By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
August 7, 2003

After earning a degree in accounting from Creighton University in Omaha, Matthew Hewitt, seminarian for the Sioux City Diocese, spent three years working for a CPA firm in Portland, Ore. It was there that he began his journey toward becoming a priest.

"While I was there I was involved with the church, with the youth group and the Knights of Columbus," he said. "It was then that the seed that I think was always there in my heart had really started to take fruit and grow. I started to consider that maybe the priesthood is something I should check out.

"I actually thought it was too late in my life to make that kind of change. It was encouragement, especially from the Knights of Columbus up there. The council really supported me in checking it out. That was my intent. So the last six years has been a lot of discernment to determine whether I am called to the priesthood."

At a 5 p.m. Mass on Aug. 9, Hewitt will take the next step toward the priesthood at his home parish of Sacred Heart in Sioux City when he is ordained to the transitional diaconate.

"It's been a long process of academic and spiritual preparation for this," he said. "When I began, I had my eyes set on this day and on the priesthood, and the diaconate is a very important step in that process. So now that it's finally here, I'm overjoyed that it has come."

The seminarian recently returned from a retreat at the Benedictine Center in Schuyler, Neb. - a retreat that is canonically required to contemplate God's call. Having discerned God's continual call in his life, Hewitt said it will bring him great joy to be ordained - to take the vows that pertain to the diaconate and to consecrate his ministry.

"For me it kind of concretizes my calling of service to the church, which I've been pursuing the past six years," he said. "This ordination refreshes that commitment to the church but in a new way because it changes me. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's a great joy to be a part of this diocese - to serve the church in northwest Iowa."

A native of Sioux City, Hewitt attended Sacred Heart School and graduated from Heelan High School in 1990 before attending Creighton.

After making his decision to pursue a vocation to the priesthood, Hewitt spent his first two years at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana where he studied philosophy. The next three years were spent at the North American College in Rome. This past year, he has been on a pastoral internship at the Cathedral in Sioux City.

With his ordination to the transitional diaconate approaching, Hewitt said he is very excited about being able to preach God's word, especially after spending so much time in the university opening God's word, learning about the background and sharing it with his seminarian friends.

"It's now very exciting for me to be able to be an instrument of God to preach his word to the church," he said. "It's also overwhelming because God's working with a broken instrument. There are a lot of fears and worries that I may screw up or say something wrong, but overall there's a peaceful trust in God's presence with me in working through my ministry."

Following his ordination, the seminarian said he hopes to have the opportunity to preside at some baptisms before returning to the seminary in Rome for one more year.

In thinking about being called to the priesthood at this time in history, Hewitt said it brings to mind the need the church has for priests.

"That's certainly something that makes me feel good to be able to contribute to that," he said. "I have many peers my age who I think would make great priests, and I know there are vocations out there from high school, college and after college.

"To see someone younger being ordained I think is a powerful witness that God is still in our midst and still calling people to vocations in the church. For me, I hope it will give others the courage to take a serious look at what God is offering them and also to let others know that religious vocations offer a great joy to a person's life if they're called to it."

As for the actual ordination ceremony itself, Hewitt said it will be good to see many of the people there who have supported him through this journey because he admits that it wasn't done alone.

"It has been through the prayers and support of many people," he said. "To see them there and to celebrate this gift they've given to the church, it's not just for me. It's for the whole church, and it's going to be a joyous celebration. I'm very excited about it."