Asked what his 25th anniversary as a priest meant to him, Msgr. Robert Panke, the pastor of St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said, “It’s hard to believe it’s 25 years. It’s been so fast.”
Those 25 years since his ordination in 1996 have included serving as a parochial vicar at St. Peter’s Parish in Olney, as a Catholic chaplain at George Washington University, as director of priest vocations and formation for the archdiocese, as the founding rector of the Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington, and then leading St. John Neumann Parish.
“Just the gift of being able to serve as a priest is what I’m very grateful for,” he said. “Priesthood wasn’t this longstanding desire in my heart, but it got placed strongly in my heart at age 24. Once I was accepted to the formation program, I never really looked back. I was sure it was where God wanted me.”
Msgr. Panke, who is now 56, is a New York native. After graduating with a degree in financial management from the Catholic University of America in 1988, he worked in hotel and restaurant management in Chicago. While in the working world, he became active in parish activities and served as a hospital Eucharistic minister. After a retreat, he began thinking about becoming a priest, and he later said that thought wouldn’t go away.
After being accepted as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Washington, he studied at the North American College, and Father Panke was ordained to the priesthood in June 1996 by Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, who ordained the archdiocese’s five newest priests on the day marking the 50th anniversary of his own ordination to the priesthood in 1946. That day also had special meaning to Father Panke because the ordination was on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and he had a special devotion to the Blessed Mother.
“It was a double gift,” said Msgr. Panke. “Cardinal Hickey accepted me into the formation program and ordained me a priest. He had a beautiful love for priesthood and formation.”
He added that Mary “had been very influential in my vocation… So it was really an extraordinary day.”
Then he was assigned to serve as a parochial vicar at St. Peter’s in Olney.
“I absolutely loved my time at St. Peter’s. It’s a great place to be a new priest, because you have so many opportunities for ministry,” he said, noting it has a large Catholic school and religious education program, and the priests there serve a hospital and nursing homes nearby.
Msgr. Panke said he learned from the example of St. Peter’s pastor, Father Thomas Kalita, who became a friend and mentor to him. While celebrating Mass and bringing the sacraments to people at all stages of life at that large parish, Msgr. Panke said he formed friendships “with laypeople that have sustained me throughout my priesthood.”
In 2002, then-Father Panke was named as archdiocese’s director of priest vocations and formation, the same year when the nation’s Catholic bishops adopted the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” after a nationwide scandal that erupted following the Boston Globe’s investigations of clergy sexual abuse of minors in the Archdiocese of Boston. Then-Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, Illinois, now the cardinal archbishop of Washington, led the bishops’ conference when those reforms were adopted.
“Those were challenging times,” said Msgr. Panke, who added that the archdiocese had a good vocations office and guidelines and procedures in place, under the leadership of his two predecessors in that role: Msgr. Mark Brennan, now the bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, and Msgr. Bill Parent, now the pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish in Rockville.
Reflecting on his work in promoting priest vocations from 2002 to 2011, Msgr. Panke said, “I really had a natural love for the priesthood and a desire to draw other men into the priesthood.”
In 2006, Father Panke was named as a monsignor. Five years later in 2011, Msgr. Panke was named by Cardinal Donald Wuerl, then the archbishop of Washington, as the founding rector of the new Blessed John Paul II Seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington. Msgr. Panke said it was a special honor to help lead the new seminary named for the late pontiff.
“Saint John Paul II was one of my priest heroes. He was literally down the street from where I went to seminary (in Rome). I was so inspired by his example. He had so many gifts, just a brilliant philosopher and theologian who preached the truth in love and gave a body of teaching that’s just extraordinary, that we’re still studying. He also had this beautiful, tender side, a great merciful heart,” said Msgr. Panke.
That pope, he added, “had a great impact on the formation of priests,” which was the subject of Saint John Paul II’s 1992 apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis that began with a quote from the prophet Jeremiah (3:15), relating God’s promise that, “I will give you shepherds after my own heart.”
