Seminarians Nick Freyberger (left) and Dylan Stefanich (right)
By John Rohlf, The Message assistant editor
Diocese of Evansville seminarian Nick Freyberger is preparing to head to Rome for studies at the Pontifical North American College, where he will join fellow seminarian Dylan Stefanich, who has studied there the past two years.
Freyberger: Foundation set in deep trust ‘prepared me the most for the upcoming move’
Later this month, seminarian Nick Freyberger will arrive in Rome to begin his studies at the Pontifical North American College. He will study in Rome after spending the past two years at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, Mo. He also spent his propaedeutic year of seminary formation in Evansville.
A son of St. Joseph Parish in Jasper, Freyberger said as early as his propaedeutic year, Father Tyler Tenbarge, diocesan Director of Vocations, presented going to Rome as a potential option. He said with the diocese wanting to ideally have two men at each seminary and Father Tyler Underhill coming back to the diocese as a diocesan priest, part of it was practical of wanting to have another seminarian in Rome.
During Bishop Siegel’s visit to Kenrick-Glennon this past fall, he asked Freyberger what he was thinking for seminary for next year. At that point, it was hard to think about the challenges of going to Rome, Freyberger said.
“The Lord was kind of bringing these things up of really the things I was going to struggle with,” Freyberger said. “And I think in particular, my niece was just born last September. And then my nephew was born the March before that. So just looking at being away from family and especially being away from the niece and nephew and missing out on some elements of their young life and being close to them, was just really struggling with maybe the sacrifice of having to step away from that.”
Freyberger said on the same day as Bishop Siegel’s fall 2025 visit to Kenrick-Glennon, the gospel that day was “he who does not hate father or mother or sister or brother for my sake cannot be my disciple.”
“I remember that kind of piercing my heart in that moment,” Freyberger said. “But at the same time, kind of a great peace coming over as the bishop reading the gospel but then the homily afterwards and feeling him kind of speaking to me in that. Just opening my heart. Lord, if this is where you’re asking me to go, I just want to give you an unconditional yes, wherever it is. So really having a lot of peace after that point.”
At that point, Freyberger said, they decided to keep their options open for the upcoming school year. When asked by Father Tenbarge in December, Freyberger said “the Lord just keeps bringing Rome back up to my heart.” A lot more excitement about going to Rome started around that time, Freyberger said, which has continued through the spring and summer as he prepares to go over to Rome.
Freyberger believes his past experiences, including several years in seminary formation, has been a huge benefit for him. Between working for a couple years after graduating college, being a FOCUS missionary for a year and the past several years of seminary formation, Freyberger has learned to trust that God has a plan. The best thing he can do is just listen to where he is guiding him, listen to what he desires for him and really following that plan with great confidence and trust because he has always led Freyberger to good things even amidst the struggles.
“I think more than anything in my time in seminary and even before that, just learning to trust God in a deeper way,” Freyberger said. “And that gives me again great hope that yeah, no matter what comes with this transition and learning a new language and learning a new culture, I think just the foundation that has been set in just a deep trust, that’s been probably what has prepared me the most for the upcoming move.”
Freyberger is looking forward to many aspects of studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, including the opportunity to pilgrimage and be in touch with the history of the church in a way that you cannot be anywhere else. He is also looking forward to the opportunity to encounter the saints in a deeper way.
“Then the hope one day to come back to the diocese as a priest and if I’m preaching just a daily Mass about a saint, being able to have a specific story of my time being able to encounter that saint in Europe,” Freyberger said. “Just the idea of that gives me a lot of joy.”
Freyberger also looks forward to encountering the universal church in a very deep way that cannot be done anywhere else. He is also looking forward to being close to the Holy Father and hopefully getting a chance to meet him.
“It’s a lot of just sense of wonder and awe at that,” Freyberger said. “So just very excited.”
Stefanich returns to diocese for first time since beginning Rome studies
After two years of seminary education in Rome, seminarian Dylan Stefanich has returned to the diocese for the summer, his first time back in the diocese since he began his studies at the North American College.
Stefanich, who will return to Rome this fall to continue studies at the North American College, is assigned at St. Boniface Parish in Evansville for the summer. A son of Holy Cross Parish in Fort Branch, he also studied at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary before beginning his studies in Rome. Unlike Freyberger, Stefanich said the idea of going to Rome was not initially on his radar.
“I was under the impression and what was presented to me seemed to be more of you’ll be at Kenrick for this amount of time, and then you’ll go to St. Meinrad. Or you may just stay at Kenrick,” Stefanich said. “But the option for Rome was not an option at that time.”
One of these reasons, Stefanich believes, is because he had lived outside the diocese for the two years at Kenrick-Glennon, in addition to the four years prior, when he was a student at Ball State University.
“Father Tyler (Tenbarge) and the bishop also take into account how much contact has this guy had with the diocese where he’ll be serving,” Stefanich said. “Which is all really good to think about. So in my mind, when I went to Kenrick, there was not really a thought at all.”
This changed in Stefanich’s first semester of his second year at Kenrick-Glennon, when he was presented with the idea of Rome at that point during a seminary visit. That was “really shocking to me,” Stefanich said.
Stefanich said when asked for his seminary preferences, he said he was open to whatever Bishop Siegel saw best for him from his view. Stefanich stressed he really does trust that the Lord speaks through the bishop.
In the February of that school year, Stefanich was informed he was assigned to go to Rome to continue his seminary studies.
“When I had that phone call, it was like a five gallon bucket of grace just washed over,” Stefanich said. “And right before that call, I had been in adoration. And so it was kind of weird, but I kind of knew. You just kind of feel something that I think I’ve only got so much more time left there. I think I’m probably getting sent to Rome. I was a little nervous and kind of surprised but the Lord just doubled up all that grace and peace and everything, making me comfortable with it.”
During his time at Kenrick-Glennon, Stefanich and fellow seminarians learned the phrase to trust the providence that brought you here. In moving on from Kenrick to Rome, Stefanich has gotten to put that to the test, he said.
When he first arrived in Rome, Stefanich said it was “all very much like drinking from a fire hydrant.” There is just a ton of information, things to see and saints to witness, he said. The opportunity to be in the heart of the Catholic Church was exciting, he said.
Stefanich said he’s confident Bishop Siegel made the right choice in sending him to the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
“I was kind of excited after what I had learned and healed from at Kenrick to OK, this is a real chance to put this relationship with God that’s much deeper and truer now to the test of he’s kind of the only guy I’m taking,” Stefanich said. “Rather he’s taking me, but you get what I’m saying. And that that was motivating as well … jumping into a foreign country with no knowledge of any of them. But I wasn’t nervous for that either because we’re all on the same mission.”
Stefanich added it was exciting to meet new men, create a new fraternity and take what he learned to bring into this. It has all worked out very well and it has been a real joy to be there, he said.
Stefanich said it “has been a real joy” to be assigned to St. Boniface Parish with Father Christopher Droste for the summer. Father Droste was Stefanich’s pastor when Stefanich entered seminary.
“We’ve kept in touch over the years,” Stefanich said. “So being able to kind of daily be reunited with him and see his ministry and how the Lord works through him in various ways has been a real blessing and a joy.”
A welcome home open house was held for Stefanich in Haubstadt at the end of June. We will run photos from the open house in a future edition of The Message.