy in the seminary was difficult but I appreciated the great structure SJV had in helping the guys grow in the spiritual life.
 
I have now completed my second year at The St. Paul Seminary and am looking forward to entering into Theology III in the fall.  I am also looking forward to spending the next two months at Nativity parish, and getting to know the parish and parishioners better.  If you see me around, feel free to say hello!  I like to consider myself an amateur movie buff, an even more amateurish history buff, as well as a Twins and Vikings fan.  So if you have any good recommendations for movies, books, or want to shoot the breeze about the Twins, I look forward to it!
 
This article was published in the June 11, 2017 edition of the Nativity parish bulletin.