Leading the new seminary was a great privilege, Msgr. Panke said, adding that it had “a great team,” that included Father Carter Griffin, the seminary’s vice rector who became its rector in 2019; Father William Gurnee, the director of spiritual formation for the seminarians and who is now the pastor of St. Joseph Parish on Capitol Hill; and then-Father Mario Dorsonville, the seminary’s adjunct spiritual director who was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Washington in 2015.
Originally called the Blessed John Paul II Seminary, its name changed to Saint John Paul II Seminary in 2014 after that pope was canonized. The seminary began with a pioneer class of 20 seminarians in 2011, and the community there welcomed Pope Francis when the pontiff stopped by during his 2015 pastoral visit to Washington. In 2017, Cardinal Wuerl ordained three new priests for the Archdiocese of Washington who represented the first ordination class from Saint John Paul II Seminary, and every year since then, the new priests ordained for the archdiocese have included its former students, beginning their work as the next generation of priests to serve the local Church.
“Seeing the seminary flourish was a very beautiful thing. Give credit to the Lord and the grace of the Holy Spirit and Our Lady’s intercession and a lot of prayer, and it’s still doing well today,” Msgr. Panke said.
The large crucifix behind the altar at the seminary’s Mary, Mother of the Church Chapel was donated by Msgr. Panke’s parents, the late Dr. William and Marilyn Panke. Over the years, Dr. Panke helped arrange for the health care of Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City.
“Both my parents were great examples of faith to me,” the priest said.
In 2019, when Msgr. Panke became the pastor of St. John Neumann, he made the transition from preparing seminarians to leading a parish.
“Now I have to practice what I was preaching,” Msgr. Panke said, laughing. He added that, “For many years, I was itching to get back in parish life… My goal in priesthood has always been to be a pastor in a parish, that’s what really attracted me most to the diocesan priesthood, to be in a parish, serving families and people of every age and background.”
But then, the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting health and economic impacts swept across the country, and it posed challenges to life at St. John Neumann and other parishes.
As a first-time pastor, Msgr. Panke had especially looked forward to celebrating the Triduum – Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter – with his parishioners. When the lockdown happened, St. John Neumann Parish started a YouTube channel and began livestreaming its daily Masses. And so the pastor’s first Easter there was transmitted online, without any parishioners present.
“The lockdown was probably the most difficult, to not have contact with your people on a regular basis,” he said.
Msgr. Panke said it was hard, but they found ways to serve their parishioners and community in that challenging time.
“We met the needs of people who were hungry. We started a food pantry,” he said. “We continued to teach people the faith through religious education and RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes for people to become full members of the Catholic Church). A lot of that was hybrid or over Zoom.”
The parish also adapted to continue its Hispanic ministries and its youth group. Eventually as things began opening up, the parish again was able to offer public Masses and the sacrament of Confession, with safety precautions.
For many years, St. John Neumann Parish has been known for offering 24/7 Eucharistic Adoration. During the lockdown, the Eucharist was exposed inside the glass front doors of the church, and people stopped by outside the church at all hours of the day and night to kneel and pray on the sidewalk or from their cars.
The pastor said that witness of faith was “so beautiful, so moving, so inspiring… It says they love the Lord, and they love the Eucharist. There’s a thirst there in their heart that is placed by God, and they’re being fed.”
To show their appreciation for St. John Neumann’s priests during that challenging time, parishioners in May 2020 placed more than 100 handmade signs in the yard outside the church, thanking the priests for their devoted service.
Msgr. Panke praised the St. John Neumann parishioners as “a wonderful community of people, very loving and very supportive.”
St. John Neumann’s pastor added, “I feel very much that the Lord has put me in the right place.”
His greatest blessings as a priest, he said, involve being able to celebrate Mass and bestow the mercy of God to people through Confession and through spiritual direction and counseling, letting them know “God loves them, no matter what. A lot of people are hurting out there in their heart and in life.”
Msgr. Panke said he wants people to experience Christ’s love and to know “a life in Christ is a life of joy and peace and happiness. Jesus is the answer to all the world’s problems. To spend your life preaching that is a gift. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
In an article before his 1996 ordination, the future priest said he wanted to help people “find their path to God.”
“It hasn’t changed. That’s what a priest is called to do,” he said.
