(ZENIT News / Toledo, Ohio, 02.09.2024).- Will Heller, the two-time national youth medalist, possessor of the State record in Ohio and Michigan, and national University champion in 2023 in the 102 weightlifting category, entered Saint Paul’s Seminary at the end of August.
The 21-year-old athlete, born in Toledo, Ohio, USA, began the weightlifting sport at 17. He was outstanding in the maximum starting weight of 324 pounds and clean and jerk of 388 pounds. Heller was born into a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools: the first seven in a diocesan school and the last six in one run by the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales.
“I cannot say that sometimes I was a practicing Catholic,” he said. “I went to Mass on Sundays, but I never went to Adoration. I really did not pray the Rosary. I went to one of those schools that was somewhat Catholic in name . . . So, in reality, I alienated myself from the faith when I arrived at Northern [University]”.
Thanks to a FOCUS missionary, whom he met at University, he felt the unease of the call to the priesthood. After Midnight Mass in his first year of University, he recalled, “It was funny, because my dormitory in fact looked out directly on the Ministry Center of the Catholic Campus and I was on the e-mail list of the Catholic Campus Ministries but I had unsubscribed. “
He took part in biblical studies and discipleship events. In December 2022 the parish priest of the church suggested he consider the priesthood. ”I simply laughed, and in my mind I thought: The fact that a man goes to Mass every day doesn’t mean he wants to be a priest.” He ignored the meeting with that priest for four months.
An only child, he was thinking of getting married and having children; he considered being a Deacon. After taking part in the diocese’s Eucharistic Congress and Priestly Ordination, he valued the proposal more. He took spiritual direction and read Timothy Gallagher’s “Discernment of Spirits.” He applied to the Seminary in October 2023 and was accepted in January of the following year.
During his talk with the Bishop, Heller asked him if he could continue his weightlifting. “He said he would support him but, obviously, if the academics failed or if the spiritual life was not developing, then the weightlifting would have to disappear.“ He was amazed that the Director of the Seminary’s propaedeutic program is a weightlifter and has a gym in the basement with all the equipment Heller needs. “I believe God really wants me to do this,” he said between laughs.
In an interview with CNA he explained the relationship between sport and preparation for the priesthood. The beginning of concupiscence: we feel attracted to the sin and we must do all that is within our reach to combat it. I compare it to a barbell and gravity. When I reach the weightlifting platform, the barbell is on the floor and, if I don’t do anything, it stays on the floor. However, through repeated efforts for a long time, through many difficulties, I’m able to lift the barbell from the floor and the barbell stays in the air as long as I lift it from the floor. The same thing happens to a man who tries to fight sin: he must make that constant effort, be tenacious, to lift the barbell in the air, to avoid sinning.
In his preparation for the Seminary’s courses, he doesn’t know what will come after with regard to the weightlifting. “I don’t need to know what will follow. We will find out when the time comes . . . If God want it to happen, it will happen.”
