Olean man to be ordained to priesthood on Aug. 15

Friar Emmanuel Wenke, OFM Conv., who grew up in Olean and was a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish there, will be ordained to the priesthood at OLV National Shrine & Basilica in Lackawanna on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at 2 p.m. He is a member of Our Lady of the Angels Province Franciscan Friars Conventual which is based in Ellicott City, Maryland. He will be ordained by Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., archbishop of Atlanta and a native of the Town of Tonawanda.

Friar Emmanuel completed his studies for the priesthood at Regis College in Toronto while residing at St. Bonaventure Friary. He had served as a transitional deacon at the Franciscan Church of the Assumption in Syracuse. Prior to that, he spent three years as a theology instructor at Archbishop Currey High School in Baltimore.

He is the son of Deacon Matt and Mary Wenke of Olean. Deacon Wenke serves at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Olean. One of five children, Friar Emmanuel’s sister, Sister Frances Marie Wenke, CP, is a member of the Passionist Nuns of St. Joseph Monastery, a contemplative order in Whitesville, Kentucky.

Friar Wenke will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving on Wednesday, Aug. 16, at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 4263 St. Francis Dr., Athol Springs, with a second Mass of Thanksgiving to be celebrated Sunday, Aug. 20, 11 a.m., at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Olean.