Craig Digmann, 49, refers to himself as the “old man” of his second-year novitiate class. Craig, a native of Iowa, continues to discern a vocation to missionary brotherhood.

Craig has two sons, the youngest of whom graduated from high school in 2004. Craig has worked in farming, as a laborer and most recently as a stonecutter. In 1998 he met a member of the United Church of Christ who challenged him with probing questions about Catholic practice and tradition. The questioning led the life-long Catholic to a deep study of the faith. In the course of the search to answer the questions posed, he assembled an extensive personal library. “In the last several years, I’ve fallen in love with the Catholic Church!” he says.

In 2000 Craig was invited to attend a vocation discernment weekend for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. “My response was: ‘Me, a priest? You have to be kidding,’” Craig says. “But out of respect to my parish pastor, who invited me, I went.”

As the weekend continued he began to say to himself, “Well, maybe.”

During the discernment weekend, the diocesan vocation director mentioned a possibility that might interest him: Glenmary Home Missioners. Although he had never heard of Glenmary, Craig was attracted to its work housing low-income families and assumed (incorrectly, he learned later) that the Glenmary Farm meant Glenmary also had an agricultural component.

Although he has been involved in construction and farming for most of his life, Craig was most attracted to Glenmary because of its mission of going into areas where there are few Catholics. “To be a part of that would be an honor,” he says.

In the summer of 2005 Craig took a mission trip with Glenmary vocation director Father Steve Pawelk and visited missions in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, as well as the House of Studies in Hartford.

The mission trip—and his Glenmary formation—showed Craig several paths that he believes he would like to follow with Glenmary. “I love to work with the elderly and with young people who are struggling. I like working in religious education and other parish activities,” says Craig who has been involved with CCD and served as a member of an RCIA team at his home parish.

His more intensive study of Catholicism has also led Craig to a deeper knowledge of Protestant beliefs and customs, knowledge that will serve him well when he serves in areas with large Protestant populations.

He is spending his second-year novitiate working Father Father Neil Pezzulo in Glenmary's mission in Waldron, Ark.

For more information on Craig Digmann's ministry:

In Search of the Spirit - Glenmary Connectedness
Three Profess First Oath as Glenmary Missioners
Slide Show - Three Profess First Oath as Glenmary Missioners
Glenmary Brothers - Lives of Service
Second-Year Glenmary Novices Continue Discernment
Slowing Down - Glenmary's Three Novices Finish the First Year of Novitiate
Novitiate Experience 'Enriching' for All
Pre-Novitiate Class Begins Formation

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