Father Zachary Goodchild said he had no thoughts of the priesthood until approached one day as a teenager. Parishioners at church had a question: Have you thought about being a priest?
More than a decade later, “high school Zack” can reintroduce himself as Father Zachary Goodchild. And the faithful who saw a glimpse of the priesthood in him more than a decade ago, their thoughts proved true.
He was ordained to the Order of Presbyter on Saturday, May 23 by Bishop Earl Fernandes at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral.
Leaving the Cathedral that day as a priest, Father Goodchild’s younger self would likely be surprised. Like many young men, he planned to be a husband and father. The priesthood was not on his to-do list.
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A 2014 graduate of Pickerington High School North, he went on to play for the Ohio Northern University men’s golf team. The university is part of the Columbus diocese, located near Ada Our Lady of Lourdes Church.
His freshman year at the university, Father Goodchild attended a retreat that planted another seed for his future vocation. Father Dave Young, now pastor at Zanesville St. Nicholas and Thomas Aquinas churches, served as the retreat’s chaplain.
“He played an integral role in my decision to become a priest later on,” Father Goodchild said.
“I got to see a priest do more than celebrate Mass. I saw this man just loving us and loving our Lord – and the way he spoke, the way that he carried himself and he laughed – and he just spent time with us like a good father.”
The encounter made a lasting imprint on Father Goodchild.
He left the retreat, however, continuing with plans to graduate and begin a career. A few years later, he earned a bachelor’s degree in statistics, concentrating in actuarial science.
Moving home to Pickerington, he began work as an actuary at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus.
“Working eight hours a day of this job at a desk, I’m like, ‘This is not what I’m supposed to be doing,'” he remembered, “and I just had this freedom to be like, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’ That thing in the back of my mind about being a priest was … just poking at me.”
Father Goodchild left his job a few months later.
Coincidentally, or as divine providence would have it, Father Young had been reassigned to serve as pastor at Reynoldsburg St. Pius X Church, a short drive from Goodchild’s home in Pickerington.
“In the back of my mind, I was like, ‘Oh man, the priesthood’s following me,’” he recalled with a laugh.
After leaving his job at Nationwide, he met with Father Young. The priest offered tips for discernment and ideas to take to prayer.
Father Goodchild’s home parish, Pickerington St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, offered him a job as a janitor. For more than a year, he cleaned the church and tended to the parish grounds while thoughts of the priesthood lingered.
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Working at the parish enabled him to attend daily Mass. He also met with various priests and asked questions.
“I began to just see what a sacrificial life they lived, and I felt called to that,” he said.
“The hard part was, ‘how do I know, Lord, that You’re calling me to be a priest?’ because I feel like everybody is called to fall in love with You; everybody’s called to live a sacrificial life as a Christian. ‘Why do I have to be a priest to prove that to You?’
“He never gave me an answer of like, ‘I want you to do this,’ because He truly did want me to freely choose this, and He left it open to me.”
Pursuing the priesthood proved to be a journey of taking “the next right step.”
In 2019, Father Goodchild took a summer job in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as a missionary with Totus Tuus. The Catholic summer youth program offers a week of catechesis, evangelization, witness and Eucharistic worship for children in kindergarten through 12th grade at various parishes.
“I put aside my plans for two-and-a-half months, and I served the Lord in a way that I wasn’t planning to that summer,” he recalled. “I didn’t play any golf; I didn’t go hiking with friends … and by the end of the summer, I was like, ‘That was the best summer ever.’”
Father Goodchild said he believed the “next right step” was to give seminary a chance. “I don’t know if I’m called to be a priest,” he recalled thinking, “but if I don’t go, I’ll think about it the rest of my life.”
Applying to seminary brought a sense of peace. He was accepted by the Diocese of Columbus and the Pontifical College Josephinum. He entered in the fall of 2020.
Time in seminary provided opportunities for Mass, daily Holy Hours and praying the Liturgy of the Hours, offered by clergy, religious and many laity at set times each day.
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The desire to be a priest grew over time during seminary.
“At the beginning, I wasn’t so sure, and I didn’t quite see why I needed to be a priest,” he said, “and I didn’t quite want to wear what the priest wears and do what the priest does. It seemed kind of like, that’s not me; I just want to be one of the guys.
“I don’t think I had that confidence, even until I was ordained a deacon last year, to be like, ‘Okay, I belong in the sanctuary now. I belong up by the altar.’
“I still never had an answer, like the Lord saying, ‘You’re supposed to be a priest, Zack,’ but I think that, for me, He was asking me to place my faith in Him and to trust that this peace and this joy that He was giving me, this is the path that He desires me to go.”
With trust in God, he knelt at the Cathedral altar on May 23, promising respect and obedience to the bishop and his successors. Bishop Fernandes, laying his hands on the elect and praying the prayer of ordination, ordained him a priest of the Lord Jesus Christ.