Deacon John Hollowell learned service and leadership at home

Deacon John Hollowell poses at left in the second row with his family and other relatives on Oct. 25, 2008, on the steps of the Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einseideln in St. Meinrad. Posing with him are, first row, from left, Maria, Laura and Nathan Hollowell; second row, from left, grandmother Jeanette, Emily, Sara and mother Diane Hollowell; third row, from left, sister-in-law Kari, Melissa and Danny Hollowell, and aunt and godmother Cindy Huff; and fourth row, from left, Tony, Aaron, Matt and father Joseph Hollowell. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

Priests are called to be servants and leaders wherever they minister.

Growing up as the oldest of 11 children, Deacon John Hollowell learned early on what it means to be both a servant and leader.

His brother, Matthew, the second oldest child in the family, said that his parents let the children generally settle their disputes on their own as they grew older. Their parents served as a “supreme court,” but it was his brother, John, who was “the main judge” of the “lower court.”

“If he made a ruling, you really had to have a lot of backing to overrule that for the rest of the [kids],” Matthew said with a laugh. “Pretty much whatever he said, that was going to happen.”

At the same time, if Deacon Hollowell’s parents needed him to take care of tasks around the house or watch his younger siblings while they went out, he stepped up without hesitation.

“There never was a whole lot of thought about if I wanted to do [it],” said Deacon Hollowell. “If Mom and Dad had to go somewhere, I was the guy that was in charge.”

His mother, Diane, trusted him, but knew that kids were going to be kids.

“Lord knows what went on while we were gone,” she said with a laugh. “[But] he’d always have them cleaned up and smiles on their faces when we came back. We never had to go to the emergency room.”

Deacon Hollowell, 29, grew up with his family on the southeast side of Indianapolis as a member of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish.

His father, Joseph Hollowell, has been working at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis in one capacity or another for 30 years, the last 14 years as its president.

So he is pleased to see that his son will begin his priestly ministry as the chaplain of Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis.

“I’ve worked with getting close to 10 chaplains now,” Hollowell said, “and every one of the chaplains I’ve worked with has been a real blessing to the kids. And I think John will be the same.”

In addition to being a chaplain and teaching religion at Cardinal Ritter, Deacon Hollowell will be an assistant coach for wide receivers on the school’s state championship football team.

Deacon Hollowell was a wide receiver on a Roncalli team that won a state championship in 1994, played that same position on Hanover College’s football team, and was an assistant coach for receivers for two years at Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis before becoming a seminarian in 2004.

At Cardinal Ritter, he will succeed his brother, Matthew, who was the wide receivers coach for the past three years.

“I think it will just be an awesome opportunity for the players on the team to be able to draw that connection between faith and football, and the lessons on the field and the lessons off the field,” Matthew said. “That coming from one voice and that voice being a priest will be a powerful experience for the teenagers [on the team].”

It was while Deacon Hollowell was playing football at Hanover College near Madison that he first discerned a call to the priesthood after he participated in a Bible study that was particularly powerful for him.

“I just felt like God was calling me to be a priest every time I read the Bible,” he said. “It was just definitely like a voice inside of me. It wasn’t words, but it was an urging.”

When he told his family about his discernment, Matthew took it in stride.

“I was not shocked or surprised just because of the type of leader he was for our family in giving us guidance,” Matthew said. “He still does. He’s going to continue that in a parish of thousands of members. It’s such a great fit for him.”

In addition to ministering at Cardinal Ritter, Deacon Hollowell will be in residence and provide sacramental assistance at St. Malachy Parish in Brownsburg.

Deacon Hollowell stayed true to his priestly call through his time at Hanover, and while teaching and coaching at Bishop Chatard.

“I felt that God was calling me to teach a little bit,” he said. “I’d been in school my whole life and I just felt that, as a priest, it was going to be good to get some real world experience, and pay rent and cook my own food.”

Paul Lockard, the president of Cardinal Ritter, hired Deacon Hollowell to teach at Bishop Chatard when he was the principal there. Deacon Hollowell will be the third member of the Hollowell family that he will have worked with. Anthony Hollowell also taught at Cardinal Ritter.

“I keep telling [Joseph Hollowell] that the Hollowell family and Roncalli are good feeder schools for Cardinal Ritter,” Lockard said jokingly.

Growing up in the Hollowell family, though, did more than lead Deacon Hollowell into education and to teach him how to be a servant and leader.

It also showed him how marriage and the priesthood have an important thing in common: Both callings involve getting people to heaven.

“I see my parents’ marriage being an institution where my mom and dad are helping each other and us kids get to heaven,” said Deacon Hollowell. “It’s what marriage is supposed to be about. For me, I think the priesthood is the calling [that] God is giving me to help me and those I’ll serve get to heaven.”

(Deacon John Hollowell will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Church in Indianapolis at 5:30 p.m. on June 6. Because it is a regular parish Mass and many guests will be on hand, Deacon Hollowell expects that little or no seating will be available for other visitors.) †

---

About Deacon John Hollowell

• Age: 29
• Parents: Joseph and Diane Hollowell
• Parish where he grew up: Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis
• Seminary: One semester at the Pontifical North American College in Rome; the rest at Saint Meinrad School of Theology in St. Meinrad
• Hobbies: Reading, writing, playing basketball, running, enjoying good movies, music, painting and other forms of art
• Favorite prayer or devotion: Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
• Favorite Bible verse: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch” (Lk 5:4).
• Favorite saint: St. John of the Cross †