Franciscan Priest: What No Family Really Costs

Does a priest ever grieve the family he gave up? Fr. Luke Joseph Leighton answers that question, and explains why he'd say yes again.

Today, Dr. Greg Bottaro sits down in person with Fr. Luke, the friend he entered the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal with 22 years ago. Fr. Luke shares how the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother became a Franciscan priest, how his grandmother, who fled Nazi Germany as a child, came to bless his vocation, and what celibacy, poverty and obedience have actually cost him. Then they take on what Fr. Luke hears in the confessional about online outrage and the Church.

Fr. Luke is a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Raised in Red Bank, New Jersey, he entered the Church at 15 after a conversion in high school. He spent fifteen years serving with the friars in New York City, including at Saint Anthony's Shelter for Renewal and Cardinal Spellman High School, and was ordained by Cardinal Dolan at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 2013. He is a trained spiritual director through the Institute for Priestly Formation.

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WATCH NEXT:

A Bishop's Raw Story of Anxiety and Depression: https://youtu.be/yNdAMIQblDU

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

▸ Mother Mary Francis, PCC, A Right to Be Merry

▸ Fr. Brett Brannen, To Save a Thousand Souls

▸ Viktor Frankl and St. Maximilian Kolbe

▸ Henri Nouwen on the three temptations of Christ

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CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 Intro
00:03:20 Growing up with a Jewish father and a Catholic mother
00:13:28 His grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, blesses his vocation
00:21:31 Viktor Frankl, St. Maximilian Kolbe and finding meaning in suffering
00:27:45 What the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience really cost
00:34:06 Do priests grieve the family they gave up?
00:41:35 What marriage and religious life teach each other
00:53:10 Is celibacy running away from marriage?
00:59:33 His parents' divorce and his conversion story
01:12:14 How celibacy changes over a lifetime
01:18:54 Spiritual fatherhood and when ministry becomes an idol
01:28:59 Sitting in desolation on a retreat for Mother Teresa's sisters
01:39:06 What a priest hears in confession today
01:43:50 Catholic YouTube, outrage and influencers
01:58:52 Authority, obedience and staying in the Church

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