Diverse interests can't keep
deacon
from priesthood
By Mary Ann Wyand
Mystery, magic and music interest
Deacon Justin Martin.
The mysteries of the Catholic faith
are of special interest to the 25-year-old
seminarian whose hobbies include playing
the piano and performing magic
tricks. He thought about becoming a
physician, musician or actor before
answering God’s call to study for the
priesthood.
A member of St. Charles Borromeo
Parish in Bloomington, Martin will be
ordained to the priesthood by
Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein on
June 29 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral
in Indianapolis.
Deacons Harold
Rightor and
Christiaan Kappes
also will be
ordained that day.
Martin will be
the youngest priest
in the archdiocese
when he begins
his first ministry
assignment as
associate pastor of
St. Luke Parish in Indianapolis.
He will
celebrate his first Mass at noon on
June 30 at St. Charles Borromeo Church.
“My goal is to be the best parish
priest I can be,” he said. “I know that,
with God’s never-ending help, this is
possible. Another one of my goals is to
be a witness of the Gospel to all I meet.
“I have great hope in today’s youth,
mainly because I am one of them,”
Martin said. “I want to be an example to
them of what it means to serve Christ
and his Church.”
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Martin said he is looking forward to
talking with young people about vocations
to the priesthood and religious life.
He has three relatives who are priests.
Msgr. Frederick Easton is his uncle and
his “greatest example” of the priestly
life. Father Robert Mazzola and
Benedictine Father Gavin Barnes are cousins.
“I think that being a role model for
the youth today is a great calling,”
Martin said. “I believe that one of the
reasons God has called me to the priesthood
is to be a good example to the
youth and lead them as I, hopefully, lead
everyone I meet to greater holiness and
closeness to God through the sacraments
and by being an example for them. To
act “In persona Christi”—“In the person
of Christ”—is a tall order, and I am
ready with the help of God to do exactly
that.”
Msgr. Easton, vicar judicial for the
archdiocese’s Metropolitan Tribunal, is
understandably proud of his nephew.
“He is a young man who, unlike his
uncle, is very extroverted and hardly
knows a stranger,” Msgr. Easton said. “He
has no difficulty talking with very high
ecclesiastics, including Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger [prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith], who he met at
the Vatican in Rome.
“Justin is a very sincere young man
who always wants to do the right thing,”
Msgr. Easton said. “He studies issues
carefully and researches them thoroughly. He has even called me from Rome a few
times to get an answer to a question. He
has already had telephone conversations
with Father Stephen Giannini, the new
pastor at St. Luke Parish.”
During his childhood and teen-age
years, Martin lived in six states because
his father, David, worked in the field of
search and rescue for the U.S. Air Force.
His mother, Beth, worked in civilian
jobs with the military.
“I was born at the now closed Mather
Air Force Base in Sacramento, Calif.,
and grew up all over the United States,”
he said. “I have lived in California,
Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Virginia and
Indiana. Our family roots are in Indiana,
and I spent many summers at my grandparents’
houses in Bloomington and
Crane, Ind. After 24 years of active duty,
my father retired from the military and
my parents started new careers in
Bloomington.”
His sister, Sheila, and brother-in-law,
Joseph, live in Virginia with their teenage
son, Michael.
Martin was educated “all over the
United States” because of his father’s
military assignments, and he even studied
acting at Clinton Junior High School,
the middle school version of the New
York School of Performing Arts.
He often assisted military chaplains as
an altar server during Masses at Air
Force bases, and first felt called to the
priesthood during his junior year in high
school.
“God never pushes,” Martin said. “He
gave me little hints along the way to
suggest to me that he was calling me to
his service and to the service of his
Church. He was very patient with me
and with my ideas of what I thought my
life was going to be. I have always loved
going to Mass. It was like I was home. I
was in God’s house and he had a place
for me there.”
Martin graduated from high school in
Newport News, Va., in 1994 then earned
a bachelor’s degree in classical studies at
the former Saint Meinrad College in
southern Indiana.
After affiliating with the archdiocese
in 1995, he began studying for the
priesthood and completed a bachelor’s
degree in sacred theology at the
Pontifical North American College in
Rome last spring. He is currently studying
for a canon law degree at St. Thomas
University—The Angelicum in Rome.
“My studies in Rome have been a true
blessing for me,” Martin said. “I have
learned what it means to say that we are
a universal Church. I have gone to a university
in Rome with people from a lot
of different countries. I have friends now
in England, Scotland, Ireland, Lebanon,
Sri Lanka and various countries in
Africa. I even have a friend who is a
priest in Fiji. It really helps me realize
just how big the Church is and just how
big the world is, all at the same time.
“To live at the heart of Christendom
has been intriguing at times and very
challenging as well,” he said. “To be the
pope’s ‘next-door neighbor,’ so to speak,
is truly amazing. I have met him twice
and been in his presence on countless
occasions, and each time I am in awe of
just how great that man really is.
“One cannot live at the North
American College and not speak about
the tremendous opportunities there are to
travel,” Martin said. “I had the great
opportunity to spend two weeks in the
Holy Land during Easter of 2001, before
all the recent fighting broke out, and was
amazed at the land and its people. To
walk in the ‘footsteps of Jesus’ was a
miraculous thing that I will never forget
even if I never get to return there.”
He also enjoys visiting Assisi, made
famous by the life and ministry of
St. Francis of Assisi, and Orvieto, a town
in northern Italy.
“The history and the culture, with its
art and architecture, have been a true education
for me,” he said, “and have helped
to solidify my fantastic four years of living
in Europe.”
In his leisure time, Martin enjoys listening
to country and jazz music, watching
movies, reading “good novels” and
learning new computer skills.
“I have been an amateur magician for
the past 10 years and have performed professionally,”
he said. “I have designed a
lot of magic effects as well. Another one
of my favorite pastimes is writing. I enjoy
writing poetry and short stories, and have
been writing a novel for the past four
years.”
Martin’s namesake, St. Justin Martyr,
is one of his favorite saints “because of
his strong witness to the faith in the face
of heresy in the first century.”
Other favorite saints include
St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Ignatius and
St. John of the Cross, he said.
“The
rosary continues to have a profound effect
in my life,” he said.
Martin is pleased to be a member of a
large ordination class with seven other
deacons.
“In college, we had the biggest freshman
class that Saint Meinrad [School of
Theology] has seen in a while,” he said. “In Rome, they told us we were part of
the biggest class since Vatican II. It is fantastic
to be part of a big ordination class
because it shows others the potentiality of
the priests being ordained today—good,
holy, wholesome priests who are welltrained
and are ready and eager to serve
the Church.”
Martin hopes other men who have “the slightest inkling that they are being
called to the priesthood or religious life”
will follow God’s call without hesitation. “Follow God’s call and he will lead
you to an amazing life full of excitement
and wonder,” Martin said. “That is what
I feel—excitement and wonder at the
thought of being a servant of God and
his people, a priest of Jesus Christ. The
North American College motto says it
best: ‘My heart is firm [steadfast].’ I feel
so blessed to be called [to the priesthood]
that sometimes I am overcome
with emotion. I hope and pray that I can
share this zeal I have with everyone I
serve.
“St. Augustine once said something in
one of his great sermons that I have
adapted to myself and my relationship
with the people I will serve,” Martin said.“ ‘God has called me to the priesthood,
my priesthood is his, and it is for you that
I am a priest.’ My prayer is, ‘May God
always help his priests to serve his people
in the best way possible.’ ” †
