By Sue Denny • Posted May 14, 2026

This profile is part of a series highlighting each of the eight men to be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 16.

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Deacon Griffen Schlaepfer, 29, had wrestled with a call to the priesthood for three years when a stranger at his church settled the question for good.

He was a college freshman home on spring break, praying in the adoration chapel of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish in Yardley.

“I remember going there and asking God, ‘Please give me a sign if you really want me to do this,’” he said. As he prepared to depart, a middle-aged man in a denim jacket asked if he was a seminarian.

“He looked me straight in the eyes, and he said, ‘You’re going to be a priest one day,’” Schlaepfer recalls. The man’s comment—and conviction—ended three years of discernment.

“I’m one of those very thick-headed people who God needs to hit on the back of the head with a 2 X 4 to get me to do what He wants me to do,” said the seminarian and soon-to-be priest.

Schlaepfer is one of seven transitional deacons who will be ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Nelson Pérez on Saturday, May 16 at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

Growing up in Yardley in Bucks County, Schlaepfer attended weekly Mass at St. Ignatius with his parents, Robert and JoAnn, and his older brother, Ryan.

“I always enjoyed my faith but never really considered a call to the priesthood until I was about 16,” he said. That was when he started seeking answers to deep, theological questions like: Why does God allow evil in the world?

Around the same time, a friend invited him to join the parish youth ministry. He was deeply influenced by the group’s leaders, Sal and Maria LaMantia.

Sal LaMantia, who worked in law enforcement, was a big guy with a deep faith.

(See a related CatholicPhilly story on Sal LaMantia.)

“I was always asking a lot of questions, and he was always game for that,” Schlaepfer said. “He told me later, ‘I saw something different in you when you would ask these questions.’”

At his high school graduation, the valedictorian’s speech prompted the teen to revisit entering religious life.

“When I was sitting in that seat, it was like a ton of bricks almost hit me. ‘Oh, my goodness. I think I’m being called to be a priest,’” he recalled.

Schlaepfer set aside the notion and entered Penn State University’s premed program. When he considered his future, he still assumed he would get a job, get married one day, and have a family.

Yet thoughts of the priesthood persisted, and he began an online exploration of vocations. An article on a Catholic website made a deep impression on him, especially after he came across it a second time. That was his “St. Peter calling moment.”

As he reread the article, “there was some sort of movement of the Holy Spirit where I had an encounter with the Lord,” Schlaepfer said. “I had this very strong sense that He was calling me to be a priest.”

Then came the chance encounter over spring break. The stranger’s remark didn’t surprise him; it gave him clarity, Schlaepfer said. “I just knew that the Lord had been drawing me this way for such a long time.”

He finished his freshman year and applied to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. While his parents were initially skeptical of his plans, a family meeting with Father Stephen P. DeLacy, then director of the archdiocesan Vocation Office, won them over.

After Schlaepfer entered the seminary in the fall of 2017, he initially struggled to adjust to the daily life of prayer and study. He found the early pandemic period particularly challenging. At home from March to August 2020, he felt alone and disconnected from the community. “To be honest, it was probably my hardest time in the seminary,” he said.

Today, his relationships with his fellow seminarians, built over nine years, are among his greatest blessings.

In May 2025, Schlaepfer was ordained a transitional deacon and served at several parishes, most recently at St. Stanislaus in Lansdale.

On Sunday, May 17, the day after his ordination, he will celebrate his first Mass at 4 p.m. at St. Ignatius Church in Yardley. The homilist will be Father John Kist of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, a close friend from college. Sal and Maria LaMantia, who led his parish youth ministry, plan to attend.

Reflecting on that meeting in the chapel a decade ago, Schlaepfer marvels how a stranger cemented his path to the priesthood. To this day, he does not know his name.

“He could be a man, or he could be my guardian angel,” he said.