By Susan Gallagher

Father Rod Ermatinger’s journey to the priesthood surged when he was a Missoula lawyer praying the rosary as his mother struggled with Alzheimer’s disease.

Around the time of her diagnosis in 1995, Father Ermatinger joined a rosary group. Before long, he said, his participation in the Roman Catholic sacraments increased and he became active in eucharistic adoration. His prayer life deepened. Three people from very different walks of life asked if he had thought about becoming a priest.

Seminary studies commenced in 1998 through the Legionaries of Christ, the order with which Father Ermatinger served for 11 years. In 2009, while discerning possible separation from the Legionaries, he accepted a Diocese of Helena assignment as the assistant to Father Michael Drury on Montana’s Hi-Line. Father Ermatinger subsequently became a diocesan priest and last month, on Sept. 18, he was installed as pastor of St. Matthew Parish in Kalispell.

“God calls us in different ways and at different times,” he said. “If (the priesthood) is what you’re made for, that’s where you’re going to have your greatest fulfillment in life, and find the deepest joy and happiness.”

Father Ermatinger, now 51, said he was a 36-year-old lawyer doing litigation and trial work when he first thought a vocation as a priest might be his calling. He said a brother, Father Cliff Ermatinger of Milwaukee, Wis., knew from age 5 that he would become a priest.

They grew up in a Catholic, Chicago family of five children whose father tried to instill a love for the outdoors. As retirees, Father Ermatinger’s parents lived in Missoula for a number of years. His dad is now a widower living in Milwaukee.

Father Ermatinger’s undergraduate education was at Milwaukee’s Marquette University, where he studied law enforcement—thinking he wanted to become a Chicago detective—and English literature. He said English lit entered the mix because he believed that would be a good major should he eventually want a law degree. When he did decide to study law, he headed to the University of Montana Law School, partly for its proximity to outdoor splendor.

Settling into Montana life, he had abundant opportunities to hunt and fish. Later, as he was entering the Legioinaries and shedding possessions in preparation for a vow of poverty, hunting and fishing gear were among the things to go.

His ordination was on Christmas Eve 2005 in Rome, eight years after Father Ermatinger witnessed the Christmas Eve ordination of brother Cliff, also in Rome.

Father Ermatinger’s background includes priestly service in New York City, some of it youth work and assisting at parishes. His pastorate in Kalispell takes him into St. Matthew Elementary School, where his work includes religious education in some of the grades. He also helped establish Holy Hoops, a boys’ and girls’ intramural basketball tournament that draws St. Matthew alumni, now in high school, as coaches.

As a priest, Father Ermatinger said, he is privileged to be with people as they journey. “It’s a beautiful life,” he said.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 10, October 21, 2011.