Father Joseph Rolwing, with days left until ordination to the priesthood, was eager to begin his vocation.
“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like on Sunday after my ordination, when I wake up, and I’m just like, ‘I’m a priest now,’” he mused at the time. “One of the cool things about this vocation is it’s not a career path. It’s not like you clock in at nine and you clock out at five.
“It’s becoming a father of a family. You wake up and this is a new identity, and I’m very excited to live in that identity and see where the Lord takes me.”
While he does not know the path ahead, he described the path behind him as a clear call to the priesthood.
Father Rolwing, 27, a graduate of New Albany High School and parishioner at New Albany Church of the Resurrection, said a conversion experience at age 18 during his senior year led him to consider the vocation.
A girlfriend at the time challenged his faith and led him into a search for truth. Father Rolwing said he began taking his Catholic faith seriously and encountered God. He fell in love with the Lord and discovered a desire to give Him his life.
He began observing priests, who he described as men living lives of self-sacrifice, service and heroic love. Father Rolwing developed an interest in the priesthood and asked God if he was called to seminary after high school.
Without a clear answer from the Lord, Father Rolwing said he pursued college instead. He attended Ashland University on a basketball scholarship.
He continued praying about the priestly vocation, and by the end of the school year, he said, while praying a rosary on a retreat, the Lord and Our Lady made it clear to him. Father Rolwing said he experienced an overwhelming sense of peace, clarity and certainty: The priesthood was his calling.
“The closer I was drawing to Him, the more He was making me desire this vocation,” he said.
“It’s always a little bit difficult to describe this, and I hesitate sometimes because it makes it feel like it was just a feeling of peace, like, ‘Oh yeah, I think I feel God.’ It’s something much more profound than a superficial feeling.”
Daily time spent in prayer, especially in front of the Blessed Sacrament, helped confirm the call. Father Rolwing developed a sacramental life that included regularly receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist and reconciliation.
He decided to leave his basketball scholarship after his freshman year in favor of seminary. He recalled breaking the news to his coaches, teammates and family. Not all were pleased at first with the decision.
He said a sense of confidence remained, nonetheless, that the Lord was inviting him to pursue the path.
“I’m grateful that I did encounter resistance from people who loved me and cared about me and who had legitimate concerns because that was a test of the genuineness of the call,” he said. “If I would have just been congratulated and supported immediately, I might not have had to wrestle with the questions as deeply as I did.”
Father Rolwing entered seminary in the fall of 2017 at the Pontifical College Josephinum. He said his seminary experience enriched his life tremendously.
“There were a few moments throughout my time here where I thought, well, maybe I could leave right now and get married, or pursue marriage in that vocation, but ultimately, I didn’t want to. This is what I was pretty sure He was calling me to do, and then, that conviction has just grown the more and more that I’ve been here.”
He acknowledged that, prior to entering, there were many fears and unknowns about seminary. He said he initially envisioned a cloistered monastery and seclusion from the world. Instead, he found the opposite to be true.
Eight years of seminary included travels to Mexico; two trips to Portugal; Rome and Assisi, Italy; Spain; and the Holy Land. He also met and developed relationships with numerous families across the diocese.
“One of the great blessings of this vocation is that you get to share life with so many different people, so many different families,” he explained. “You get to be welcomed into their homes and into their lives. That has just really given me not only a great diversity of experience, but also, I just cherish it so much.
“I remember thinking when I entered the seminary if my family, who’s all here in Columbus, if they ever left this diocese, I’d probably follow them because Columbus is just where I happen to be right now. Throughout my time in the seminary … I’ve really come to love deeply this diocese and the people here.
“Even if my family did leave at this point, I would want to stay here because I really do love it here. I think this is my home. I think that’s where the Lord has called me to serve.”
Father Rolwing’s vocation also presented an opportunity to learn Spanish.
He had not studied the language previously, but he was required to take at least three semesters of Spanish during seminary. He participated in a Spanish immersion in Columbus and got to know the Hispanic community in the diocese. He completed his pastoral year at Columbus Christ the King Church, a largely Hispanic parish.
His first priestly assignment will be parochial vicar at Columbus St. Peter-Powell St. Joan of Arc Church starting in July. The parish has a growing Hispanic community and several Masses offered in Spanish each week.
“Something that I never originally envisioned was getting to know and to serve the Hispanic community, which is large and is growing in the Diocese of Columbus, and so, when I decided that I was going to try to learn Spanish, I didn’t know what that would entail,” he said.
“It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but also one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done because (of) having access to this culture and being able to speak their language, and to get to know them and to serve them. … A lot of them have suffered and are poor, but they really know the Lord because of that, and they’ve taught me so much. … It’s just made me a better person with a greater capacity to love and to listen and to serve.”
