The power of Catholic education

The power of a good Catholic education is a story told by the Saint Mary’s Central High School class of 2014. The seeds of that education have resulted in four members answering a call to a religious vocation and many others living a vibrant faith in the world. 

These four religious vocations are Kayla Miller now Sister Mary Mother of the Church, Isaiah Fischer in formation with the Community of Jesus Crucified, Ryan Martire a seminarian for the diocese, and Fr. Grant Dvorak an ordained priest for the diocese.

For many students before and after this graduating class of 2014, there were retreats, pilgrimages, speakers, a school-wide consecration to Mary, a Lenten daily Mass challenge, Eucharistic adoration during lunchtime and many more opportunities made available through their school. These grace-filled moments of prayer showered this group of 94 students with opportunities they were open to receiving.

The four class members with religious vocations have pointed to the witness of the faith of their classmates who have chosen different life vocations such as many holy marriages. For example, Ben Weisbeck shared that before his wedding to Teah in 2021, his friends prayed the rosary together prior to the ceremony—something they have done together now at five classmates’ weddings. Prior to Teresa (Armstrong) McKeown’s wedding to Cole, the sacrament of confession and Eucharistic adoration were available for friends and family. These things are common for members of this class.

Father Gregory Crane, a layman at the time, was the religion teacher during this class’s junior year of high school. “It was a great class,” he said. “They were overall very engaged so for that reason, it was such a joy to teach them.”  

He, too, was inspired by the rich Catholic environment and credits the robust examples of priests in the Bismarck Diocese with giving him the courage to answer his own call to the priesthood. He entered seminary in 2013, was ordained in 2019, and is now chaplain and head of the religion department at Bishop Ryan Catholic School in Minot.

“What is really cool about that class,” he said, “is that many of them stayed together. After two or three years in seminary, I was sitting in the adoration chapel and saw a group of men from that class, now in college, come in to pray a novena they were doing together.”

Father Crane also had a funny story. “When Grant and Ryan and later Isaiah entered the seminary, it took them a while to stop calling me Mr. Crane. It would make all the other seminarians laugh.”

Father Jared Johnson, pastor at the Pro-Cathedral of St. Mary in Bismarck, said that looking back on the five classes he served as chaplain at St. Mary’s Central High School, there was something unique about the class of 2014 in their senior year when he started.

“At the time, I thought it was normal because it was my first year, but it really was a special group of students,” he said. “I think a lot of that was a testament to the work Fr. Josh Waltz did during their first three years and the other teachers. It is certainly a team effort.”

Father Jared pointed out that a unique feature of all the Catholic schools in the diocese is that Bishop Kagan has continued what Bishop Zipfel started—to have priests in the Catholic schools working as administrators and teachers. “That allows students not to just see the priest as the one saying Mass but to have day to day interactions of getting to know them,” he said.

All four students with religious vocations expressed that Fr. Josh Waltz (also vocations director 2013-2020) and Fr. Johnson were strong influences in addition to their religion teachers: Reed Ruggles, Nick Emmel, Michael Rubbelke and Gregory Crane—now Fr. Crane.

Sr. Mary Church

Sister Mary Mother of the Church, (Sr. Church for short) formerly known as Kayla Miller, was interviewed after taking her fourth and final vow on Sept. 13. She was home to Bismarck for a visit before leaving for Germany on Oct. 3 as a contemplative nun with the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara. It is a community of priests and sisters with around 300 sisters in the U.S. and more than 2,000 in over 40 countries.

“I am 100% convinced that if I had not gone to St. Mary’s, I would not have entered religious life,” she said. “It disposed my soul to be open to that grace when I received the call.” Sister Church credited Fr. Waltz’s Lenten challenge to the entire school to attend daily Mass during Lent with the promise of taking those students out to dinner at the nicest restaurant during Easter, with getting her to go to daily Mass.

“That closeness with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is of infinite merit and infinite value every single day, is a true conduit for grace,” she said.

Senior year, she was awarded a scholarship to a college in Nebraska to study forensic science. But the annual senior class trip waylaid those plans. “I was on our St. Mary’s trip to Fort Yates at St. Bernard’s Mission School for a day of volunteering,” she explained. “In church, after Mass, Mr. Ruggles stood up and said, ‘You have some very important decisions to make, but how many of you have asked God what he wants you to do?’

