“There must be a reason that he’s calling the two of us to Holy Orders. … It’s just complete providence.”
From OSV News, there’s this followup to an item I posted last spring:
This spring Deacon Tom Hosty and his son Liam made history, becoming the first father and son to both be deacons at the same time in the 190-year history of the Catholic Church in central and southern Indiana.
Deacon Tom, 60, was ordained a permanent deacon for the Indianapolis Archdiocese in 2022, and Liam, 26, was ordained a transitional deacon as an archdiocesan seminarian April 27 at St. Barnabas Church in Indianapolis, with his ordination to the priesthood expected to happen in June of 2025.
Ahead of Liam’s ordination, in a March interview with The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper, neither of them had given much thought to the history they were making. Their hearts and minds were focused instead on matters that were more important to them — their relationship as father and son and their shared desire to serve Christ and the church.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” said Deacon Tom, director of the archdiocesan Department of Pastoral Ministries. “It’s all in God’s control. There must be a reason that he’s calling the two of us to holy orders. … It’s just complete providence.”
“My dad is always going to be my dad,” said Liam. “But it’s neat to almost see him as a peer and a brother in a certain way, a brother in Christ, a co-worker in the vineyard.”
The paths that father and son have taken to their call to ordained ministry can be traced back to 1999, when the family moved from Kansas City, Kansas, to Indianapolis, where Deacon Tom was transferred in his work as an attorney at NCAA headquarters in its enforcement division.
The family soon became members of St. Barnabas Parish on Indianapolis’ southside. Liam was a toddler at the time, Deacon Tom and wife Julie’s fourth child. A fifth would be born later.
Looking back 25 years later, Julie sees the hand of God guiding her family to St. Barnabas.
“It was divine providence,” she said. “We were provided with so many opportunities and surrounded by really amazing faith-filled people that just inspired us. They were our role models. We wanted to do better. We were very blessed.”
Deacon Tom experienced a turning point in his life of faith in 2003 when he participated in a Christ Renews His Parish retreat at St. Barnabas.
“That’s really when I had for the first time a personal relationship with Christ,” he recalled. “That’s when I drew close to Christ and began diving into Scripture a lot.”
His blossoming faith made an impression on his young son.
“It was really evident when I was a kid that Jesus was a real person because my dad had a relationship with him,” Liam said. “There’s no on and off switch for my dad. Whenever he rests, he’s resting with the Lord. Whenever he’s working, he’s working with the Lord. I saw that.”
