What Makes a Holy Cross Priest?

Taking classes taught by men seen walking across campus in flowing cassocks, students might wonder about the priests staffing the University of Notre Dame and other apostolates across the country. In an interview with the Rover, Father Drew Clary, C.S.C., Director of the Office of Vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross, discussed his journey to the priesthood and the Congregation’s vocational discernment process.

“The vocation story I tell now starts with my family … and when my cousin came here,” Fr. Clary began. “She passed away from leukemia when she was a junior, and that was my first encounter with Holy Cross: the way the university responded to my family. Father Mark Poorman, C.S.C. flew down for the funeral, and two months later they had members of my family up [on campus] for a memorial Mass. My family and I experienced firsthand the familial nature of Notre Dame, and I think that’s an outgrowth of our Holy Cross identity.”

This strong sense of family is what brought Fr. Clary to Notre Dame as a student, and after graduation, a teacher through Notre Dame’s ACE (Alliance for Catholic Education) program. Yet after completing two years of teaching in Mobile, Alabama and working directly for ACE, Fr. Clary found himself still drawn to the familial aspects of Holy Cross he experienced in years prior.