Meet the Moms Linda Moore and Julie VanHoose are Mothers to Priests and Serra Club Members BY JESSICA RINAUDO
“I always encouraged my kids to be who they were created to be… share what they are and what they have with God. Everyone has their own gifts, so whatever that is should be used to bring glory to God’s name and bring people to the Church.” These words were shared by Julie VanHoose, mother to Father Chad VanHoose, of the Diocese of St. Paul, and two married daughters. VanHoose and Linda Moore, mother to Father Ethan Moore, of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, always centered their lives around Catholic faith and prayer, using them to encourage their children along the paths God wants for them. Both Moore and VanHoose prayed the rosary with their families and always attended Mass on Sundays, even while on vacation. Even though Moore said she raised her family in the faith, she was surprised to learn that her son, Ethan, might have a vocation to the priesthood. “Father Earl Fernandes was his high school teacher at Lehman Catholic High School. We sat down for an endof-the-year parent meeting and he said, ‘Well if anyone in the entire school has a vocation to the priesthood, it would be Ethan.’ And of course, I almost fell off my chair,” Moore laughed. 3 2 | THE CATHOLIC TE LEG RAPH
She said Ethan went on to college for nursing, but despite earning top grades throughout high school and college, he struggled to pass the second-year technical examination. “I think God blocked him. Of course, the teachers said that never happens, so they gave him three tries. He couldn’t pass. He was pretty devastated,” said Moore. “The last two years of his college, he took philosophy and theology and got degrees in both of those... After that, he graduated and had a girlfriend, a fiancé, and was in the real world for a while.” But, she said, a trip to Medjugorje while spending a semester abroad confirmed Father Ethan’s vocation. Through proud tears, Moore said, “One of the seers there said, ‘I feel within this little group… one of them is going to be a priest.’ Then he got a pain in his heart and said, ‘It’s me.’” VanHoose said that when Father Chad was a child everyone thought he would become a priest, yet she saw his special love for seniors and thought he might be called to work in geriatrics. Before leaving for college, Father Chad told his mother, “Mom, if I was called to be a priest, the Lord would put obstacles in my way and I wouldn’t be going to college.” But hosting NET ministers for 25 years in their home made an impact on Father Chad. “After college he went to St. Paul and was a NET missionary for one year, and then on staff [at NET] for six,” said VanHoose.
