W.Va. Seminarian Studying For Priesthood In Rome, Reflects On Pope Francis

 Imagine looking out your apartment window onto St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Charleston’s Michael Tupta finished dental school at West Virginia University, then experienced an even higher calling. He’s now a seminarian, studying to become a Roman Catholic priest. 

Randy Yohe spoke with Tupta on his spiritual mission, reflections on the passing of Pope Francis and his desire to minister a Mountain State parish. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Yohe: Michael, how did you become a seminarian? 

Tupta: In my life, I’ve come to a greater knowledge of my relationship with the Lord Jesus, and I’ve allowed myself to be more open to what the Lord has desired for me in my life. He desires us to be in a relationship with him, first and foremost. But then within that, everyone has what’s called a vocation, a calling as to what the Lord desires them to do in their life. For most people, it’s to get married, have a family, have children. 

When I was in college, I perceived that the Lord was calling me and really just inviting me to consider giving my entire life for the service of the church. And so, just in my small steps saying yes to him, I slowly more and more opened myself up to really just trying to be a faithful son to God. And so, eventually I discerned that this is something that I wanted to do, was to join seminary and there to receive a very formal instruction about how to be, first off, Christian and a virtuous man who’s directed towards service of others. Proceeding that, this is what the Lord has asked me to do. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am today.

Yohe: I know you’re from Charleston, but talk to me about your relationship to Huntington and Marshall University.

Tupta: So I actually attended West Virginia University from 2017 to 2021 I was there as a dental student. I graduated from dental school in 2021. That’s my most immediate relationship with WVU. Morgantown was a good place for me. As to Huntington. I have a few siblings that went to Marshall, but this past summer, I was stationed at St Joseph’s Parish in Huntington, and got to get to know a number of families and people in the area, and then also people from the Newman Center there at Marshall University. 

Yohe: Michael, not all men who want to be priests are sent to Rome. How did this become part of your calling?

Tupta: Initially, my bishop sent me to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmetsburg, Maryland. That’s where I did the years of philosophical studies, really learning the philosophic tradition. Philosophical tradition is the foundation for which theology is built on. Philosophy teaches you how to think. Towards the end of my second year, the bishop had decided to send me to where I am now living. It’s called the Pontifical North American College, where there are 128 other American seminarians from all over the United States. We live and pray in community here, and then we study at some of the different universities, pontifical universities throughout the city of Rome, studying in Italian. It’s a really profound experience to experience the universal church, the faith that our Lord established through the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Rome is where Peter came and died, ultimately, for the faith, and it’s where we now have the successor of St. Peter. Peter was appointed by Jesus to lead the church. So essentially, the short answer is that my bishop has asked me to come here and study, to experience the universal church, and then when I’m finished, to come back home as a priest for the people of West Virginia

Yohe: What are your thoughts in general, on Pope Francis’s passing?

Tupta: We pray for his soul. We pray as we do, for anyone that passes. But especially, especially the Pope, the Papa, the Father, the Holy Father. The Pope has a responsibility to teach and to guard and to protect what the church has passed down through sacred tradition for 2,000 years. So his death obviously was a sad thing to hear. Obviously, he had been sick for a number of months and just with such grace he persevered, his last days of his public appearances. On Easter Sunday, I was able to be present and receive His blessing. It took every ounce of strength in him to do just that. And then he was able to, with his doctor’s recommendation, go down and visit people in St Peter’s Square. He was a man of the people.

Yohe: What was your involvement, if any, in events leading up to the Pope’s funeral?

Tupta: We had a number of priests that are on staff here from the United States who were a part of the liturgy. I was able to actually visit the Pope’s mortal remains. On Friday, I waited in line for a number of hours with thousands to pay my respects and pray for his soul. For the funeral itself, I attended with a number of other seminarians, but really being in St. Peter’s Square with 250,000 people from all over the world. People using different languages to pray for our Holy Father. It was a beautiful experience, and something I’ll never forget. 

Yohe: How has Pope Francis’s Jesuit leanings changed or affected your your life, and as you become educated to be a priest,

Tupta: Pope Francis entered the Jesuits at the age of 21. The Jesuits are a religious community that was started by St Ignatius of Loyola in the late 1400’s. Something that was unique about him, especially compared to folks of the last maybe couple hundred years, was just the way that he posed questions using word dialog. He had conversations about things in a new way, not being afraid to talk about things, not necessarily in order to change what’s being taught, but changing the way in which we converse about truths of the faith or about difficult issues. He did not shy away from having difficult conversations. I plan to bring that into my ministry and my priesthood, Lord willing, to meet people where they are. 

Jesus loves us right where we are, but like a good father, he loves us way too much to let us stay there. He wants to draw us closer to himself and also draw us closer to the truth, which we say Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Those are a few things about Pope Francis’s pontificate and his background that obviously influenced him and then influenced the church as a whole.

Yohe: Do you believe that Francis’ papacy had an effect on the spiritual complexion of the Wheeling Charleston Diocese here in West Virginia? 

Tupta: I would say absolutely. I would say that we are as the name Catholic church means Catholic it comes originally from the Greek words kata holos, which means relating to the whole, more succinct translation of the universal, the universal church. And so what happens in Rome, or what happens in some other part of the world? In the Catholic Church is not it’s not divorced, or it’s not separated from our own local church. And I’m kind of a testament to that. You know, my participation in the life of the church here in Rome, where I live, where I pray, where I study, all this, it’s not separated from the people back in West Virginia. Some concrete things may be more or less difficult to understand. Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mark Brennan. That appointment came directly from the hand and from the mouth of Pope Francis. That would be one concrete example of how absolutely that that the Pope, that his ministry and his pontificate has a direct correlation to the people of West Virginia,

Yohe: There’s always a push here in West Virginia for people that graduate and people that are establishing careers to come back home or to stay in West Virginia. And from what I heard you say, it sounds like you want to come back and minister to the people of West Virginia. Why is that special and important for you?

Tupta: I believe that the Lord makes no mistakes, and so, he’s placed me here. I was born in West Virginia, born in Charleston. I went to college in the Wheeling area. I went to dental school in Morgantown, been outside of the state for a few years. Now I’m a little bit farther away, but I have this strong desire, really this consistent desire to be a man of service and a man of spiritual father from the place that really formed me, which is West Virginia. 

For me and the other 16 men from West Virginia that are studying to be priests right now, we feel a specific desire to be a priest in West Virginia with its own spiritual needs, with its own difficulties, with its own unique circumstances. 

Yohe: Finally, what would you personally say is Pope Francis’ legacy, and how does that relate to West Virginians? 

Tupta: I think his emphasis on dialog and conversation and wanting to get really to enter into relationships with other people, into the lives of other people, especially those that maybe otherwise wouldn’t. I think that’s something, especially for Catholics in West Virginia. We’re a very small percentage in the state of West Virginia. And at the same time, Jesus has given us this great gift of his physical presence in the Eucharist, in our churches, the forgiveness of sins through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, through to the priests. 

And then you can go on and on about the great mercy and grace offered through the sacraments in the church that’s for all men and women. And so Pope Francis’ emphasis on this idea of meeting people where they are, and then drawing them closer, drawing them into a relationship, that’s how the Lord works. I think that that’s something that in West Virginia, given the dynamics of our state, I believe that a lot of the gifts of Pope Francis can be something for many of us to reflect on. We talk about this idea of legacy, that is, that he desired to draw others closer, especially those that he would be considered forgotten by some, but that no one has been forgotten in the eyes of God. To reflect that so beautifully as a leader of the church was something that I believe did have a profound  effect on the diocese.