Bishop-elect Williams ‘tapped’ into young adults thirsting for deeper faith

When Bishop-elect Joseph Williams was ordained a priest in 2002, his first parish assignment was as an associate at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. Immediately, he poured his energy into young adult ministry. The fruits of that effort continue today, in the form of ministries he worked with such as Cathedral Young Adults.

Mike Brashier helped get CYA started around 2003 with then-Father Williams and several other young adults who were part of the original core team. They attracted more and more young adults (18-39) over the years with ongoing activities such as Sports Night and Theology on Tap, which takes place at local bars and features speakers including priests, deacons and theology experts. Today, attendees at both events number into the hundreds.

Bishop-elect Williams “really was influential” in the early development and growth of CYA, said Brashier, 46, whose wife, Cassandra, also participated in CYA. They met after Bishop-elect Williams left the Cathedral for another assignment, and married in 2011 at the Cathedral. Brashier said a lifelong bond was formed during the time when Bishop-elect Williams helped him discern his future while the priest was serving at the Cathedral.

“I really had a deep yearning at the time” to know God’s will, said Brashier, who works in property management. “And, Father Williams was key. It was really helpful for me to see somebody that was earnest about his faith, that was also a young adult at the time.”

Today, the Brashiers are members of St. Joseph in Rosemount, but also consider themselves members of the Cathedral because of their earlier connections.

Mary Gibson was recruited by the original core team to launch CYA, and she described Father Williams as having “an eager spirit and a joyful way about him.”

“From the beginning, Father Joseph had a real understanding of what was most important — faith, mission and friendship,” Gibson, who now lives in Colorado, wrote in an email to The Catholic Spirit. “Theology on Tap, the most visible and public-facing of our programs, was only one part of us. Every month, we planned and hosted multiple events that gave everyone opportunities to pray, to serve, to learn the faith, to share the faith, to gather together and play sports and grow in friendship — to form and foster real Catholic community.”

Like other young adults at that time, she didn’t know a lot about her faith and was looking to go deeper — and meet other young adults trying to do the same thing, she said. Bishop-elect Williams had a way of drawing people in and helping them learn more about the basic principles of the Catholic faith.

Matt Wilkom had that experience, especially at St. Stephen in south Minneapolis, where Bishop-elect Williams has served since 2008. The two met when Willkom was a seminarian at St. John Vianney College Seminary and Bishop-elect Williams was a seminarian at The St. Paul Seminary across campus at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

Willkom and his wife, Elizabeth, “were drawn to him at St. Stephen’s,” he said. “He always expressed a genuine appreciation for our presence. … He made you feel special.”

On top of that, Elizabeth Willkom said, “he was fun.”

Sometimes, that sense of humor popped up at unexpected times, like during one hospital visit while the Brashiers’ 5-year-old daughter was battling leukemia. She had taken a turn for the worse early in 2021, and Mike and Cassandra wondered if she was going to come out of the tailspin. They contacted Father Williams, who came and administered the sacrament of the sick.

In addition to holy oil, he also brought a dose of levity to what Mike Brashier called “a dark time.”

“We were in there so full of doubt, and really it just was an emotional time,” Brashier recalled. “Obviously, there were plenty of tears and emotion that we all had been shedding with each other. And, he comes in there and we were actually joking around. We were actually laughing quite a bit. And, he knows that helps me, but it helped my wife as well.”

Cecilia eventually improved and doctors now consider her cancer free, Brashier said. He doesn’t know if the priest’s prayers and anointing cured her. What he does know is that Bishop-elect Williams has “this wonderful gift” of ministering to people — whatever they need, wherever they’re at.

“It’s hard to explain,” Brashier said. “He gives himself completely to where he’s at and what he does. That was so tangible to us with our daughter. It was so tangible to us — his total gift of self.”

Brashier said he thinks young adult ministry will be “a very key objective” in Bishop-elect Williams’ ministry, hopefully tapping into this demographic for “great ideas” and “more energy.” Gibson said Bishop-elect Williams’ ministry is based on the authentic ways in which he lives his own life.

“Father Joseph inspires actual, lived discipleship, and he does that by first and foremost being an active and wholehearted disciple himself,” she said. “His enthusiasm for Christ and for eagerly living a life with Christ and for Christ, and his freely and fully sharing that life with everyone — that is the golden thread running through his entire ministry. That is what inspired us 20 years ago as young adults, that’s what has inspired all his parishioners over the years, that’s what will inspire people in this entire archdiocese for years to come.”