The Bismarck Diocese is blessed with 10 seminarians currently studying for the priesthood.
Two men joined these ranks last fall as seminarians for the diocese—Justin Croonenberghs and Aaron Ripplinger.
We introduce you to the two newest men studying to someday be your priest.
Justin Croonenberghs
Seminarian Justin Croonenberghs took a less than “traditional” route to the seminary.
He’s an Air Force veteran and had most recently been working as a network engineer before he felt compelled to change his life path.
He grew up all over North Dakota, moving a lot. He spent a few years of elementary school, here and there, in Catholic schools but didn’t have a strong faith foundation. Those around him were Christians and his grandmother was the lone Catholic. His faith took a few different directions and even admitted to a time in his life when he was an atheist. It took a long while for him to experience a reconversion in his late 30s.
Justin tends to approach life in a rational and scientific way but, at some point, he began to look closer at things for which there was no explanation except for God. Over time, his faith grew slowly sparked by meeting Msgr. Patrick Schumacher, pastor at Bismarck’s Church of Corpus Christi in 2021.
“I felt nudged to ‘go back’ to the faith. So, on Ash Wednesday of 2021, I went back and made my ’30-year confession’ as I call it,” Justin said.
From there, Justin’s rapid deep dive into his faith felt natural. Weekly Mass turned into daily Mass, then followed with Eucharistic adoration and Stations of the Cross during Lent. While listening to the music at the Easter Vigil, it affected him greatly and on Easter Sunday he felt a strong calling to the vocation of the priesthood.
“My vocation came fast and furious. God hit me over the head with it,” he joked. After a few days he called Msgr. Schumacher to talk it over. “God is not subtle with me and I’m thankful for that.”
After that abrupt calling, he spent a year and a half convincing himself and everyone he knew that he was going to take the giant leap of faith and join the seminary. His employer, at the time, even offered him a safety net of letting Justin know that if exploring this vocation didn’t work out, that his job would be there waiting for him.
That gave Justin the final push he needed to start the process of selling his house and most of his belongings.
“It turned my life completely upside down and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
This fall, he moved to St. Louis to attend Kenrick Glennon Seminary for his first year of formation.
“I didn’t come into this with much expectation because I didn’t really know what seminary was,” Justin explained. “Today, I still struggle to explain it, but the biggest thing is the brotherhood and relationships. I’ve never been at a place like this that is intrinsically good, where no one is malicious, and I have good brothers who are tolerant of my foibles.”
He’s grateful to be in a place where he can be vulnerable and reveal the interior of the heart. The first year of formation is referred to as the propaedeutic year which serves as preliminary instruction or “before the learning.” It’s a time to sort of detox from society to tend to the heart of the man, learn how to pray before diving into the academics of the next years of formation.
“You begin to realize how broken we all are,” Justin said. “Most of this year is interior work to work on yourself and do all the things that are foundational to being a priest but can get lost in the academics of it. This way, we can approach the next years of formation with a proper foundation.”
Having an Air Force background, Justin said there are surprisingly a lot of similarities between seminary and how military training works.
“When people think of military training, they think about the push-ups and the drills, but it’s really about your heart as a soldier. The whole point of military training is to show you what you are truly capable of…when the time comes to put yourself to the test. Obviously, it’s more spiritual than military training, but it’s very similar, the comradery, the growing together as men.”
To the people of the diocese, Justin said, “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making this possible. And please pray for me because I’m really going to need it. Please pray for all of us seminarians.”
Aaron Ripplinger
Seminarian Aaron Ripplinger grew up Catholic attending Mass with his family at St. Joseph’s in Beulah. He received the sacraments there and gained a solid foundation to practice his faith, but admits his faith wasn’t a huge priority mixed in with school and sports.
“My first thoughts of the priesthood came at a Steubenville Conference in high school, but it wasn’t until college at North Dakota State University, where I grew in my faith and personal relationship with Jesus that I began to feel a call to the priesthood,” Aaron shared.
At that conference he heard a priest say, “If I lived 99 more lifetimes, I’d be a priest every single time.” This statement stuck with Aaron. But he was resistant to the idea of the priesthood for several reasons including the fact that he was dating a girl in a serious relationship.
At first, Aaron was initially enjoying the college lifestyle of partying and forming friendships. Not long into his freshman year, he started to realize this wasn’t the best path and things became slightly clearer.
“I have been blessed with many holy priests and friends who have guided me during my formation and in discerning my vocation,” he said. “One man is Aaron Filzen, who is a FOCUS missionary at NDSU’s campus. His joy and conviction were inspiring to me and gave me the courage to begin pursuing my faith more seriously during my freshman year at NDSU. Aaron has a zeal for others, and he believed in me and encouraged me. As my life began to change, Aaron would take time to meet with me to answer my questions, help me through decisions, and guide me as a role model of a good Catholic man. Over the next two years, Aaron and I formed a friendship, and through his presence at St. Paul’s Newman Center on campus, he was there to help me through the discernment process.”
During the Bible studies and conversations with other faithful Catholics, two things stuck out to Aaron—his growing desire to lead others to Christ and the inspirational writings of the Venerable Fulton Sheen that inspired him to share Christ with others. He felt the Holy Spirit was moving him in the direction to deepen his faith. To further cement the vocational path, Aaron then had the opportunity to visit a seminary.
“A final push to join came from visiting a seminary and my desire to join a community of men on fire for the Lord and pursuing holiness,” Aaron said.
He’s currently studying at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C.
“So far, seminary has been a lot of new experiences: adjusting to seminary life, going on pilgrimages and visiting places in the surrounding areas, new classes, etc. Through these new experiences and time at the seminary so far, I have experienced overall a sense of peace and gratitude. It has been a fruitful and joyful experience,” Aaron shared. “The two things that I enjoy most at the seminary is the fraternity among the seminarians and a lifestyle centered around my relationship with Christ.”
He added, “I am very thankful for all the prayer and support of the diocese that makes it possible for me to be a seminarian. We, as Bismarck seminarians, know what a great diocese we have, and we make sure to share that with the other seminarians!”
Others in formation
Please continue to pray for Justin and Aaron, as well as our two deacons entering the final stages of formation, and all the men following their call to the priesthood. Additional seminarians currently studying for the Bismarck Diocese include Deacon Eric Artz, Deacon Ryan Martire and Colton Steiner at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis; Joe Schon, Ben Weigum and Dominic Schaefbauer at St. John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C. Seminarian Joseph Richter is in Rome studying at the Pontifical North American College. Seminarian Isiah Jilek is spending a pastoral year at the Church of Saint Anne in Bismarck.
Please also include in your prayers all the young men and women in our diocese who may be considering a call to the priesthood or religious life.