“I had not really asked Him even though I had inklings,” she said. “So, I asked. The answer was clear: ‘I want you to be a sister.’ On the bus home, I called Fr. Waltz. I just knew. That joy has carried me through ever since.”

Isaiah Fischer

Isaiah Fischer entered the seminary for the diocese in the fall of 2017 after initially running from it. He further discerned a call to the Community of Jesus Crucified in Louisiana where he entered formation last summer. It is a community dedicated to serving the suffering and to revealing the victory of the cross.

While discerning after graduation, he credited a total consecration to Mary which he did with fellow classmate and seminarian Ryan Martire as having a huge impact on his life, and attending daily Mass. One morning, tired of the struggle to know what God wanted of him, Fischer offered up his prayers and told God, “I just want to know what you want. I don’t care what it is, I just want to know what you want.”

He explained that after Mass, in his pew, “God made his presence very known to me. He literally spoke to me: ‘Will you bring me to the world in the Eucharist?’ Who am I to deny God?

“Our vocations are from the goodness of our Father who invites us to become servants in Jesus—the servant. When I witness my fellow classmates always striving to become better servants, it propels me to be a better servant, too, because I witnessed the fruit of their sacrifices and service: holiness.”

Ryan Martire

Ryan Martire will be ordained to the transitional diaconate in May. He is currently in formation for the diocese at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and teaching seniors at St. Dominic’s High School. He graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, fall of 2016, and entered seminary in January 2017.

“I began to feel a call to the priesthood my senior year of high school. Grant Dvorak, Isaiah Fischer, and I roomed together on the high school Rome pilgrimage going into our senior year of high school. Grant and I had many conversations on the trip about relationships, desires for marriage, and to our resistance to possible inclinations to the priesthood. Our chaplain encouraged students on the pilgrimage to make a specific intention of offering our vocation to God at each church we visited, which were many.”

Throughout senior year, Ryan felt a desire for marriage but there was a tug at his heart for something deeper. “The call was deeply connected to Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist, as I listened for His will for my life before Him, present in the tabernacle,” he said.

“Father Waltz and Father Johnson were instrumental in my calling to the priesthood. Father Waltz visited me in college in Chicago. Those little acts go a long way. Father Johnson was the first priest that I expressed my desire to the priesthood to during my first Christmas break in college. I told him, ‘Priesthood has turned from a fear into a desire.’ I am so grateful for attending St. Mary’s High School. The Class of 2014 was and is truly special… anointed.”

Fr. Grant Dvorak

Father Grant Dvorak was ordained a priest for the diocese on June 13, 2022. He is the parochial vicar of Queen of Peace Catholic Church and chaplain of Trinity Junior and Senior High School in Dickinson.

“There is no doubt that making the decision with my parents to switch from public school to St. Mary's Central High School made a difference in my faith and vocational path,” he said. “To be called to something more than simply the next experience in my earthly life, however beautiful and good, was a message that was taught and preached throughout my time at St. Mary's and is something for which I am extremely grateful.

“Kayla Miller, now Sister Mary, Mother of the Church, and Ryan Martire spearheaded the movement to enter our small chapel for adoration at lunch time. At the time, I remember being curious and confused about how and why such great athletes would skip lunch period to go into the chapel. By the grace of God, I decided to follow, along with a few other classmates. With that early experience of showing up to be with Jesus in the Eucharist, it seems fairly obvious now that the fruit of religious vocations, diocesan priests and a whole boatload of holy marriages would naturally follow from our class of 2014.”

No coincidence

Four vocations from one class are no coincidence, according to Fr. Josh Waltz, pastor of St. Joseph in Mandan. “You look through history and see that saints come in groups. Holiness breeds holiness when hearts are open. 

“It seemed like when one caught fire, they all started catching fire,” he said. “Without St. Mary’s High School, they would not have had this encounter. When God got into their lives, it was an explosion. It was like iron sharpening iron.

“I love those guys,” Fr. Waltz said. “It was a great class. They are great people. And it’s a great end of the story. Or maybe, I should say it’s a great beginning.”