Father Gregory Haake on Vocation and the TLM

Father Gregory P. Haake, C.S.C. (BA ‘99, MDiv. ‘06) serves as the superior of the priests and brothers of Holy Cross at Corby Hall, Associate Professor of French, and priest-in-residence in Coyle Hall. He was ordained a priest in 2007 and returned to join the Notre Dame faculty in 2015. The Rover interviewed Fr. Haake about his vocation story and current ministry at the university.   

Fr. Greg Haake was raised in what he described as “a normal Catholic family.” 

“We went to Mass every Sunday, prayed before meals, and I went to Catholic grade school and high school. It was clearly a priority in my family, but I never felt growing up that we were that different than my friends’ families,” he said. 

During the second semester of his sophomore year at Notre Dame, however, Fr. Haake experienced a deepening interest in the Church and an awareness of God’s call. “Something just changed,” he shared, “and I became much more interested in my faith life.” 

Things culminated in the fall of his junior year, when he underwent “a pretty intense conversion experience.” Starting to confess regularly, attend Mass, and read more about the Faith, Fr. Haake said that the renewal of his faith came with an intensified pull to the priesthood.

“I had felt that tug before—when I was a little kid a few times, and I often sensed that I liked praying or being in church,” he told the Rover, “but it started to coalesce and become more intense in my final two years of undergraduate at ND. At the time, I remember thinking it just wasn’t my path or something one would even do anymore, so I put it out of my head and heart as much as I could.”

“As an undergrad, I used to keep my distance from Holy Cross priests,” Fr. Haake admitted. “When I look back on it now, a lot of it had to do with not wanting to be ‘found out,’ that I might have a vocation.” 

Nevertheless, Fr. Haake noted the positive role that the Holy Cross priests ultimately had on his discernment, saying, “After graduation, when I finally decided to enter the seminary, the seeds they had planted came to harvest, and it was their dedication to residential life (where I principally encountered them) that made me consider Holy Cross.” 

Once Fr. Haake finally discerned his vocation to the priesthood, he “felt simultaneously a call to be a priest-professor.” Having attended a Jesuit high school and Holy Cross university, he realized he could answer that particular call in both orders. “Religious life, because of community life, the vows, and the mission, always seemed right for me,” he shared. “I never really considered diocesan life, to be honest. I had good priests in my parish growing up, but that just wasn’t the type of priest I thought I was called to be.”

After over 18 years of priesthood, Fr. Haake has found surprise after surprise in the way his life has unfolded. Citing obedience and faithfulness to God’s calling as the primary sources of his greatest joys, he remarked, “Vows should always be seen as possibilities and not privation,” adding, “the vow of obedience has taken my life in many directions where I’m not sure I would have gone without that discernment and the insight of my superiors.”

He continued, “If you had told 20-year-old Greg, living in O’Neill Hall, that one day I would be the superior of Corby, I would have never believed it. I don’t think any of my friends would have either. But that’s Divine Providence for you.”

In his current ministry on campus, Fr. Haake describes his role as “pastor to the pastors.” His favorite part of the job is to meet annually with each member of the Corby community to check in on their spiritual lives and ministries. “When we are out in the vineyard, as it were, it’s not as obvious how close we are,” he reflected, “but many of these men are my closest and most intimate friends.”

Fr. Haake is also one of only two Holy Cross priests who regularly celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) on campus. At the invitation of Father Pete McCormick, C.S.C. in 2018, he trained during sabbatical leave at an Oakland parish, where he began celebrating in Fall 2019. 

“Celebrating the TLM has shaped my presiding style most of all,” he shared, “I have really tried to live in Pope Benedict XVI’s desire that the old rite inform the new, and the new the old.”He reflected on how the TLM has influenced his approach to all Masses, making him “a more thoughtful and deliberate presider.” He continued, “I have also appreciated how much more embodied the TLM is. As a presider, you’re moving constantly and emphasizing words with gestures much more frequently. It has called me to be more present to what’s happening in the Novus Ordo.”

When asked why the TLM seems to resonate so strongly with young Catholics, Fr. Haake admitted, “I think I’m still trying to figure it out. I am called to meet people where they are, and if this is where they are when it comes to the liturgy, then we need to be there to the extent we can.”

Fr. Haake offered encouragement to students discerning a religious vocation: “In the words of John Paul II: ‘Be not afraid!’ I absolutely love my life, and the risk I took that day, a little over 25 years ago, when I called the vocation director has been a risk that continues to pay off.”

Fr. Haake also expressed his desire that more young Catholics would understand the immense freedom that comes with discernment, vocation, and religious life, saying, “You don’t have to give up who you are. Religious life and priesthood relies on your gifts and talents to make you a witness to the Gospel and an instrument of God’s grace.” He added at the end, “Marriage should do this, too, by the way!”

“In Holy Cross, we speak about our lives as being in imitation of our Sorrowful Mother at the foot of the Cross,” Fr. Haake continued. “We stand there with her and speak of the hope of the Resurrection. There is such intimacy with Jesus and His Mother, which sounds wonderfully spiritual, but that spirituality has practical consequences that make for a pretty sweet life. It is a gift, and I am grateful that God saw fit to grant it to me.”

Lydia Poe, a senior from Kansas City, has concluded two things: God is good, and His Will tends to reveal itself roughly 45 seconds after buying nonrefundable tickets. If you have post-grad ideas for someone clearly being taught patience, send them to lpoe01@saintmarys.edu. 

Photo Credit: Sorin Translation Project

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