Matt Federico is counting his blessings, especially since he will be ordained a transitional deacon on Friday, May 18 in Saginaw. All are invited to this Mass (click for details). Matt will be continuing his preparation to be ordained a priest next year. The former accountant and auditor knows his numbers and he's especially happy to know the great number of people who are praying for him.
“My parish (St. Dominic, Saginaw) does prayer quilts and everybody in the parish tied a knot on this quilt and sent it to me last fall. So I know their prayers are with me,” Matt said in an interview with Faith Saginaw Magazine. Bishop Robert Barron, former rector and president of Mundelein Seminary where Matt studies Theology, described Matt as “a good man with a good heart and a sense of real dedication to his studies.”
How did it happen that a businessman like Matt came to consider the priesthood? It was a seed planted long ago. Nurtured in a loving, faith-filled family and educated in strong Saginaw-area Catholic schools, young Matt Federico had no idea the seed of his vocation grew inside him. It wasn’t until many years later, at the age of 28 – after graduating from Nouvel Catholic Central High School, after earning an accounting degree at Saginaw Valley State University and after starting a career in Northern Michigan as an auditor – that the idea finally emerged from a well-tilled soil. “When I was working in Cheboygan in 2010, I was doing some bookkeeping at a local parish. One day, the pastor said, ‘Hey, do you have a minute, Matt? Have you ever thought about the priesthood?’ That’s what really got me started thinking seriously about a vocation,” recalls Matt.
“My family always had a strong emphasis on faith,” Matt recalled. “I talked to my parents about [entering the seminary] and my whole family was very supportive. They could tell the priesthood was always in the back of my mind, but that I’d kind of pushed it away,” Matt recalled. “When I told them, they said: ‘We support you no matter what.”
“What excites me most about being a priest is helping others in times of need, whether it be a baptism, an illness, a funeral, or a wedding,”