CHARLOTTE — Crusader football alum Bradley Loftin is spending less time throwing Hail Marys and more time praying them as he closes in on a major goal on the way to the priesthood by being ordained a deacon May 23.
Loftin, 26, along with four other members of his 2018 Christ the King in Huntersville graduating class, opted to attend St. Joseph Seminary on the path to the priesthood – a pivot he said surprised some classmates and family members.
“I didn’t really think I was going to be a priest until I was 16,” Loftin said.
That call came during his junior year while visiting the Missionaries of the Poor brothers in Monroe on a school retreat. During Eucharistic Adoration he heard a statement that later became his life mission.
“The brother that changed my life forever said, ‘Stop asking God what you want from Him, and start asking Him what He wants from you,’” Loftin remembered. “It was in that moment that I could feel so clearly that God wanted me to be a priest. That is what He made me for.”
At the time, recruiters were chasing him to play college football, yet the urge to discern a priestly vocation became a gamechanger. Quo Vadis Days, a diocesan-wide vocation discernment camp for young men, sealed the deal – the priesthood was the team he wanted to join.
“That is where I met Father Putnam, and once I got connected with him, it became very clear that God was calling me,” Loftin said. “He gave me a lot of support and guidance, and from there it was history.”
As he learned more in seminary about what being a priest entails, he felt increasingly confident that God made him for that purpose.
Though he traded in his football jersey for a cassock in 2018, Loftin hopes to keep coaching and teaching as both a deacon and, eventually, as a priest.
“Helping coaches watch football film and prepare the teams on what they need to do in their positions is still very much a passion of mine,” Loftin said. “Being a product of the Catholic school system and going through MACs my entire life has made a real impact on me. I love to help and see young people grow in their studies and grow closer to Christ. Catholic schools are a real launching point for our young people.”
While his entire family is thrilled, Loftin is most excited for his two Catholic grandmothers to attend his ordination – Mary Gallagher, a St. Leo the Great in Winston-Salem parishioner, and Fran Loftin, a parishioner at St. Therese in Mooresville.
“Having both of them there for my ordination is going to provide a lot of peace and consolation for me,” he said. “It is the first time in my life that the Church will confirm the vocation that I have felt. To lie down on the floor of my own home parish and to say, 'Everything I have is for you; nothing I have is for me.' I promise to serve you and your people until the day I die…' is so exciting. It gets me more amped up than a football game ever did, that’s for sure.”
— Lisa M. Geraci
Bradley Loftin
From: Huntersville
Age: 26
Home parish: St. Mark, Huntersville
School: St. Mark Elementary, Christ the King Catholic School, St. Joseph Seminary
Status: Started Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Cincinnati, August 2022
Hobbies: Golf, fishing, cooking, coaching football and tutoring
Favorite saints: Mary, St. Joseph the Carpenter and St. Philip Neri
Inspired by: Father John Putnam and Father Paul McNulty
Why did you pick Deacon Bryan Ilagor, who will become a priest on May 30, to be the person to vest you?
He is a friend I can count on 100% and a very great example of service. I met him at St. Joseph’s our first year. Our rooms were right next to each other, so he always came over and hung out. It was like having another roommate. He would always lie on the floor, and we would just talk.
What are looking forward to about your summer assignment at St. Eugene in Asheville?
As a deacon, I am able to take the ministry of the Church into all these different places. So, when I think of being assigned to St. Eugene in Asheville, I am thinking of going into Asheville, the heart of the mountains, and proclaiming the Word of God there in every type of situation I come into.
What were your previous summer assignments?
My first summer assignment was at St. Matthew, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to be at a bustling big parish. I enjoyed participating in Vacation Bible School and LifeTeen Ministry and just really getting a chance to see what a big parish ministry looks like. A lot of the staff was incredible to learn from and discover my own sense of how to be a pastor.
My second assignment, at St. John the Baptist in Tryon, was a nice contrast from St. Matthew, bringing big and urban to such a small and rural parish where everyone knows everyone. It felt like a family, because you would see everyone show up every Sunday. I was able to develop very real and strong bonds with people.
My last assignment was at St. Leo the Great in Winston-Salem. What was nice about this was serving the homebound and going to the hospitals and caring for the sick in that type of way. As a priest, it helped me recognize how fragile our lives are – God really does support you in every way. As a priest, I get to bring Christ to these people in their most fragile moments. To support and uplift them is a real part of the priesthood.
