March 2023

Above: Deacon Jeff Frieden

Deacon Jeff Frieden is one of two seminarians from the Archdiocese of Dubuque currently at Mundelein Seminary who will be ordained this spring at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque. Deacon Casey Flack will also be ordained this spring.

Thanks to generous support from donors in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Deacon Jeff and Deacon Casey will not be entering into the priesthood with student loans from their time in formation. 

Entering Formation

My name is Dcn. Jeff Frieden, and in two months I will be ordained a priest for our great archdiocese, thanks be to God! This means that I am quickly approaching the end of seminary, a journey that has lasted the better part of eight years. Seminary has been an incredibly blessed time, filled with growth but not without its challenges. I started discerning the priesthood all the way back in the eighth grade. I even remember when I was either a freshman or a sophomore in high school and asked the vocation director about applying to seminary at a men’s conference. He appreciated the enthusiasm, but he also told me to wait until I was a little older. So, that’s what I did.

After growing up at St. Pius X Parish in Cedar Rapids, I graduated from Xavier High School in 2015 and began seminary at Loras College in Dubuque that fall. Of course, I was only in seminary for about six months before I discerned out. (That’s the nice way to say that I quit seminary.) After about a year, I returned to seminary and picked up right were I left off. During that year away, I remained at Loras College and studied English and business analytics. I grew a lot that year, and I learned about myself and about the world.

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What does "Totus Tuus" mean?

Totus Tuus is a Latin phrase that means "Totally Yours".
It was the motto of Blessed John Paul II.
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Totus Tuus

While I was at Loras, I served as a Totus Tuus missionary in the Archdiocese of Dubuque for three summers: 2017, 2018, and 2019. Those summers were incredibly formative. It was the first time that I engaged in full-time ministry, and it was far more than just full time. It was the first time that I poured myself out in the ministry, and it was the first time that I taught people to love and be loved by God. It was also the first time that I met many people in the archdiocese and spent time at many of our parishes. I graduated from Loras in 2019 and began attending Mundelein Seminary that fall.

Mundelein Seminary & Pastoral Internship

Then COVID happened and I went back to the seminary at Loras when Mundelein shut down. I spent that summer in residence at Resurrection parish in Dubuque before returning to Mundelein to begin my second year of classes. The academics that semester challenged me, but I learned valuable information that has already helped me in the parish. That semester, I took Christology, medical ethics, sexual ethics, synoptic gospels, and a couple of other classes. Freshly equipped with this knowledge, I went to St. Athanasius parish in Jesup and St. Francis Xavier in Barclay for the spring for pastoral internship. I learned even more about parish life from the people and the priest there, Fr. Dole. They were all incredibly welcoming, and God confirmed me in my vocation during pastoral internship.

I had the chance to engage in all kinds of ministries, training altar servers, speaking at the school, visiting the homebound, putting buckets under leaks in the roof, etc. We were still coming out of COVID during that time, and one of the parishes didn’t have enough cantors, so I was the cantor for one of the Easter Sunday Masses. Keep in mind that it was the first time that I’d ever been the cantor for Mass and that I hadn’t sang in front of people since I was held back in choir my sophomore year in high school. After Mass, one of the kids from the school asked me if I was nervous and I said that yes, I was a little nervous. She responded, “I could tell,” and walked away! Nothing boosts your confidence quite like working with kids, or so I’ve been told.

After spending the spring with the good people of Jesup and Barclay, I went to Cedar Rapids for the summer and did my clinical pastoral experience (the technical name for being an intern hospital chaplain) at Mercy Hospital and assisted at St. Jude Parish in Cedar Rapids. I engaged some really good experiences at both places and continued growing, especially through hospital ministry. The chaplains there were very welcoming and gave me pointers along the way. The people of Saint Jude were also very welcoming and were more than happy to invite me into their Sweet Corn Festival preparations, at least in part for manual labor.

The Holy Land

I returned to seminary to begin classes again that fall (2021) and left for the Holy Land that winter. Every year, the third-year men at Mundelein Seminary are able to spend about seven weeks in the Holy Land. It is a grace and a gift to be able to prepare to be ordained a deacon in the land where Jesus lived and died. There’s a church built on most of the significant sites from Jesus’ life, including the house of St. Joseph where he grew up. If you go down into the crypt of the church, you can actually see the ruins of what they think was the home of the Holy Family. There’s a Latin inscription there that translated means, “HERE he was made obedient to them” (cf. Luke 2:51). That was a powerful thing to pray with as I prepared to make the promise of obedience.

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"There’s a Latin inscription there that translated means, “HERE he was made obedient to them” (cf. Luke 2:51). That was a powerful thing to pray with as I prepared to make the promise of obedience."

- Deacon Jeff Frieden
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Ordination into the Transitional Diaconate 

That May, I was ordained a deacon at St. Raphael Cathedral in Dubuque. I preached my first weekend Masses at my home parish, St. Pius X, and shortly thereafter began ministering at Blessed Sacrament in Waterloo. I once again had the opportunity to meet many great people and serve. This fall, I returned to Mundelein Seminary to begin my last year of studies. The classes this year have mostly focused on preparing us to do the things of priestly ministry: Mass practicum, confession practicum, spiritual direction practicum, etc. We are also taking our final scripture classes (Prophets and Psalms & Wisdom literature) and wrapping up our church history education with US Church History.

Today - Preparing for Ordination to the Priesthood

That brings us to today, less than two months away from priestly ordination. Honestly, it’s kind of surreal. I’ve been in seminary for over a quarter of my life at this point, and it can be hard to imagine anything else. Yes, I’ve worked alongside priests. I know what their life is like. But to imagine that the bread and wine will become the Body and Blood of Christ in my hands by the grace of the Holy Spirit communicated through my voice? That God the Father will receive his prodigal children with open arms through my ministry and forgive them through my words? It’s only two months away, but I still find that hard to believe. I can’t help but feel overwhelmed, and no amount of seminary could make me feel adequately prepared. But that’s very different from being afraid. However I may feel about it, no matter how unbelievable it is that I’m this close, I am confident that this is what God wants for my life and that he will give me the grace to carry it out.

Thank You

As you can see, forming even one priest is a long, complex process—it’s also an expensive one. The support I have received from the people in the Archdiocese of Dubuque over the past eight years has been an investment not just in me, but in every Catholic who will receive Holy Communion from my hands, in every child I will baptize, in everyone who will hear me preach.

Please pray for me and Dcn. Casey Flack as we prepare to be ordained, and for all our seminarians. Thank you. May God bless you all.

In his service,

Dcn. Jeffrey Frieden
Seminarian, Archdiocese of Dubuque



Update on ArchdioceseOne Progress:

So far, over $14.8 million has been raised for the ArchdioceseOne special appeal. Of which, $7.4 million of this amount is unrestricted, and over $2.5 million has been restricted for Seminary Education. Thank you for your support not only for current seminarians, but also for future vocations to the priesthood. 

Deacon Casey will be the other Archdiocese seminarian set to be ordained this spring. He was interviewed last July for this newsletter. 

Read Casey's interview by following the link below... 

Seminarians to be ordained as priests this spring
Dcn. Jeff Frieden
Dcn. Casey Flack

Seminarians in Major Seminary at Mundelein
Josh Krischel
Thiet Hoang
Jacob Francois
Peter Binder
Hung Le
Greg Lambert

Seminarians in Minor Seminary at Loras College
Steven Kessler (will be attending Mundelein next year)
Jackson Miller (will be attending Mundelein next year)
Matt Smith (will be attending Mundelein next year)
Cameron Banigan
Thomas Schnaufer