Date of ordination:
June 29, 2012, Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
Current assignment:
Priest director at St. Thomas More Newman Center, Vermillion, and parochial vicar for the parishes in the Pastorate of the Holy Angels
Where were you born and how many siblings do you have?
I was born in Sioux Falls and am the eighth of nine children. My twin brother managed to get ahead of me!
How did you get your call to the priesthood?
When I was 24 years old, I went to treatment for alcoholism. The program was 30 days of inpatient treatment and provided a strong spiritual dimension: they took us to church on the weekends, encouraged Bible studies and brought various ministers in to visit. One of the people was a Protestant minister who led us through a guided meditation.
My initial response to his invitation was skepticism at best and ridicule at worst. “Silly stuff,” I thought to myself. But another thought occurred to me: “All of your ideas got you here, John.” That little thought was the smallest of cracks, but God used that little thought of how unreliable my own ideas had become to open me up just enough.
During that time of imaginative prayer, I had a true encounter with Jesus! It was a totally unexpected moment of grace that changed the course of my life. A thought slipped into my head at that moment, “Go to the seminary.” I kept that to myself.
In the short term, I started praying the Rosary, returned to the sacraments and found a fellowship of people to help me grow. The long-term effect was an awareness that God was asking me to go to the seminary. That initial thought was to be trusted. When I started sharing the idea with others, it seemed the correct path.
Once I entered formation in the seminary and the longer I was in seminary, the more my life began to make sense and the greater interior peace I possessed. I could see how the gifts I possessed when used for myself brought about a diminishment within me. However, those same gifts, used for the good of others, brought life and seemed to expand my own life and the lives of others.
What did you do before the priesthood?
I graduated from the University of South Dakota in 2000 with a degree in business administration. I spent the next six years in various business environments. I worked for a market research company in Chicago, a children’s book publisher in Minneapolis, my family’s construction business in Canton, and as the regional director for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In those years, I discovered a love for travel and an intuition for good design and marketing.
Is there a particular part of Catholicism that really fascinates you?
I am fascinated with faith and the transmission of faith. By faith, I mean the capacity of a person to recognize and believe Jesus Christ, risen, is present in a lived experience. This fascination is really born of my encounter in the treatment center. I couldn’t deny that the most important thing in my life happened through this Protestant minister and a simple guided meditation.
Who was most influential in your life?
Servant of God Msgr. Luigi Giussani. While the list is long of people who have influenced me, there is one man who I truly feel like a son to. This Italian priest is the founder of a Catholic lay movement called Communion and Liberation. Just before diaconate ordination, I met a community of people who follow the charism Msgr. Giussani founded and guided within the Church. In a single evening, I recognized in these people the same sorts of experiences I had been searching for up until that point. They seemed to be searching for faith that connected to real life. They were asking questions I was asking. Since that night, it has been a long and beautiful journey of understanding Christ, the Church and my own humanity in ways that helped me be convicted of Christ and the Church and also unafraid to share life with anyone God put on my path.
What’s your favorite part of being a priest?
Spiritual direction. It has taken me a bit of a journey to come to this understanding. In more recent years, I have noticed a great joy in sitting in my office with a student across from me and through conversation and questions, guiding the person. Lately I have considered that the ease with which it happens is a sign of Christ’s presence.
What’s the most challenging thing?
We live in an age in which the community has disintegrated. As grace builds upon nature, so the Church is built upon companionship. Often the work of missionaries and the work of every vibrant parish is that of building community: connecting people and groups in meaningful ways. We do not often recognize the loss of the neighborhood and how those many interactions made it possible for the neighborhood parish to thrive.
The Catholic Church has the most important gift God has ever given humanity: the Eucharist. However, faith to believe in the Euchirist is a gift bestowed through the community of believers. It is a challenge to find the resources to invest in creating community, when it doesn’t at first impression feel like an answer to the work of faith.
Who is your go-to saint? Why?
St. Charles de Foucauld. When I read his biography, I was struck by how deeply moved I was; at times I found myself crying for one reason or another. I understood his life of walking away from God. I resonated with his desire for answers to meaningful questions. I deeply connected with his encounter in the confessional. I could tell God was reaching through the pages of the book to strengthen me.
What do you do in your spare time?
I don’t know what spare time is! On my day off, I usually do laundry, go to doctor’s appointments, run errands, etc. When I have time to myself or a few days connected to each other, I love to see my family. I love to travel. As a hobby, I enjoy photography.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I have a website with a few of my favorite photographs, www.frjohnrutten.com. It’s pretty static though, so Facebook is where most of my moments are captured.
How can your parishioners and people of the diocese best help you be a great priest?
I am most helped by people who have vibrant faith lives—exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit. It is a source of renewal within me to encounter such persons who exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. With all the words in the world available on social media, increasingly, my heart desires to encounter people for whom the Word is so alive that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are overflowing from their presence.
If you could have supper with anyone from history (besides Jesus), who would it be and why?
My great grandfather Adam Donnelly. I would love to ask questions of many ancestors and relatives, but Adam holds a particular and significant place in my ancestry. I desire to know why he made certain decisions and what his experience of life was. I’m curious who his parents were and what they were like. I would love to speak to him and get to know him.
Father Rutten points out his favorite saint, St. Charles de Foucauld, on a banner hanging on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica during the saint’s canonization. (Photo courtesy of Father John Rutten.)
