Chauncey Winkler

Press Room for the Diocese of Phoenix

Chauncey Winkler

The decision to become a Roman Catholic priest is a difficult one for most of the young men who are called. For Chauncey Winkler, the hardest part may have been when he first decided to become a Catholic.

Born and raised in Scottsdale, Winkler grew up a Lutheran. He later joined a non-denominational church and eventually went to a Baptist college where he received a teaching degree. But through it all, he continued to search for a faith he could call home.

He studied Church history and the Bible and began asking Catholic friends questions about their faith. He was intrigued.

"I began to understand more about the Catholic outlook on the world,” he said, “which was a lot different than the one I was brought up in. And that doctrine really began to make sense to me.

“But that in itself wasn’t enough. What really brought me in was that I just felt like the Lord was calling me to the Catholic Church and I felt that the Catholic Church was home. And I felt like it was the best home for scripture,” Winkler, 32, said.

“Eventually what it came down to was when I looked at the Catholic Church, even in some of her messiness, I just said, ‘That’s it,’” he continued. “That’s the church Christ intended. It’s just hard to explain a gift moment.”

His family was initially upset and worried about Winkler’s decision to become a Catholic. He said they were afraid he was “tossing away what they called a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They somehow thought that was in danger or would be stolen from me.”

Ironically, when he told them he wanted to become a priest, Winkler said his family’s reaction was “small potatoes, compared to [my] entering the Catholic Church.”

On June 7, his family will be in attendance when Winkler is ordained a priest for the Diocese of Phoenix, capping off five years at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana and one year of pastoral service.

“I’m very excited about this and have been for quite awhile,” said Winkler’s father, Bill Winkler. “My first reaction was, ‘Is my son ready for this?’ But now I have become quite convinced that he is. I am disappointed that I am not going to be a grandfather. But I have to admit the excitement overwhelms all of those concerns.”

While his son’s conversion to Catholicism was not initially welcomed, Bill Winkler said he was not surprised by his son’s decision to become a priest. Before the conversion, the elder Winkler had spoken to his son about the possibility of joining the ministry.

Still, the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Church renewed the family’s concerns about their son’s chosen path. Once again, Chauncey Winkler had to allay his family’s fears. Fr. Don Kline, vocation director for the diocese, said Chauncey “really had to own it and say this is what I’m called for and family comes second, and that’s a tough thing.”

Fr. Kline described Chauncey as a “light-hearted easy-going kind of guy. He’s serious enough, but you can tell he enjoys what he’s doing. You have to, in order to do this. He has a light-heartedness about him that’s very warm and very approachable and very loving and gentle.”

It was perhaps that light-heartedness that helped Chauncey keep his faith in the midst of the growing scandal that was enveloping the Church he had grown to love.

“It didn’t shake my faith,” he said. “(But) it certainly made me ask the question of myself of whether this is what I really wanted to do at this time. For the clergy who are in the Church now and have been and are being faithful, we are going to have to work harder at ministering and being ministered to.

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