Friar preachers

The Bismarck Diocese has five sets of brother priests, all of whom are diocesan priests. In May, another set, my brother and I, joined this group, but with a slight variation.
 
Bismarck Diocese native, Fr. Matthew Wanner, O.P., was ordained a religious priest for the Dominican Friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus at the Church of St. Dominic in San Francisco, CA on May 25. This province serves the western third of the United States in the Church’s mission to assist others in encountering Jesus as Truth (cf. John 14:5-8; John 17:17-19).
     
Father Matthew had a long journey to May 25. While he was studying electrical engineering at North Dakota State University (NDSU), his second cousin, Michelle Duppong (now Servant of God), who at that time was involved in the campus Newman Center and with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), began to invite him to daily Mass and adoration. The next year, she prepared him to serve as a peer minister with her at NDSU. As she invited him to enter deeper into his faith, she started introducing him to various religious brothers and priests. The following summer was the first time Matthew considered discerning the priesthood. 
     
Spending his summer on an internship in St. Paul, Minn., he met a group known as “St. Hubert’s Crew” while attending daily Mass. The crew convinced Matthew to join them in serving a breakfast for the St. John Vianney College Seminary nearby at the University of St. Thomas. After meeting the seminarians from within their formative environment, Matthew went on to spend the next five years of his life as a seminarian of the Bismarck Diocese, graduating from St. John Vianney and completing Theology II at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis. Little did he know that I, his brother, Fr. Benjamin Wanner (10 years younger), would follow the same path from St. John Vianney through Kenrick-Glennon to my priestly ordination in 2022. 
 
However, Matthew discerned in a different direction toward religious life. Michelle helped him through his discernment by introducing him to the Community of St. John where he would spend the next five years. When he was called to follow another religious direction, Michelle was in her last few months of life. 
 
“At that moment, it was very important for me to connect with someone who knew me over the course of the many decisions that I made,” Matthew said before he had a final conversation with her over the phone, where she assured him of her prayers amid her sufferings. Matthew was teaching at St. Bernard’s Catholic Mission School in Fort Yates at the time. Michelle passed away before she could see him join the Dominicans. 
     
Father Matthew flourished during his time as a brother in Dominican formation. Hidden time spent in contemplative prayer, study and teaching bore much fruit in California at St. Albert’s Priory in Oakland and the Church of St. Dominic in San Francisco. In January 2023, he was able to join me and my seminary classmates on a trip to the Holy Land led by Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. With much gratitude in God’s providence, the entire Wanner family was able to attend his ordination in California and chant for his first Mass at St. Albert’s Priory. 
 
Father Matthew Wanner, O.P. is the second of nine children, five of whom are now married with families of their own. Our parents, Tim and Gloria Wanner, are parishioners at the Church of St. Joseph in Mandan, which makes Fr. Matthew the 55th diocesan/religious vocation to come from our home parish after me and our sister, Sr. Thérèse Marie, ACJ of the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus, who serves in Dickinson. Father Matthew recently graduated from the Orientalem in Rome with a licentiate in patristic theology with a specification in the Syriac theological tradition. 
 
We are excited to serve the Church together as brothers, that is, “friar” preachers! 
 
Father Benjamin Wanner is the parochial vicar of the Churches of St. Joseph in Williston, St. John the Baptist in Trenton and St. Boniface in Grenora.