WEST FARGO, ND – The Reverend Mr. Brendon Schneibel, ENS, USNR, a candidate for the Catholic priesthood and United States Military chaplaincy, was ordained a transitional deacon on Friday evening, June 6, in his home Diocese of Fargo, ND. The new deacon is on track to be ordained a priest next year and hopes eventually to serve as a Catholic chaplain in the U.S. Navy, providing pastoral care to Catholic sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and their families with endorsement and faculties from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS).
“It means so much to me to have reached this point in my formation,” the Rev. Mr. Schneibel said. “Not only does it mark an accomplishment of having completed several years of seminary training, but it also marks my permanent entry into the service of God and the Church through my promises of chastity, prayer, and obedience. That reality made it something I was tempted to be anxious about before, but living in it gives me abundant freedom and peace.”
The Rev. Mr. Schneibel received the sacrament of holy orders from Bishop John T. Folda through the laying of hands and the prayer of consecration invoking the Holy Spirit. AMS Auxiliary Bishop Gregg M. Caggianelli concelebrated the 7:00 p.m. ordination Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in West Fargo. Among those in the pews were friends and relatives of the new deacon, including one couple, retired Coast Guard Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Severance and wife Andrea, who traveled all the way from Alaska for the ordination.
The Rev. Mr. Schneibel, 25, was born in Grand Forks in northeastern North Dakota. He grew up mainly in Lakota, about an hour’s drive to the west. When he was 12 years old his family moved to Alaska for three years before returning to the Peace Garden State where they settled in Manvel, ND. The Rev. Mr. Schneibel was homeschooled from Kindergarten through high school before graduating in 2018. He went on to St. Gregory the Great College Seminary where he graduated in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Philosophy. He is now completing his priestly formation at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD.
“I had always been raised to be open to whatever vocation God might call me to,” the new deacon said, “but it wasn’t until I was in my sophomore year of high school that I began to take the call seriously, and especially through Eucharistic Adoration and conversations with priests, I discovered that God was indeed calling me.”
The Rev. Mr. Schneibel is on track to be ordained a priest next year, after which time he will serve in his home Diocese of Fargo for three years, honing his pastoral skills with hands-on experience in ministry, before going on active duty under his co-sponsored seminarian agreement with the AMS and the Fargo diocese.
The eventual service of the Rev. Mr. Schneibel and other Catholic chaplain candidates is greatly anticipated by the Navy, which, like all other branches of the U.S. Military, continues to suffer a chronic shortage of Catholic chaplains. Currently, the Navy has only 47 priests on active duty, serving a large Catholic population of more than 100,000 Sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen spread worldwide, not to mention their families whom Navy chaplains also serve.
Young men interested in discerning a priestly vocation, and the vocation within a vocation to serve those who serve in the U.S. military, can find more information at www.milarch.org/vocations, or may contact AMS Vocations Director Father Paul-Anthony Halladay at vocations@milarch.org or (202) 719-3600.
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